[ [link removed] ] [ [link removed] ]J Street[ [link removed] ]
Dear friends,

I’m writing to you from Tel Aviv, where the roads have been once again filled with tens of thousands of Israelis – ordinary citizens, hostage families, Israeli veterans and former diplomats like myself – demanding that Prime Minister Netanyahu end this devastating war and bring the hostages home.

I wish I could convey to you the energy on the streets this past week. I wish you could stand here with me and feel the red-hot anger. Hear the demands from the mothers and fathers of those still held captive by Hamas. See the proud peace advocates holding up images of Gaza’s children, refusing to let anyone look away.

Days ago, protesters blocked highways, rallied outside the Prime Minister’s office and gathered at Israel’s Defense Ministry in what became a massive Day of Disruption. I held my one-year-old grandson in the crowds, as a vow that his future is destined for more than our current horror.



Families of the hostages led the charge, pleading with the government to accept the ceasefire / hostage deal on the table. As Einav Zangauker, whose 25-year-old son Matan is still held by Hamas, put it: “We could have ended the war a year ago and brought all the hostages and soldiers home. But the prime minister chose, again and again, to sacrifice civilians for the sake of his rule.”

Friends – From the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and across Israel, everyday citizens are begging their Jewish cousins in the diaspora to recognize reality: Netanyahu has again and again refused to commit to a deal that would end the war and free the hostages.

Instead, he is preparing yet another catastrophic military offensive – one that risks killing the remaining hostages along with thousands more innocent civilians. Again, young soldiers – the faces in which I see my children, my friends' children – are being sent to die not for Israel’s security, but to serve the annexationist fantasies of Netanyahu and his extremist allies.

We cannot be complicit in this horror. We must speak out.

The overwhelming majority of Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the hostages. The families of those trapped in Gaza are begging for it.

But Netanyahu and his extremist allies continue to stall – putting their political survival and ideological goals of taking over Gaza ahead of all else. And in Washington, there is an incoherent and amoral President willing to greenlight it all.

J Street is proud to stand with the protest movement and the hostage families. Proud to stand with the brave Israelis putting themselves on the line in front of Ben-Gvir’s police. Proud to stand with peace and co-existence advocates refusing to stay silent about the suffering in Gaza. And as an Israeli, I could not be more honored to be working at J Street at this moment.

That’s why I'm also now leading a J Street delegation here on the ground – bringing them to see the swelling protests, meeting hostage families, visiting communities attacked on October 7, touring settlements and occupied cities in the West Bank, and speaking with those trying to get aid into Gaza (and those trying to get their family members out).

What we witness here helps us stiffen the spines of leaders in Washington and across the country to finally demand a different course. And I can tell you, J Street is giving an enormous amount of support to my fellow protesters and the hostage families who need all the backing they can get.

History will ask us if we did everything we could to change the course of our shared fate. Let’s be able to say we stood with the people, with the families and with peace.

In solidarity from Tel Aviv,

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]