[ ]J Street [ ]
Dear Friends,

As an Israeli who yearns to see my country living alongside our
Palestinian neighbors in peace, freedom and equality, I’ve watched the
unfolding chaos in the West Bank with sadness and frustration.

Under the so-called “leadership” of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his
far-right government, there is no real security for Israelis, no check on
the extremist settlement movement, and no concern for Palestinian rights
and aspirations.

This government has no intention of addressing the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict or to ending the occupation – only plans to double down on the
same failed policies that have pushed the situation from bad to worse.

2023 has already been one of the deadliest years for Palestinians since
the UN began recording data in 2005. Terror attacks against Israelis have
surged. IDF operations throughout the West Bank, including this week’s
massive incursion into Jenin, grow more intensive by the week, on a scale
that hasn't been seen since the days of the Second Intifada. Settlers have
launched violent pogroms against Palestinian communities, burning homes
and cars and committing what the IDF itself has called “nationalist
terrorism.”

As a former IDF officer, I know Israel faces very real security threats,
and believe that our political and military leaders must do everything in
their power to protect the Israeli people. I also know that there is NO
military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to the disastrous
one-state reality in the West Bank.

No matter how intensively the Netanyahu government cracks down militarily
on the West Bank and Gaza, or how tough they talk about “crushing the
enemy” and expanding settlements, they continue to fail to provide true,
lasting security to Israelis.

Even as the IDF operation against Palestinian militants in Jenin was
ongoing, a 20-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank carried out a
car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv, injuring nine Israelis. Today, an Israeli
was shot and killed in another terror attack near a West Bank settlement.

In explaining their operation in Jenin, the government states that they
seek to combat terror and restore control over the city to the Palestinian
Authority (PA), and that Israel sees the PA as a key security partner to
combat militants in the West Bank.

Yet this government – and other Netanyahu-led governments before it – have
done everything they can to undermine, weaken and destroy the power of
their PA security partners – confiscating Palestinian taxes, denying the
PA’s legitimacy and failing to offer any peaceful political path to
freedom and independence.

In a recent meeting with Israeli lawmakers, the prime minister reportedly
told them that Israel “needs the Palestinian Authority” – but that Israel
also “needs to crush [the Palestinian] ambition” for an independent state.

Is it any wonder that most Palestinians today feel only despair and
desperation? That those who dream of a free and safe future for their
families see no path to get there?

The Israeli far-right’s only vision is for permanent, unyielding military
occupation of millions of Palestinians until the end of time. But we know
that no people can or will accept permanent statelessness without basic
rights or freedoms. We know that Israeli democracy cannot survive if it is
based on forever ruling over millions of Palestinians whose lives are
restricted and controlled and who lack any say over how they are governed.

The truth has long been clear: The only path to the peace both Israelis
and Palestinians deserve is through a genuine commitment to ending the
conflict, ending the occupation and delivering both Israelis and
Palestinians the right to live freely, peacefully and equally in two
independent states.

That is the path we are committed to here at J Street. As the political
home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans, we’re proud to
stand up to the right-wing’s disastrous agenda – and to push for US
policies that genuinely promote peace, security, equality and
self-determination for both peoples.

As Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir continue to push Israelis and
Palestinians deeper into the one-state nightmare, we desperately need our
friends and allies in the United States to push back and help create a
pathway to peace.

The Biden Administration should restore the longstanding, bipartisan US
position that settlements are inconsistent with international law, and
further reinforce the critical differentiation between Israel and the West
Bank. They should stop providing blanket diplomatic immunity for the
Israeli government from accountability under international law. And they
should make sure that US funds are not being used to deepen occupation or
facilitate settler violence – at the expense of Palestinian safety and
Israel’s long-term democratic future.

As more and more of my fellow Israelis come to understand the true danger
posed to our democracy by this extreme government, we need our friends to
stand with us to make clear that a better future is both vital and
possible.

Thank you for all that you do,

Nadav Tamir
Executive Director, J Street Israel

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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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