[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

Much is being made of President Biden’s shift toward harsher criticism of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As [ [link removed] ]Axios put it, “President Biden has begun a tricky maneuver: Breaking
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Gaza war strategy –
while sticking with Israel and its fight against Hamas, which is still
holding hostages.”

As a former Israeli diplomat – and someone who’s spent nearly every day
since October 7 volunteering with the families of those taken hostage – I
wanted to share my thoughts on this strategy.

In short: It is urgent, necessary and overdue. Above all, it is profoundly
pro-Israel.

Here in Israel, there can be no doubt about President Biden’s commitment.
He’s met with victims of October 7 and their families, helped secure the
release of over 100 hostages, and is the only US president to visit Israel
in wartime.

Indeed, President Biden’s approval ratings here significantly exceed those
of Netanyahu – so when he said Saturday that the Prime Minister was
“hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” his words reverberated
nationwide.

Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue
Hamas, but he must – he must, he must – pay more attention to the innocent
lives being lost,” he said.

As a former IDF Officer, I’m no stranger to the horrors of war. But the
catastrophic scenes from Gaza – and the intolerable rhetoric of extremists
who seek to make things worse – are a painful violation of both Jewish and
Israeli values.

Biden said it clearly: “It’s contrary to what Israel stands for.”

As several hundred former Israeli security officials and diplomats –
including former heads of the IDF and Mossad – wrote in a [ [link removed] ]letter
released by Commanders for Israel’s Security, "beyond the moral aspects”
the humanitarian crisis deals “damage to Israel’s security and strategic
interests.”

It’s a failure of leadership which risks fuelling support for Israel’s
enemies, and will make the challenge of post-war security and stability
even harder.

After warning in his State of the Union address that Israeli leaders
cannot see humanitarian aid as a “secondary consideration or bargaining
chip,” President Biden promised to do “everything we can” to get food,
water and medicine into Gaza – by land, sea and air.

“We cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,” he said, warning that
Netanyahu’s planned invasion of Rafah, with no plans to protect over a
million civilians crowded there, is a “red line.”

“I’ll always stand with Israel,” he reiterated. “The defense of Israel is
still critical. There’s no red line that I’m going to cut off all weapons
so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”

I strongly support this direct, plain-speaking approach: Ironclad support
for Israel’s security twinned with genuine regard for Palestinian lives
and our shared values – the type of leadership the Netanyahu government
has failed to demonstrate.

I imagine President Biden’s message is also one with which the
overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community would agree.

J Street has long argued that the US must distinguish between supporting
Israel’s security and opposing the Netanyahu government’s extremist
policies – and abhorrent indifference to the suffering of civilians –
which undermines our shared values and Israel’s own interests.

President Biden is now making that distinction clearer than ever.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, is feeling the pressure. Yesterday, he pushed back
with an appearance on Fox News, seeking to conflate support for his
government with support for Israel itself. We cannot allow him to succeed.

We stand at an inflection point. Decisions made now will have long-lasting
consequences: For the safety of hostages, for the prospects for peace and
security, for Israel’s place in the region, for the long-term fight to
defeat terror and chart a course for a better future.

As President Biden made clear, there is a path to a future of peace,
safety and legitimacy: A comprehensive regional agreement including full
recognition for both Israel and Palestine – two secure, independent states
side-by-side. The full and complete realization of the dream of a safe,
just, democratic homeland for the Jewish people.

Perhaps uniquely among all American presidents, President Biden has the
opportunity to guide us toward that better future. He should continue to
make the case directly to the Israeli people – to appeal to both our
long-term interests and our shared values – and to do so over the heads of
a government that seems determined to put its own short-term political and
ideological interests above all else.

In doing so, I know he will have the support of J Street, and the
overwhelming majority of pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy American
Jews who care about Israel’s security and the safety of hostages, and
share profound anguish over the conduct of this war and the suffering in
Gaza.

Thank you, sincerely, for all that you do.

Nadav Tamir
Executive Director, J Street Israel


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and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
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