Friends,
Today, we mark one week of the second Trump Administration.
Pardoning the violent insurrectionists that attacked police officers on January 6th. Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. Heart-wrenching scenes of refugees seeing their flights to America canceled just hours before they were supposed to depart. Blustering conflicts with US allies around the world.
I’ll be honest, very little of this surprised me.
This extreme chaos is what we're in for during the months and years ahead. The floodgates are open, and we can expect a lot of damage to the issues – and harm to the people – we care about.
The challenge for all of us in opposition is to be strategic about where and when we fight.
Where do we have an actual chance of stopping something horrible from happening? When will we have no moral choice but to engage? Where does a hard-fought losing battle in the short term help set us up for a longer-term victory?
As I’ve been saying, our strategic framework will be to advance where we can and defend where we must. We will work to make smart, clear-eyed choices while refusing to sacrifice our values and morals along the way.
When it comes to the Middle East, we can take some solace that, in the past week, Israeli parents are at long last hugging their children freed from Hamas captivity and Palestinian families are beginning the long process of picking up the pieces in Gaza.
While he’s been busy sowing chaos at home, Trump and his team played an important role in getting Netanyahu to agree to at least the early phases of the ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Again, we’re clear-eyed on this: If there’s a way to work with the Trump Administration to advance a long-term resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we will. I’ve been writing about the various influences on Trump that will determine his direction, and don’t rule out that, for his own reasons, he may be more interested in pursuing a deal than facilitating more war.
However, we know that there will be much for J Street to oppose. One of Trump’s first acts behind the Resolute desk was to rescind Biden-imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers and their backers. And we can’t ignore that, over the weekend, the President indicated that he wants to “clean out” millions of Palestinians by displacing them from their homes in Gaza to other countries in the region.
It’s not only morally indefensible, but a crystal clear violation of international law which would undoubtedly lead to more violence, death and isolation on the world stage. It cannot happen.
Trump and his supporters will hear us loudly and clearly if they attempt to ignore the American Jewish community’s overwhelming demand that peace and diplomacy must win out over war and aggression.
At the same time, we’ll be ready to support the administration should they pursue a comprehensive regional agreement that provides a clear path to Palestinian statehood and conflict resolution.
If the past week is any indication of what lies ahead, we’re in for four years of head-spinning, non-stop shock, as well as the occasional unexpected surprise.
We’re ready for it all: Flexible. Strategic. Strong.
We’ll push back on all things Project 2025 as Trump implements his extremist anti-immigrant, anti-choice, anti-democratic, anti-LGBT+ agenda. And concurrently, we’ll be pressing him and his team to move in the right direction when it comes to bringing the remaining hostages home, ending this horrific war and setting in motion a serious ‘day after’ plan.
In closing, I’ll note that today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s been 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Today, many of us are remembering both the losses our own families endured and the broader catastrophe suffered by our community when a fascist, racist movement came to power.
It’s particularly appropriate as we reaffirm our commitment to the core democratic and Jewish principles and values on which we were raised – and that are so clearly under threat again today.
Thank you for being with us, especially as we navigate these roiling waters.
Onwards,
Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street
