[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

Another frightening week in Washington, DC under Trump 2.0.

Among the lowlights: The galling suggestion that the US “take over” Gaza
and force out millions who call the land home, withdrawal from the UN
Human Rights Council and sanctions on international court officials.

All these actions embolden extremists, undermine the fragile ceasefire and
hostage deal, and put a broader regional peace, security and normalization
deal further and further out of reach.

We’re not pulling any punches as we oppose Trump's destructive actions and
underscore their risks. For more details, check out our recap below.

– Jen Abrahamson, Vice President of Communications

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✍️ J Street Rejects Trump’s Horrific Gaza Vision: In under 24 hours, J
Street has collected thousands of signatures from Jewish Americans urging
their representatives to denounce Trump’s proposed US-backed destruction
of Palestinian society in Gaza.

* National Mobilization: We’re building grassroots support for a letter
circulating in Congress condemning Trump’s horrific vision for Gaza.
We must push back against efforts that embolden extremists and seek to
set a new baseline for acceptable policy. [ [link removed] ]Read, sign and share our
petition >>
* Our Message: Trump is dressing up illegal forced displacement as a
real estate proposal – and undercutting a fragile ceasefire in the
process. As security experts have already warned, it’s a potent
recruiting tool for anti-Israel and anti-American terror groups.
[ [link removed] ]Read and share our response >>

📰 J Street in the News: In on-the-record interviews and background
conversations, J Street has worked hard this week to give voice to our
community’s values.

* [ [link removed] ]The New York Times: “If Trump thinks that somehow the US owning
Gaza and allowing Israel to annex parts of the West Bank facilitates a
[normalization deal with Saudi Arabia], he’s completely wrong.”
* [ [link removed] ]The Forward: “We call on leaders around the world, political
leaders in this country and, of course, Jewish communal leaders in
this country to express in no uncertain terms that these proposals are
absolutely unacceptable – legally and morally.”
* [ [link removed] ]Haaretz: “There aren't adequate words to express our disgust at the
idea of forcible displacement of Palestinians with the assistance of
the United States of America.”
* [ [link removed] ]Axios: “A coalition of over 100 reform and conservative Jewish
organizations, including J Street, is denouncing President Trump over
his 'scapegoating' of immigrants and transgender people, and says his
empowering of Elon Musk 'to force ideological conformity' threatens
the country's 'democratic norms.'”
* [ [link removed] ]The Guardian: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said Trump had two
choices, either going for the ‘dealmaker route’ or the ‘screw it
path’. But “if he’s going down the screw it path – and I don’t really
care what anybody thinks, and I want Greenland and Panama and they can
have the West Bank – then we’re in a different world.”

[ [link removed] ]Subscribe to J Street’s Daily News Roundup and never miss a beat >>

🔵 Watch our Emergency Briefing: Almost 1,000 J Streeters across the
country joined us Wednesday for an emergency, rapid-react briefing to
Trump’s comments.

* Jeremy hosted the briefing with Israeli political correspondent Tal
Shalev and Frank Lowenstein, former Special Envoy for
Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. [ [link removed] ]Watch it here >>

⚠️ Fascism Rising: Jeremy’s latest Substack post about the rise of fascism
in America and why the Jewish community must respond appears to have gone
somewhat viral.

* “It’s well past time for the leadership of the Jewish community to
mobilize around the very real threat the ethnonationalist right poses
in this country and globally,” Jeremy wrote. “Will you fight back
against right-wing threats to our democracy and way of life with the
same intensity you campaign against Israel's critics on the left?”
[ [link removed] ]Read the full post and subscribe to Jeremy’s Substack >>

🚨 USAID Executive Overreach: The past few days have seen chaos in DC and
around the world as Donald Trump and Elon Musk have attempted to illegally
dismantle USAID and choke off US foreign assistance – actions that are
already causing pain, instability and misery around the world while
damaging US influence and interests – including in the Middle East.

* A Five-Alarm Fire: “Withdrawing humanitarian and security support in
Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank threatens to undermine two fragile
ceasefires that are keeping millions of civilians safe and preventing
a return to war and chaos.” [ [link removed] ]Read our statement >>

⚠️ Trump Seeks to Flood the Zone, J Street Responds: This week saw a slew
of damaging, counterproductive executive orders on issues that matter to
us – from UNRWA funding to sanctions against international courts to the
US withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Committee.

* “The Trump Administration’s slew of executive actions this week range
from the purely symbolic to the deeply damaging.” J Street’s Director
of Government Affairs Hannah Morris wrote today in a rundown of recent
actions. [ [link removed] ]Read her full response here >>

Must Read 👇

🗣️ Will Establishment Groups Speak Up? January 6 rioters pardoned. Elon
Musk’s Nazi-like salute. Mass deportations of families. Former AIPAC
legislative director Douglas Bloomfield writes about the discomforting
silence of American Jewish organizations in the wake of Trump’s
anti-democratic, extremist-emboldening actions.

* “The real threat to American Jewry is not the powerless activists on
campuses but the powerful politicians systematically chipping away at
the democratic foundations treasured by American Jewry,” Bloomfield
wrote in the Jerusalem Post.
* “[Establishment groups] are not protecting Jewish community interests
by their silence but acting out of fear of being targeted by Trump and
his followers or, the worry of all organizations, being ignored, not
getting their phone calls returned.” [ [link removed] ]Read and share the full piece
>>

Our Challenge to You❗

Stand for Our Values on Shabbat: Take a stand as Trump endangers the
communities we care for most, and join J Street in standing shoulder to
shoulder with the National Council of Jewish Women and HIAS, two
organizations doing incredible work to fight the good fight.

* Mark your calendar for February 21-22 for Repro Shabbat. Host your own
gathering or join a pre-planned event in your community. Find what
suits you and honor the Jewish value of reproductive freedom.
[ [link removed] ]Learn more from NCJW >>
* One week later, join us for Refugee Shabbat on February 28-March 1.
Register to join hundreds of communities around the world in standing
up for refugees, asylum seekers and forcibly displaced people.
[ [link removed] ]Find out how you can participate >>


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© 2025 J Street | [ [link removed] ]www.jstreet.org | [email protected]

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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