[ [link removed] ] [ [link removed] ]J Street[ [link removed] ]
Friend,

These past few days, life in Israel has been thrown into chaos. The country is at a standstill. My whole family is crammed into my apartment as we await the next missile barrage from Iran.

We’re lucky to have a shelter, but that’s not the case for many, especially in the Arab towns and the Bedouin villages.

There’s still broad support for Israel’s strikes on Iran, what you might call ‘rallying around the flag’ in America. We must acknowledge that the threat posed to Israel by Iran’s nuclear program, missile arsenal and support for destabilizing groups across the Middle East is a real, profound danger to Israel’s security – one that is felt by all Israelis.

But among the hostage families I speak with, there’s also real distress that this has overshadowed their plight. And having watched Netanyahu drive us deeper into a quagmire in Gaza, Israelis also hold very real concerns that we’re now engaged in yet another war with no clear endgame.

As a former IDF Officer and diplomat myself, I worry that by prematurely torpedoing nuclear talks that still had a chance of success, our leaders have set us up for an even more difficult challenge in the long term – and that innocent Israeli and Iranian civilians may pay the price. As we’ve seen in the past, military action alone cannot permanently cut their path without a negotiated agreement.

As cameras swing to Iran, the crisis in Gaza rages on, pushed from the front page but no less horrific.

Hostages in captivity. Two million civilians living a hellish nightmare. And in recent days, we’ve seen chilling, deeply distressing reports of IDF fire killing dozens of civilians as they approached Trump and Netanyahu’s so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ aid centers.

As an Israeli who takes deep pride in our country’s founding values – of justice, equality and peace – I feel the pain of these moral violations almost physically. That we now face the daily risk of Iranian missile barrages and the threat that this may spiral further only compound my concern.

I’m sure Netanyahu would love nothing more than for the eyes of Israelis, Americans and the rest of the world to be drawn to Iran, especially as Israeli opposition to his endless Gaza war grows.

But please know that – even as J Street presses for a diplomatic offramp with Iran that permanently blocks its path to a bomb and ends the war – we will not forget about the horrors in Gaza or the hostage families in anguish. And we won’t let others forget either.

We cannot allow Gaza to become an afterthought. The suffering is immense, the stakes are profound and the moment demands moral clarity. Together, we must press for an end to this darkness, including, ultimately, the permanent removal of Hamas from power.

These are two vastly different crises, but they both present a similar test for all of us who believe in the equal humanity of every person and in the far-sighted, responsible exercise of power.

Together, we owe it to every civilian in harm’s way – and to future generations – not to accept endless cycles of violence as a solution to our most pressing problems. We must demand real, smart, long-term strategies that end both conflicts and keep Israel secure. The consequences are too dire to settle for anything less.

Thank you for joining us in the fight.

Nadav Tamir
Executive Director, J Street Israel

[ [link removed] ]MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION »
[ [link removed] ]MAKE A MONTHLY RECURRING DONATION »
[ [link removed] ]Threads [ [link removed] ]Facebook [ [link removed] ]Instagram [ [link removed] ]Twitter
© 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.



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]