Will Barack Obama's pick of Rahm Emanuel help or hurt the chances for Middle East peace?

November 14, 1:42 PMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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Chief of Staff designate Rahm Emanuel

When President-elect Barack Obama named U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) as the White House Chief of Staff, the new president revealed that he wants a fierce partisan infighter at his side to offset his own cool demeanor. As the House Whip and fourth-ranked Democrat in the House after six years of service in the Clinton White House, Emanuel will bring discipline, toughness and political savvy to the job.

Unfortunately, Emanuel also brings with him close ties to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) along with a pro-Zionist personal and family history. This background logically suggests he will work against any Mideast peace agreement that fully recognizes Palestinian rights, yet will this be the case?

All I know is that without a formal recognition by Israel of Palestinian human rights and property rights, the majority of Palestinians will never recognize the right of Israel to exist again as a free state. This means lasting peace between Israel and the Islamic world will remain difficult or impossible.

For clues about what role will be played by Rahm Emanuel as the White House Chief of Staff, study his  personal history.

Rahm Emanuel is the son of Benjamin Emanuel, a former member of the Irgun, the Zionist paramilitary organization in Palestine that violently opposed both the British and the Arabs during the 1940s to urge the creation of an Isreali state.

Benjamin Emanuel later emigrated to Chicago where he established a career as a physician and met his wife, Martha Smulevitz, an American Jew who worked as an X-ray technician. Ther son Rahm was born on November 29, 1959.

In Chicago, teenager Rahm attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, a Jewish high school endowed by Zionist billionaire Sam Zell. Inheriting his father’s passion for Israel and influenced by his schooling, Rahm Emanuel worked as a civilian volunteer in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. His job was rust-proofing vehicle brakes on an army base in northern Israel.

Back in the states, Emanuel returned to his prior work of political organizing to play a key fundraising role in the 1992 election of Bill Clinton. Emanuel then became a senior advisor to President Clinton from 1993 to 1998, dealing first with political affairs and later with policy strategies. He was a primary strategist in the failed Clinton bid to create universal health care.

Along the way, as a Modern Orthodox Jew, Emanuel had been developing his relations with leaders of AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations. Consequently, he orchestrated the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony for the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that culminated in the historic handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

This suggests Emanuel may not be as much of a pro-Israel hardliner and hawk as his critics contend. For instance, Foreign Policy magazine last week wrote, "Rahm Emanuel has always combined hyper-partisan rhetoric with relatively centrist policy views, and that may hold true for his stance on Israel as well.... If Emanuel is seen as sympathetic to Israel's plight, but also unafraid to use his legendary toughness to pressure Israeli leaders during the inevitable foot-dragging over the removal of key settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, he could be a key player in the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."

Offsetting that view, however, the elder Emanuel last week told the Israel daily, Maariv, that he expects his son to "influence the president to be pro-Israel," adding, "Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab?"

To his credit, Rahm has since apologized for his father's statement.

My own view is that it's great to see a "member of the Tribe" in such a nationally prominent position. Perhaps one day we will elect a Jewish-American president the same as we've just elected an African-American president. I wish to live in a color-blind society with equal opportunity and equal justice for all.

Meanwhile, I feel sadness when looking at the human and civil rights violations and atrocities committed by both Israelis and Palestinians. I feel heartened by such Mideastern multicultural peace organizations as Peace Now, Bat Shalom and the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

So, I'm hoping and praying that Rahm Emanuel will honor his father and yet give his allegiance to the kind of third-way thinking that gave us the Oslo Accords.

I'm hoping and praying that Rahm Emanuel he will have the courage to defy AIPAC and work diligently for the long awaited end of the ancient family blood feud between the descendants of half-brothers Isaac and Ishmael.

I'm hoping and praying that Rahm Emanuel helps the children of Sarah and the children of Hagar to stop fighting over who gets to inherit the land promised by father Abraham.

My view is that enough is enough. Let there by a family reconciliation. Let there be peace on earth. Shalom and Salam.

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