[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

I wrote last week that to be pro-Israel you don’t need to be “anti”
anything – not anti-human rights, not anti-international law and certainly
not anti-Palestinian.

Today, I’ll go a step further: Being pro-Palestine is pro-Israel.

The case for an independent Palestinian state next to Israel is, of
course, rooted in the Palestinian people’s historic, legal and moral right
to self-determination – a right that merits a state to deliver them
freedom, hope, safety and more.

For those who support the Jewish people’s self-determination, that really
ought to be enough to support Palestinian self-determination. But there’s
a pro-Israel case as well.

It starts with reckoning with the reality that there are two peoples who
live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in equal numbers,
and both view it as their homeland. Just as Israel is the homeland for the
Jewish people, so too is Palestine the homeland of the Palestinian people.

If Israel is to realize its founding promise of being a secure, just and
democratic homeland for the Jewish people, Palestinians need to achieve
self-determination too. If Israel keeps control of all the land, it will
either not be democratic, or it will not be Jewish.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees it this way.

Take Trump’s ambassador pick Mike Huckabee. He has said the entirety of
Israel-Palestine was gifted to Jews by God. To make reality fit his
“Christian Zionist” narrative, he simply denies Palestinian history:
“There’s really no such thing as Palestinians,” he’s said.

I know this mythology well, as I grew up with a father who would say
repeatedly that Israel-Palestine was “a land without a people for a people
without a land.” I learned the truth about the Palestinian experience
while living in Israel.

I see now that the right-wing effort to erase Palestinians and their
history is not only an affront to our Jewish values and everything a
Jewish state should stand for, but it’s a threat to Israel’s own future,
to the US-Israel relationship and to our children’s relationship with
Israel.

We created J Street to have the debate in the US over what it means to be
pro-Israel. To show that policymakers and elected officials not only can
be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel, but that they should be.

As we enter 2025 – we’re ready for that debate. As we battle for the
future and the soul of both Israel and the United States, having you with
us is more important than ever.

Friends: If this work matters to you, please help fund it with an
End of Year Donation of $18, $36 or $90 or any other amount.
[ [link removed] ]We don’t have right-wing megadonors, we have you >>

Efforts to erase Palestinian history echo the mythology espoused by some
anti-Israel activists who argue falsely that the Jewish people have no
connection to Israel and that their return to Israel was Europe’s way of
solving antisemitism in Europe and Russia.

Extreme myths, disconnected from reality, do nothing to help the two
peoples legitimately living on the land today to resolve their
differences, stop killing each other or build a better future.

Don’t just ask the peaceniks, ask the countless former IDF and Mossad
chiefs who continue to argue that supporting a peaceful Palestinian state
– and ensuring it is stable, secure and prosperous – is in Israel's
long-term security interests too.

Failing to outline a realistic, achievable path toward Palestinian
independence undermines moderate and pro-peace Palestinians while
strengthening advocates of violent resistance.

The good news? Despite decades of violence, terror and propaganda, polls
show that the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans still agree: The
best path to peace ends with a Palestinian state side by side with Israel.

Mainstream Jewish Americans understand that the only way for Israel to be
both Jewish and democratic is for there to be a second state that the
Palestinian people can call home. Only then can the State of Israel be
secure, Jewish and democratic while guaranteeing – as it must – full,
equal rights to the remaining non-Jewish minority.

If that’s your vision for Israel’s future – and if you support freedom,
safety and self-determination for Palestinians too – please consider
renewing your support for J Street with a donation today.

[ [link removed] ]Your contribution of $18, $36 or $90 – or any other amount –
is deeply appreciated and will press us closer to our December 31 goal >>

Thank you, sincerely, for your support.

Yours,

Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street

P.S. I invite you to [ [link removed] ]subscribe to my Substack, Word on the Street,
where I’m laying out a vision in a multi-part series of what it means to
be pro-Israel today in the US. I hope you’ll not only support our work but
join the conversation.


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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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