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This week: Big Questions Dominate the Saudi Visit 🇸🇦 | This Week’s
Analysis on Word on the Street 🚧 | Gaza Needs More than a Ceasefire 🏥 | A
Commitment to Peace at the UN 🇺🇳 | Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026
Convention 🎟️ | This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do
List 🗳️ | And much more.

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🇸🇦 Big Questions Dominate the Saudi Visit: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman met with President Trump in the White House this week, the first
visit by the Saudi leader since the 2018 assassination of Washington Post
journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The US
approached the meeting with Gaza and Saudi-Israel normalization high on
the agenda, as well as AI, weapons and nuclear cooperation. 

* In the newest piece from J Street’s Policy Center, Policy Expert Jen
Gavito and Policy Coordinator Avraham Spraragen discussed Trump’s
propensity for transactional diplomacy and what this week’s meeting
could mean for Israel:

“While such cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia would
conceivably support Israeli security by serving as a greater
counterbalance to Iran, the provision of advanced weaponry to Saudi
Arabia is nonetheless likely to erode Israel’s Qualitative Military
Edge over its neighbors – a concept that is still enshrined in US law
but seems no longer to serve as a check on US relations with the
Gulf.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece here >>

* J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg unpacked the Crown
Prince’s visit to the White House with Daniel Benaim, who helped lead
US engagement with the Saudis during the Biden Administration,
focusing on the Israel-Saudi normalization stalemate amid Israeli
refusal to recognize a Palestinian state.

“I think at the right moment, if the smoke clears from Gaza, you may
see the Saudis be willing to accept something less. But so far, what
the Israelis are willing to offer is just so much less. than what the
Saudis are willing to accept,” Daniel said. [ [link removed] ]Watch the full Word on
the Street conversation here >>

[ [link removed] ]ALT TEXT FOR IMAGE

🚧 This Week’s Analysis on Word on the Street: J Street publishes
commentary, video conversations and policy pieces on our Substack
throughout the week. [ [link removed] ]Subscribe here >>

* Rewriting the Old Playbook: October 7 and the war in Gaza catapulted
the US-Israel relationship into the mainstream of American voter
consciousness. Ilan Goldenberg reflected on how the traditional
approach for Congressional candidates on Israel – promoted by many
Jewish groups – created policies that don’t align with most American
Jews and Democratic voters.

“A candidate who sticks to the old playbook – reflexively supporting
Israel, placing near-exclusive blame on Palestinians, paying lip
service to two states while opposing any meaningful steps to get
there, and giving an extreme right-wing Israeli government a blank
check – will be noticed by their constituents. And the message voters
will hear in a Democratic primary or even a general election is: I am
the establishment. I am a Washington insider. I support the old ways.”
writes Ilan Goldenberg. [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece here >>

🏥 Gaza Needs More Than a Ceasefire: Despite the fragile truce between
Israel and Hamas, the situation in Gaza remains dire, with continued
bloodshed, ongoing aid obstruction and thousands of critically injured
people in need of medical evacuation.

* We spoke with Oxfam Palestinian Policy Lead Bushra Khalidi, Physicians
for Human Rights – Israel Executive Director Dr. Guy Shalev and Gisha
– Legal Center for Freedom of Movement Executive Director Tania Hary
in a panel on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"There might be a level of relief that families in Gaza can sleep at
night without concern that a bomb is going to be dropped on their
homes, but they're still very much in survival mode. They're concerned
with daily operations of life – how to secure enough water, how to
secure enough food, how to get the medications that one of their
family members needs," Tania said. [ [link removed] ]Watch the full conversation here
>>

🇺🇳 A Commitment to Peace at the UN: After months of vetoing UN Security
Council resolutions, the United States successfully led a resolution,
supported by key Arab and Muslim states, to ensure the continued
implementation of the 20-point peace plan between Hamas and Israel. 

* “The Administration must now work with regional partners to implement
key elements of the resolution, including deploying an interim
Palestinian technocratic government and an international stabilization
force. These steps are essential to removing Hamas from power,
ensuring its eventual disarmament and facilitating the surge of
humanitarian assistance and reconstruction that Gaza’s civilians so
desperately need,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote. [ [link removed] ]Read
the full statement here >>

🎟️ Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention: From working to lock in
this ceasefire to fighting for our democracy at the ballot box, J Street’s
work has never been more important. 

* Our 2026 convention will feature pro-peace leaders from Israel and
Palestine, pro-democracy champions in the House and Senate, and
challengers looking to defeat MAGA incumbents up and down the ballot.
Don't miss out on the largest gathering of our pro-Israel, pro-peace,
pro-democracy movement next year! [ [link removed] ]Learn more and register here >>

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:

* [ [link removed] ]Israel Deported Me for Helping West Bank Palestinians. I Won’t
Give Up on a Peaceful Future for the Country I Love
"In the two months before my deportation, I was introduced to a world
of Jewish leftists in Jerusalem who split their time between
synagogue, Shabbat meals, political demonstrations, and solidarity
actions side-by-side with Palestinians in the West Bank. They showed
me a way to be deeply Jewish and connected to Israel, yet
unapologetically critical of the injustice I saw," Leila
Stillman-Utterback writes in The Forward.

* [ [link removed] ]On Republican Neo-Nazism, Hamas and Israel: An Epidemic of Moral
Cowardice
"Three examples preoccupy me personally: The Republican Party today
has a neo-Nazi problem that it refuses to confront. The progressive
left today has a pro-Hamas problem that it refuses to confront. And
the Jewish people and Israel have a radical Jewish settler problem
that they refuse to confront," Thomas Friedman writes in The New York
Times.

* [ [link removed] ]The Israeli Right's Radical Ambitions Have Been Stymied. That
Makes It Even More Dangerous
"A year ago, the settler right believed their vision of a reoccupied
Gaza devoid of Palestinians to be in reach. That vision has been
squashed. [...] Yet one of the dangers of radical right-wing movements
is that defeat rarely chastens or stops them: More often, it drives
them to even greater extremes," Joshua Leifer writes in Haaretz. 

🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[13][ ] [ [link removed] ]NEW: Sign up for J Street’s 2026 National Convention >>

[15][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Stop Demolitions in Umm al-Khair >>

[17][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: No Excuses. Aid Must Flow Freely. >>

[19][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Give Voice to Our Community: No Return to Gaza War >>

[21][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Support the West Bank Violence Prevention Act
>

[23][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Order J Street Merch >>

[25][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Find pro-Israel, pro-democracy, pro-peace candidates at
JStreetPAC.org >>

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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
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advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
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