Friend --
This week’s Israeli election -- an unprecedented third contest in under a year -- brought good news and bad news.
The good news: Once again, after engaging in a vitriolic, hate-filled campaign attempt to win an outright 61-seat majority for his right-wing bloc, Benjamin Netanyahu came up short.
Thanks in part to a historically successful night for the majority-Arab Joint List party, Netanyahu still lacks a clear path to forming a governing coalition. That’s the same position he was in both before and after the first two elections of the past year. In some ways, we’re right back where we started.
The bad news: Even with Netanyahu on the brink of standing trial for corruption, his opponents were unable to deliver a political knockout blow. That means that, whether he succeeds in forming a government, whether his opponents somehow manage to form a government or whether Israel heads to an astounding fourth election, he likely will remain in power as prime minister for at least the next few months.
It means that the chances are still very high that, with a green light from President Trump and in coordination with Ambassador Friedman, Netanyahu will take steps at some point in the coming weeks to advance illegal, unilateral annexations of Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
That’s why our work leading the fight against annexation is now more important than ever. It’s why we’re pushing Congress, presidential candidates and Jewish leaders across the country to stand up against annexation and settlement expansion. It’s why we’re leading a campaign to make sure the Democratic platform commits to supporting Israeli security AND opposing the occupation.
And it’s why we’re reaching out to ask for your support to make sure that we succeed. Please chip in what you can to help us build urgent opposition to any move by Netanyahu that could permanently damage prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Our work can’t generate new political leadership for Israel -- only the Israeli people can do that. But by focusing on our own politics, we can help ensure that Donald Trump is defeated this November, doing everything we can to elect the eventual Democratic nominee. We can help ensure that the next president enters office with a clear mandate to oppose occupation, undo the damage of the Trump administration’s disastrous policies and firmly lead the way toward a just, viable and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
It’s not going to be easy. At last week’s AIPAC conference, we saw crowds give standing ovations to Vice President Pence, Ambassador Friedman and Prime Minister Netanyahu. We heard not a word of opposition to annexation. One wouldn’t have known that it was an imminent possibility had it not been for Netanyahu boasting about his plans to move the process forward.
We took away a loud and clear message that AIPAC and its allies would rather have four more years of Donald Trump than see him replaced by any candidate who will oppose occupation and stand up for peace. But we know that doesn’t reflect the views of the vast majority of American Jews.
We know that the majority of Jewish Americans oppose Trump and are worried about Israel’s direction under Netanyahu. We’re ready to mobilize that majority to defend democracy, promote diplomacy and achieve a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.
But we need your help to make sure we have the resources we need to prevail.
Thanks for all that you do,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
