▶ Watch Video: Rahm Emanuel weighs in on the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship
The following is the transcript of an interview with former White House chief of staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on July 12, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the former mayor of Chicago and the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel. Welcome to Face the Nation, Ambassador.
RAHM EMANUEL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR: Thanks, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I have so much to get to with you, but I know you worked with Senator Lindsey Graham for a time here in Washington, you weren’t exactly on the same page politically, but I wonder your thoughts on his passing.
EMANUEL: Good observation. No, look, you lost a patriot. We disagreed, but we weren’t disagreeable about it. There were three things we worked on. One, he represented John McCain. I represented then Senator Obama on the debate rules. Two, when we had a meeting during the transition, Senator McCain, Lindsey, the president-elect, myself, we agreed to work on a national service bill, which we actually got done in spring ’09 that doubled the size for Americorps and for the Peace Corps. And then third, our final, which was really the most difficult, but we got to an agreement, which was to close Guantanamo. It was Senator Levin, Lindsey, myself representing the administration. We got to a final issue. The attorney general was against it, which was the trial of the sheikh, which he wanted civilian. Lindsey said it had to be military court to get the 15 votes. That’s not what happened, and so therefore, and it was one political analysis which I thought was accurate, versus a legal analysis which was maybe by the law but wasn’t going to happen. And so we worked at my desk as the chief of staff. I don’t know the dozen meetings between Carl Levin, myself, and the senator that would actually have closed Guantanamo, moved all the prisoners out and brought that chapter to America to end. Now, did we see everything 100%? No. Did we find compromise? Absolutely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah. Well, Ambassador, we need to take a break and finish our conversation about the significant speech you just gave in Israel a few days ago. But we’re going to do that in a minute. I hope everyone will stay with us. We will be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We continue our conversation now with Ambassador Rahm Emanuel. Ambassador, you are just back from a trip overseas. Your family, I know, has deep ties to Israel. You worked during the Clinton administration, the Obama administration on important Mideast issues. In this speech you just delivered, you were very critical of Palestinian authorities’ leadership failures. You faulted Arab states for not doing more in a credible way for the Palestinian people, and then you took aim at Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying he has led his country into a dead end. What do you hope you accomplished?
EMANUEL: Well, it was not just a criticism, all those are clear, and I was- stated that. And I also said the United States made mistakes in the past. But I laid out a plan that gets out of Israel being a pariah. It’s went from a technological prowess to a territorial pariah, and for a small nation, that’s not survivable. In 22 years, it will be 100 years old. You cannot survive like this. So, one, not a two-state solution, a 23-state solution, taking the Arab League’s offer to recognize the state of Israel, all 21 nations, if they come to an agreement on security for the state of Israel, which is essential, and Palestinian sovereignty. That’s Israel’s best day and Iran’s worst day. Second, building off the India Mideast European Economic Corridor, which would be the most important trade route, and put Israel’s technological prowess at the center, break into the economic integration that’s happening. So that was a plan. Others can offer theirs, but to me, it addresses the single most important thing for the future of this alliance—that you cannot reduce your national security apparatus with military power, economic statecraft, political persuasion, and cultural attraction reduce three of them and let them atrophy, and your entire national security apparatus has only military power. And that’s an example of how Israel has a breakout that is good for alliance. The United States is strong with NATO. You can see that in public opinion. The United States public opinion is also strong with our Asian allies. This is the only ally that is in the low 20s in support. That is not a sustainable path for an alliance that’s essential for Israel, America security.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You said the current Israeli government, the Netanyahu government, views every security challenge as a nail and Israel’s military as a hammer. That sounded very similar to me, at least, to this listen.
[SOUND ON TAPE BEGINS]
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: You’re a country of of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.
[SOUND ON TAPE ENDS]
MARGARET BRENNAN: I imagine there aren’t a lot of points of agreement between you and the Vice President J.D. Vance, but do you see this–
EMANUEL: –Correct–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –On the right and left, as a major shift in policy here for the United States that does not turn around.
EMANUEL: So two things, Margaret. The- in 2009, when I challenged as chief of staff for President Obama, I challenged the Prime Minister directly. Not, “I didn’t need this war,” directly. That what you’re doing on housing in the West Bank will lead to perpetual conflict and isolation. If there was a prediction I wanted to be wrong on, that was it. So telling somebody the truth, even when it’s painful, that’s not new to me. I was also in the room with President Obama when we funded, and started funding the Iron Dome, that has protected thousands of Israeli civilians. I believe funding the Iron Dome is right for America’s strategy, right for Israel. I think making sure that you’re not having a undermining the West Bank or the possibility of a two-state solution, a 23-state solution, is also in Israel’s security interest. And I want to get back to those go hand in hand. And so my view is, take Syria for example.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
EMANUEL: There’s no more Assad. You have a head of Syria that is the transit way to Hezbollah from Iran of all their weapons. The Syrian head of state has said that he- Iran is a problem and that Israel and he should have a security agreement.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
EMANUEL: Nobody’s called. I said I’ll pay for the phone call charges, pick up the phone, and come to a security agreement where your northern part, Jordan is secure on the east, Egypt is secure on the south, Syria you would actually have a security agreement that breaks out. Diplomacy, political strategy is dormant as a part of Israel’s national security, and that therefore harms the United States. My number one goal: What advances America’s interests? This, if they don’t change, the status quo today is unsustainable. I did it in the interests of America, the alliance with an ally that is isolated politically at home and abroad.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, and to your point, I was in Syria in September, and I saw the parts of Damascus that were bombed by the Netanyahu government very recently—
EMANUEL: And you would cut off Hezbollah. You would cut off Hezbollah from Iranian weapons. That’s in your national security interest–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –Well, Trump might be trying to do that–
EMANUEL: –that doesn’t require the military.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Trump may be trying to do that.
EMANUEL: I know, once again, I offer my telephone card, AT&T. You can use it any time. They can make the call to Damascus.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But bringing you back here to home. When I just finished that conversation with the current Israeli ambassador to the United States, who, by the way, very much supports Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as you know, he did take a hit there at those trying to launch presidential campaigns from his country. He was speaking about Representative Ro Khanna and what happened to him in the West Bank, but some are saying that about you too, sir. I mean, how do you respond to that, and do you agree with words like apartheid and genocide, that progressive Democrats like Khanna use to talk about the current Israeli government?
EMANUEL: Second, I was invited by Tel Aviv University, so I took it up, and I didn’t just offer criticism; I offered a plan for peace. Second, I go back to working on this, not with President Clinton, on both the Oslo Accords, the Wye plantation, Camp David, and with President Obama. And third, if it comes to where you start or how you do, I haven’t decided whether I’m running for president. But the first thing I did was go to Mississippi, that has moved from 49th to 9th on reading scores. I have made education this core. We as a country, 50% of our kids cannot read at grade level, and no, everybody in Washington is radio silence on the future of this country. So if there’s going to be a place, it wasn’t the Middle East; it was actually down in Mississippi, that is where the future of America is. Now, one thing I know, Margaret, about the White House: you have to be good in the Situation Room, the boardroom, the break room, and the classroom. And the problem for both parties is one stuck in the bathroom and the other one stuck in the bedroom. Get out and focus on the future.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, we’ll leave it there.
EMANUEL: Thanks
MARGARET BRENNAN: Look forward to having you back to talk more. We’ll be right back.