What Rahm Emanuel Really Said at AIPAC

According to my in-box, which is an acute gauge of Jewish anxiety, Rahm Emanuel crossed a red line the other day at a press-free session at the AIPAC conference, by linking American efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program to Israel's willingness to create a Palestinian state. This is how The Jerusalem Post put it:

Israeli TV stations had reported Monday night that Emanuel had actually linked the two matters, saying that the efforts to stop Iran hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians. The remarks were reportedly made in a closed-door meeting previous day with 300 major AIPAC donors on Sunday.

Rahm apparently did no such thing. I have it on good authority that Rahm told the audience that Obama believes that it will be easier to enlist Arab allies in the confrontation with Iran if visible progress is made on the Palestinian front. This is inescapably true. But he did not suggest a quid pro quo. That would be blackmail, and in any case, a quid pro quo would suggest that Obama believes that Iran's nuclear program constitutes a threat only to Israel. And he's never said anything to suggest that he believes this to be so. He's certainly heard from America's Arab allies -- most notably King Abdullah of Jordan, who in his visit here let Obama know exactly what he thought of Iran -- that they too consider Iran a dire threat to their security.