This week: Keeping the Ceasefire Alive 🕊️ | Saving a Palestinian Village from Demolition ⚠️ | Victory at the World Zionist Congress 🇮🇱 | This Week from the Policy Center 📝| This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
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🕊️ Keeping the Ceasefire Alive: On Wednesday, 90 Members of Congress sent a letter led by Representative Madeleine Dean pressing the Trump Administration to urgently use its leverage to push forward with the 20-point peace plan amid the tenuous ceasefire and continued flare-ups in violence. The letter also urges the administration to collaborate with regional stakeholders to establish effective replacement security and political institutions in Gaza and outlines how settlement expansion threatens the viability of the Abraham Accords. Read the full text here >>
- “This letter sends a clear message to the White House: The United States must keep up significant pressure on both sides to ensure the ceasefire holds. We cannot afford to go back to the heartbreak and bloodshed of the past two years, and strong American leadership can make sure we don’t,” writes J Street Vice President of Government Affairs Hannah Morris. Read the full statement here >>
⚠️ Saving a Palestinian Village from Demolition: This week, Israeli authorities issued demolition orders for 13 buildings – including homes and a community center – in the village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills. J Street has brought countless community members and political leaders to this area, known for its history of Jewish-Palestinian partnership and nonviolent activism. Sign our petition and call your Member of Congress to demand an immediate halt to the demolitions >>
🇮🇱 Victory at the World Zionist Congress: This week, Jewish leaders from around the world convened in Jerusalem for the World Zionist Congress, where nearly $5 billion is allocated every five years for global Jewish organizations. J Street proudly represented the progressive Hatikvah Slate and successfully passed a resolution that bans the World Zionist Organization from any involvement in settlement construction in Gaza.
- “This Congress sent a message that the majority of the Jewish people want to choose the path of democracy, pluralism and conflict resolution,” wrote J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami from the Congress. Read more >>
- The Future of Zionism Must Be The Path of Rabin, Not the Path of Netanyahu: “To this day, Rabin's voice calls to us all. His challenge echoes in this room. ‘Who will finish the work that I began?’ That is our charge as 21st-century liberal Zionists, Jews who know that Zionism without peace, justice and democracy cannot endure,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami in his speech to the World Zionist Labor Alliance. Watch the full speech here >>
- Inside the Parliament of the Jewish People: “I think it's really important for us to be visible outside of this conference hall, both in order to show folks at home that we are here fighting for the values that we all support, and also to show Israelis who have been fighting for democracy for years now [...] that they have the support of Jews across the world,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah in this week’s Word on the Street Live. Watch the full conversation here >>
J Street publishes commentary, video conversations and policy pieces on our Substack throughout the week. Subscribe here >>
📝 This Week from the Policy Center: J Street’s Policy Center published analyses this week on the potential paths ahead for Israel and the region.
- Israel Two Years On: Politics After the Ceasefire
J Street Policy Fellow Yael Patir outlines Israel’s political landscape as it enters an election year. Facing a fragile coalition, a corruption trial, a draft crisis and the Trump Administration and far-right parties pulling him in different directions, Netanyahu is under more pressure than ever. In the meantime, the mass mobilization that the hostage movement built has the potential to build significant momentum for the opposition.
“Among Jewish Israelis, support [for the deal] stands at 73 percent, while an overwhelming 88 percent of Arab citizens back the deal. Notably, a majority of coalition voters – 57 percent – also support the agreement, alongside 91 percent among opposition voters. This rare consensus cuts across political and demographic lines,” writes Yael.
- The Economic Benefits of the 23-State Solution
J Street Policy and Research Coordinator Avraham Spraragen outlines the economic stakes of Israel’s diplomatic crossroads: Either pursue normalization with the major Arab and Muslim countries and create over $1 trillion in new activity and four million new jobs over the next decade, or take Netanyahu’s isolationist approach that has already caused significant economic damage.
“These proven economic benefits demonstrate that a comprehensive regional agreement, which includes the remaining 16 Arab League states, would bolster Israel’s economy while the country faces growing isolation and economic downturn. Instead of Netanyahu’s “Super Sparta” vision, Israel should embrace a 23-state solution for its own economic benefit and the flourishing of the entire regional economy, “ writes Avraham.
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- Watch: Senator Elissa Slotkin on Trump's Authoritarian Playbook
In a speech at The Brookings Institution this week, national security expert and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said, “I believe that Trump is ready to bring the full weight of the federal government against Americans he perceives as enemies. Why? Because he has one goal. Making sure that he and his ilk never have to give up power.”
- The Liberal Camp Should Embrace The Arab Parties
Nadav Tamir, Executive Director of J Street Israel, writes in Times of Israel, "Every time the center and left exclude Arab representatives, they weaken themselves and strengthen the very forces they claim to oppose."
- Listen: The Israeli Right’s Plan to Carve Up Gaza
In his podcast, Ezra Klein says, "In America, the dominant position on the Israel-Palestine conflict is still a belief, a hope in the two-state solution. But in Israel, it’s just not. Israeli politics is well to the right of where America admits, or even realizes, it is."
“I think a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Instead, Gaza will end up divided,” Amit Segal, a prominent right-wing Israeli commentator, tells Klein.
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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.
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