Friend,
As pro-Israel, pro-peace and pro-democracy Americans, today of all days, we remember what is at stake and what we are fighting for.
Five years ago, rioters incited by the President of the United States stormed the Capitol and threatened the very institutions and values upon which our country was built.
Today, those forces are back in power.
Deporting immigrants to prisons where they are tortured, deploying the National Guard on our city streets as a means of intimidation, attacking universities and excising expertise from the US government.
Meanwhile, just this week, Trump violated basic international norms and – without congressional approval or any plan for the day after – invaded a country and abducted its president. Not in defense of American lives. Not in response to a national security threat. Not to pave the way for a democratically elected government (he had a chance to do that and instead embraced Maduro’s cronies). But to openly and brazenly make an imperialist oil grab.
In Israel, these same forces are at play. Netanyahu attacks the judiciary, and blocks and politicizes any effort to understand the failures that led to October 7. Meanwhile, he is working with the right-wing ideologues in his government to pursue a massive, illegal, violent land grab in the West Bank while barring most international aid organizations from entering Gaza.
And as Netanyahu pursues his authoritarian agenda, Trump stands alongside him, applying pressure on the Israeli government to grant Netanyahu a pardon to avoid accountability for his corruption.
Internationally, Trump and Netanyahu are embracing an anarchistic "might-makes-right" approach, which will only lead to chaos, blowback and destruction.
Friend, we know Jews are safest when our values thrive both at home and abroad. Democracy, peace, freedom, justice and protection of minority rights. These are not only the building blocks of democratic government, but principles Jews helped fight for in the modern, post-war world, precisely because we know what happens when they fail.
And in 2026, they are the values that we will be fighting for.
The good news is that the tide is turning.
2026 is the year we have the opportunity to take back power from these authoritarian forces. Elections later this year in both the US and in Israel offer both countries the chance to turn resistance into political power.
This will not be easy. We are going to need to fight for it. I look forward to being in this battle with you.
In solidarity,
Ilan Goldenberg
Chief Policy Officer, J Street
