[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking the stage at the United Nations in New
York this morning.

My son, meanwhile, will be spending his 720th day in Hamas captivity,
fighting alongside nineteen other living hostages to stay alive until
their release.

I do not know what Netanyahu will say, but I know that it will be full of
lies, spin and deflections. He will accuse his political opponents of
being antisemitic and rewarding terror. He will drive our country deeper
into international isolation – pursuing a warmongering, anti-democratic
vision of Israel that I do not want or recognize.

I cannot stay silent while the man who has sabotaged my son’s freedom
again and again stands before the world and pretends to represent me, my
family and the people of Israel.

I call for greater international pressure to end this war and secure a
hostage deal. As someone who served in the IDF – and is father to a
soldier – I now even call for bans on offensive weapons, something I never
thought I’d do. 

The world cannot keep enabling this. We must do everything possible to end
this nightmare – for hostages, for Israelis, for Palestinians, for our
common humanity.

As we hear Netanyahu, let’s remember how we got here.

First, there is Hamas: A terrorist organization that has brought decades
of misery, anguish and pain upon Palestinians and Israelis alike. 

Hamas can never be allowed to control Gaza again. Arab and Western
countries have already endorsed a post-war plan to empower moderates,
sideline terror groups, and rebuild Gaza. A responsible leader would be
focused on working with Israel’s allies to hammer out that plan.

But instead, we have Netanyahu. 

Poll after poll shows Israelis overwhelmingly support a war-ending hostage
deal that would bring my son home, along with thousands of other soldiers
in harm’s way. 

When Netanyahu claims that states recognizing Palestine are giving a
“gift” to Hamas, the reality is that it was Netanyahu who helped build
Hamas into the force that struck on October 7.

* It was Netanyahu who encouraged Qatar to funnel cash into Gaza, money
Hamas used for tunnels, rockets, and recruitment. He became Hamas’s
financier – strengthening them to weaken moderates and block a
two-state solution, all to serve his political survival and
ideological goals.
* It was Netanyahu who refused to listen to the IDF Chief of Staff and
his own Defense Minister. He was too busy sending troops to defend
illegal settlements in the West Bank and trying to dismantle Israel’s
judicial system in order to keep his government afloat and derail his
corruption trial.
* And now, it is Netanyahu who is doing everything he can to sabotage a
deal and prolong this war – all because his extremists partners demand
control of Gaza, even at the cost of Israeli soldiers, hostages, and
tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.

Before October 7, Netanyahu’s power depended on fueling Hamas. Since
October 7, it has depended on fighting Hamas. Either way, his survival is
tied to theirs.

This is not a war for the Israeli people or a war for the freedom of
hostages like my son. It is an endless war for Netanyahu’s political
survival. He is betraying Israel, and he is betraying my son.

That’s why I’m so grateful to the hostage families and American Jews and
Israelis protesting Netanyahu’s appearance at the United Nations. His
words are not Israel’s words. 

We cannot stay silent. We cannot allow one man’s obsession with his own
survival to dictate the future of millions. He must be stopped.

May we have the strength to end this nightmare together.

Yehuda Cohen
A Loving Father

[ [link removed] ]MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION »
[ [link removed] ]MAKE A MONTHLY RECURRING DONATION »
[ [link removed] ]Threads [ [link removed] ]Facebook [ [link removed] ]Instagram [ [link removed] ]Twitter
© 2025 J Street | [ [link removed] ]www.jstreet.org | [email protected]

J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the
Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we
advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]