[ [link removed] ]End the War | Free the Hostages | Surge Aid

This Week: House Democrats Take Action to Save Children in Gaza 📣 | Every
Bomb is a Choice 💣 | Time for Jewish Institutional Leaders to Get Off the
Sidelines ✡️ | The Message from Israel: End the War. Bring them Home ✊ |
Israel’s Breaking Point, Washington’s Turning Point 🧭 | The Danger of
Conflating Antizionism with Antisemitism 🇮🇱 | This Week’s Must-Reads/
Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.

📣 100+ House Dems Join J Street-backed Gaza Letters: A massive thank you
to the thousands of J Streeters across the country who signed petitions
and called their representatives to rally support for two major
congressional letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

* Humanitarian Visas: Representatives Debbie Dingell and Kim Schrier led
a [ [link removed] ]letter signed by 142 Members of Congress – more than two-thirds
of House Democrats – urging the State Department to reinstate
humanitarian visas for Gazans – including children in need of urgent
medical care.

* Get Baby Formula Into Gaza: Representatives Ayanna Pressley and
Brittany Pettersen championed a [ [link removed] ]second letter signed by 103 Members
of Congress calling for a surge of humanitarian aid – with a focus on
infant formula.

* J Street welcomed these letters, stating: “The United States has the
power to save innocent lives by restoring the visa program and
ensuring a surge of humanitarian aid. Failure to do so is not an
inevitability of war – it is a deliberate policy choice.” [ [link removed] ]Read more
>>

[ [link removed] ]Tell Secretary Rubio: Stop punishing Gaza’s children >>

💣 Policy Chief Ilan Goldenberg: Every Bomb is a Choice: Earlier this week,
Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Gaza, killing 20 people, including five
journalists. Netanyahu expressed regret for the “tragic mishap.” The
Israeli military later said the target was a “Hamas camera.” Videos
verified by the New York Times show journalists regularly filming from
that location.

* “I don’t believe Israel deliberately targeted journalists, but at this
point I don’t know if that even matters. The pattern is clear: two
years into this war, Israel continues to weigh the marginal value of
killing a Hamas operative against the enormous moral, legal, and
strategic costs of striking civilian facilities – and keeps choosing
to strike.” [ [link removed] ]Read more >>

✡️ National Director of Communal Relations Sam Berkman in The Forward:
"Avoiding any acknowledgement of responsibility the Israeli government has
in ending the Gaza war, much of Jewish institutional leadership today
appears to have reverted back to old tendencies. Placing themselves on the
sidelines, they have enabled extremists in Israel to drag the country down
a path of endless conflict, occupation and fading democracy that most U.S.
Jews are against." [ [link removed] ]Read and share here >>

✊ The Message from Israel: End the War. Bring them Home. J Street Israel
Executive Director Nadav Tamir writes, "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."
[ [link removed] ]Read more >>

🧭 Israel’s Breaking Point, Washington’s Turning Point: In the latest Word
on the Street Live, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and Ilan Goldenberg
discuss the situation on the ground: The devastating hospital bombing in
Gaza, reports of confirmed famine, and the growing frustration inside
Israel itself as hostage families and hundreds of thousands of protesters
defy Netanyahu and demand a ceasefire deal. [ [link removed] ]Watch here >>

🇮🇱 The Danger of Conflating Antizionism with Antisemitism: J Street
President Jeremy Ben-Ami writes, “Some criticism of Israel crosses into
antisemitism, just as criticism of any country can spill into prejudice.
But declaring that opposition to occupation or even Zionism itself is
inherently antisemitic erases legitimate dissent and equates Jewish
identity with the policies of a state. And if Jewish identity is tied to
Israeli behavior, then when Prime Minister Netanyahu pursues extremist
policies — from his judicial coup to de facto annexation — the message to
the world becomes: This is what all Jews want.” [ [link removed] ]Read Jeremy’s full
Substack here >>

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:

* [ [link removed] ][Audio] Tamar Ish Shalom in Conversation With Ilan Goldenberg
Tamar Ish Shalom speaks with Ilan Goldenberg on the Jewish Crossroads
podcast about his work in the Obama and Biden Administrations, his
role in the Harris campaign and his perspective on the current moment.

* [ [link removed] ]What Are 'Snapback Sanctions' and What Comes Next?
The latest J Street Policy Center explainer unpacks the implications
of the 'snapback' mechanism, which allows any participant in the Iran
nuclear deal (JCPOA) to reimpose the UN sanctions that the deal had
lifted. That mechanism will expire on October 18, 2025. The E3
(France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) announced this week that
they would trigger snapback to reimpose the sanctions due to Iran’s
continued violations of its commitments. All of this could have been
avoided if President Trump had not withdrawn from the Iran Nuclear
Deal in 2018.

* [ [link removed] ]The Zionist Case for Palestinian Statehood (And Against Fatalism)
Yehuda Kurtzer writes for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “A better way
forward is for supporters of Israel to embrace – with caveats, and in
partnership with the many Israelis and Palestinians who are working to
change the status quo – the process of building towards Palestinian
statehood by encouraging it to take root under a set of conditions
that are in Israel’s long-term interest.”

* [ [link removed] ]Israel’s Unprecedented Slaughter of Journalists in Gaza
Ishaan Tharoor writes for The Washington Post, "As international media
has not been allowed by Israel to freely enter or report from Gaza,
local journalists have shouldered the burden of covering the war alone
– and paid a bitter price. The latest example came Monday when the
Israeli military killed at least 20 people, including five
journalists, when it struck Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, hitting
the facility once shortly after 10am local time and then targeting it
again in what’s known as a 'double tap' strike as reporters and first
responders gathered at the scene."

* [ [link removed] ]Israel Needs Women in Leadership
J Street Israel Executive Director Nadav Tamir writes for The
Jerusalem Post, "Every Israeli poll tells the same discouraging story,
and not because of the numbers but because of the photos above them.
They are all men: the current leaders, the aspiring leaders, the
future leaders. Today, not one woman heads a political party or is
considered a serious candidate for national leadership."

🗳️  Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[16][ ] [ [link removed] ]Tell Secretary Rubio: Stop punishing Gaza’s children >>

[18][ ] [ [link removed] ]Add your name to oppose Netanyahu’s Gaza occupation plans >>

[20][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Jewish leaders: We must speak out to end the war >>

[22][ ] [ [link removed] ]Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the West Bank
Violence Prevention Act >>

[24][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress to take action on settler violence >>

[26][ ] [ [link removed] ]American Jews say: Bring them home. End the war >>

[28][ ] [ [link removed] ]Order or download posters or yard signs to share our message
>>

[30][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Find pro-Israel, pro-democracy, pro-peace candidates at
JStreetPAC.org >>

[32][ ] [ [link removed] ]Sign up for J Street’s 2026 National Convention >>

* Use code ‘weeklyrecap’ for 10% off any general admission ticket!



[ [link removed] ]Check out and share the regularly updated Pro-Democracy To-Do List on
our website >>

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