[ ]J Street [ ]
Friend --

Over the past week, Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced plans to build
thousands of settlement units in and around East Jerusalem.

Some of these announcements have been hugely controversial and
problematic. But none of them approached the gravity of today’s
announcement of plans to move forward with construction of E-1 -- a
settlement that would devastate chances for a viable Palestinian state
with a capital in East Jerusalem.

Today, we are calling on the leadership of AIPAC and all pro-Israel Jewish
organizations to speak out against this announcement.

[ [link removed] ]And we’re asking Jewish Americans who are committed to
Israeli-Palestinian peace to join our call. Please add your name here.

For decades, AIPAC, American Jewish leaders and elected officials have
been briefed in depth on what it would one day take to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They have been shown the significance of
areas like E-1 and Givat Hamatos (another settlement announced this week),
which cut through Palestinian population centers.

They've been told by retired military commanders, urban planners and peace
negotiators that these projects constitute red lines that Israel must not
cross if it hopes to keep the possibility of a viable state of Palestine
alive.

And, for two plus decades, Israeli governments have listened not only to
the experts, but to the US and the other governments of the world. While
some have proceeded with other very harmful settlement expansions, they
have -- until now -- refrained from crossing these ultimate red lines.

This week, one week before the latest election and three weeks before the
start of the Prime Minister's corruption trial, the Israeli government has
decided to cross every remaining red line all at once.

Every organization that claims to support a two-state solution needs to
stand up and speak out in this moment, before construction begins. [ [link removed] ]Add
your name to call on establishment leaders to oppose Netanyahu’s plan to
destroy the two-state solution.

With the sequential announcements of intent to build in the areas of E-1,
Givat Hamatos/Har Homa and Atarot, Prime Minister Netanyahu has painted a
clear picture of what it looks like when a government of Israel no longer
even feigns interest in resolving its conflict with the Palestinians, is
unbound by the rule of law and is given an unquestioning green light for
its plans by the United States. With the full blessing of the Trump White
House, the government of Israel has outlined its plan to forever be the
only sovereign state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea
and to confine Palestinians to small, unconnected enclaves of limited,
stateless “autonomy.”

This is all unfolding on the eve of AIPAC’s convention this weekend.

Our question is what those gathering under the AIPAC banner next week will
do, after claiming for years to support a two-state solution?

As importantly, what will American political leaders who have suggested
that going to AIPAC simply expresses bipartisan support for the state of
Israel say? Will they object to the Prime Minister’s plans, knowing full
well that the course he has set is itself destroying bipartisan support
for Israel?

What a sad moment this is for the state of Israel, for the Palestinian
people, and for Americans who have poured their heart and soul into
helping Israel to be a democratic state and a Jewish home of which their
children and grandchildren would be proud. What a dangerous moment this is
for Israelis as their desperate prime minister cynically places his own
political survival ahead of the interests and security of his country.

If the pro-Israel establishment fails to respond -- if instead they stand
and cheer for the US and Israeli governments that are facilitating these
moves -- they will bear considerable responsibility for the future of
perpetual occupation, deteriorating democracy and unending conflict that
Israel faces in the years ahead.

[ [link removed] ]If we want to achieve a different, better future, now is the time to
speak out and take action.

Thank you for joining our call,

Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street


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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace 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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