Israel welcomes debate. Israelis argue with each other every day. They criticize their leaders. They question Israeli policies. That\u2019s what democracies do.\n<\/p>\n
But there is a profound difference between criticism born from shared responsibility and criticism that turns Israel into a stage for American political performance.\n<\/p>\n
That is why I found Rahm Emanuel\u2019s recent remarks so deeply disappointing. Whether you agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu or not, Israel is fighting for its security in one of the most dangerous periods in its history, she is fighting for her survival.\n<\/p>\n
In my view, rhetoric that focuses overwhelmingly on Israel\u2019s failures while the country remains under extraordinary security pressure risks reinforcing a narrative that encourages more political grandstanding than genuine engagement.\n<\/p>\n
Then came the Congressman from California, Ro Khanna.\n<\/p>\n
He traveled to Area C, one of the most politically sensitive regions in Judea and Samaria and publicly criticized Israeli citizens living there. You may agree with his position. You may disagree with mine. That\u2019s not the point.\n<\/p>\n
The point is that diplomacy begins with listening.\n<\/p>\n
When an American elected official arrives in Israel and immediately embraces one side of one of the world\u2019s most contested conflicts, many Israelis will understandably question whether the purpose of the visit was to understand Israel\u2026or to make a political statement back home.\n<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a simple question.\n<\/p>\n
Congressman Khanna, if a foreign politician came to your neighborhood in California, stood outside your home and screamed epithets at you and your family, and publicly declared that you and your children are not citizens and do not belong here, how would you feel?\n<\/p>\n
Would you call that diplomacy? Or would you call it disrespect? Would you even call it racist or ethnocentric\u2026because that is exactly what you displayed Congressman Khanna.\n<\/p>\n
Israelis deserve the same dignity every other nation expects for its own citizens. The same kind of dignity you expect for yourself.\n<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to agree with every Israeli government. I certainly don\u2019t. You don\u2019t have to support every policy. I certainly don\u2019t.\n<\/p>\n
But if you come to Israel as an American representative, come with humility.\n<\/p>\n
Come with curiosity. Come willing to hear from people whose lives are shaped by realities that are difficult to understand from thousands of miles away.\n<\/p>\n
Israel is not a case study. It is not a campaign stop.\n<\/p>\n
It is not a prop in America\u2019s domestic political battles.\n<\/p>\n
It is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.\n<\/p>\n
For my family, that truth is deeply personal. We fled antisemitism in the former Soviet Union because history taught us what happens when Jews depend entirely on the goodwill of others.\n<\/p>\n
Israel is the one place in the world where Jews know they will always have a home.\n<\/p>\n
That reality deserves respect.\n<\/p>\n
My concern extends beyond one congressman or one speech.\n<\/p>\n
If diplomatic visits become opportunities for political theater instead of opportunities to build trust, both Israel and the United States will lose something invaluable.\n<\/p>\n
Relationships between allies are strengthened through honest conversations, mutual respect, and a willingness to listen and not by political theatrics, and not by arriving with conclusions already written, and definitely not with provocations.\n<\/p>\n
Come to Israel. Challenge Israelis. Ask difficult questions. Meet people you disagree with. Meet people you agree with. Learn from all of them.\n<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t come looking for applause before you\u2019ve taken the time to understand the complexity of the country you\u2019re visiting.\n<\/p>\n
Israel doesn\u2019t need performative politics. It needs partners who are willing to listen as carefully as they speak.\n<\/p>\n
That is what true diplomacy looks like. Learn it before you embarrass yourself or the country you are representing again Congressman Khanna.\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tAnna Steinberg is an Orthodox Jewish wife, mother, community builder, and Soviet-born immigrant. She writes about faith, resilience, Israel, Jewish identity, motherhood, and the sacred work of building connection, truth, and human dignity across communities in fractured times.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel welcomes debate. Israelis argue with each other every day. They criticize their leaders. They question Israeli policies.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1897,111,85,87,46,155681,954,43,14143,77],"class_list":["post-537301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-american-jewry","tag-antisemitism","tag-il","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-at-war","tag-israeli-politics","tag-news","tag-us-politics","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}