Friends,
With Prime Minister Netanyahu in DC this week, this absolutely should be the week the American President ends the Gaza war.
A war-ending hostage deal is what Americans want. It’s what Israelis want. And god knows it’s what Palestinians deserve.
But with Trump and Netanyahu in the Oval Office together, we should brace for anything.
- The first meeting brought us Trump’s repugnant ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ plan – ethnic cleansing dressed up as a real estate proposal.
- The second saw Trump announce he was negotiating directly with Iran to restore a nuclear deal. We saw how that turned out.
Nevertheless, Trump watched the Gaza war sap his predecessor of support. He wants the fighting to end – he’s posted as much in all caps – but to date he’s been tragically incapable of sealing the deal.
Make no mistake, Hamas – a grotesque, sadistic terror group – is an unreliable negotiating partner that cannot be allowed to control Gaza. We must be clear-eyed that Netanyahu and his coalition partners have also been a major obstacle to a deal – first under Biden and now under Trump.
Netanyahu plays American officials, shifts the goalposts and undercuts negotiators. As the thousands of Israelis protesting him will tell you, he sees an endless war as the best way to keep extremists in his government and himself out of court. That’s despite his own military advisors repeatedly reporting that there is no strategic value left in continuing to fight.
It’s clear that the only way we’ll get to a war-ending hostage deal right now is if Trump presses Netanyahu – making it crystal clear the war must end – and pairs it with sustained international pressure on Hamas.
No more excuses. No more blame games. We have to finally lock in the deal that’s been on the table for over a year now: An end to the war. Every hostage home. A postwar plan to remove Hamas from power and rebuild Gaza.
It’s a deal that’s resoundingly in Israel’s national interest, and it unlocks even more potential in the months and years ahead: Regional investment deals to rebuild Gaza. A deal to the north to pull back Israeli forces and reduce tensions with Syria.
And of course, a ‘23-state solution’ designed to finally end the Arab-Israeli conflict, deliver Palestinian statehood and achieve Israel’s founding vision as a just, peaceful and secure Jewish homeland – free from the specter of violence and occupation.
This moment offers a monumental turning point in Israel’s history – if only its leaders have the courage to grasp it.
After so much pain, horror and bloodshed, we cannot allow annexationists and warmongers to turn us backwards in their quest for a ‘Greater Israel.’
Theirs is a path of endless war as they march toward annexation. Young Israelis thrust to the front lines of an ideological war. Young Palestinians denied freedoms and hope. A smaller, narrower Israel tumbling toward pariah status, increasingly at odds with the very diaspora Jews who helped sustain it for generations.
This is not the Israel we believe in. It’s not the future Israelis and Palestinians deserve.
We believe in an Israel that is strong because it is just. Secure because it is at peace. A light among nations. A proud and true democracy.
This should be the week that ends the war and begins the long work of building that future. With leaders of greater strength and character, that would have come long ago.
With Bibi and Trump in that room today – the very last people we would want – there’s no telling what will happen. But whatever comes from this meeting, ours is a vision and a future worth fighting for, and we’ll continue that fight today and in the days, months and years ahead.
Thank you for standing with us in the struggle.
Yours,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
