This Week: J Street Endorses Full House Democratic Leadership 🏛️ | J Street Responds to Charlie Kirk Assassination 🇺🇸 | Killing the Negotiators Won’t Save the Hostages ⚠️ | No More Blank Checks ✍️ | A Horrific Jerusalem Terror Attack 🕯️| Randi Weingarten on Why Fascists Fear Teachers 🎙️ | Reforming the Palestinian Authority 🔍 | Netanyahu: The Real Patron of Hamas 🎁 | This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
🏛️ J Street Endorses Full House Democratic Leadership: For the first time, every top-ranking House Democrat is endorsed by J Street. Our endorsees now comprise 60% of the Democratic Members of the House and Senate. Read more >>
🇺🇸 J Street Responds to Charlie Kirk Assassination: The horrors of political violence are tearing at the fabric of our nation and only pushing us further from the solutions we so desperately need. President Trump’s response, which appears to be laying the groundwork for retribution against political opponents and the “radical left,” is a distressing, flashing warning sign.
- “Whatever one thinks of Charlie Kirk’s views, the murder of the 31-year-old founder of the nation’s leading right-wing youth movement should shock us all. Another brutal, public shooting on an American college campus. A wife and two young children whose worlds have been shattered.” Read more >>
⚠️ Killing the Negotiators Won’t Save the Hostages: Netanyahu’s decision to target Hamas political leaders as they were reportedly meeting to consider the ceasefire proposal is the latest sign that his government is putting endless war above the wellbeing of the hostages and Israel’s own future.
- J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg: “You can vehemently oppose Hamas’ commitment to terror and its vile leadership and also recognize that by targeting negotiators, this strike will undermine what should be the top priority – getting hostages home, ending the war and surging aid into Gaza.” Read more >>
- Briefing on the Impact of Israel’s Qatar Strikes: In the hours after the attack, Jeremy, Ilan and J Street Policy Fellow Frank Lowenstein discussed what the implications could be for the hostages, for the US’s international standing and for Israel. Watch here >>
✍️ No More Blank Checks: In just the past few weeks, Netanyahu’s government has launched its reckless Gaza City offensive, brazenly published maps signaling imminent plans to annex much of the West Bank, and stood by as violent settlers attack Palestinian communities and force them from their homes.
- The time has come for Congress to set clear boundaries on arms sales and transfers to send a clear message: Prime Minister Netanyahu, no more blank checks. No more military support for the war in Gaza and no support ever for annexation. Read more >>
- 🔍 Dig Deeper:The J Street Policy Center lays out why the US should place restrictions on offensive arms sales to Israel. Read here >>
🕯️ A Horrific Jerusalem Terror Attack: On Monday, there was a deadly shooting in Jerusalem, which killed six people and wounded several more. On Friday, there was yet another attack, severely injuring two (as of writing).
- J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami: “We’re absolutely horrified and devastated by this attack. Our hearts are with the victims’ families as we hope for a full recovery for the injured. We’re grateful the attackers were stopped before more lives were taken. Hamas’ statement ‘welcoming’ this atrocity is grotesque and underscores why the group must never again hold power in Gaza.” Read more >>
🎙️ Randi Weingarten on Why Fascists Fear Teachers: On Wednesday, Ilan spoke with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and Vice Chair of J Street’s Board of Directors. They spoke about her work countering right-wing authoritarianism and the Trump Administration’s efforts to target education and free speech under the guise of fighting antisemitism. Watch the full Word on the Street Live>>
🔍 Reforming the Palestinian Authority: J Street Policy Fellow Larry Garber writes, “A principal concern for Palestinians has been the absence of regular elections, which has left political leaders largely unaccountable.” Read more >>
🎁 Netanyahu: The Real Patron of Hamas. Ilan debunks the argument that recognition of Palestinian statehood would be a “gift to Hamas.” He writes, “The truth is the opposite: recognition is meant as a direct counter to Hamas. And if anyone has consistently empowered Hamas over the past 15 years, it is Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies.” Read more >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- Encased in Amber: Biden’s Wars and the Unmaking of Liberal Foreign Policy
Matt Duss writes in the Nation, “Woodward wants us to believe that, despite the evidence of our lying eyes, the Biden administration’s commitment to process was enough. But Trump’s reelection represents a refutation of that dodge. He is the consequence that the elites running the Democratic Party are now forced to confront—along with the rest of us.”
- Homeless and Hungry, Gazans Fear a Repeat of 1948 History
Raja Abdulrahim writes in The New York Times, "Mr. Abu Samra, now 87 and frail, has been stuck in southern Gaza, in a tent of tarps, a curtain and blankets. Once again, he is scared, hungry and separated from most of his family, just as he was as a boy. 'I always think, talk, and dream' of going home, he said."
- Another Bloody Day Reminds Israelis That Netanyahu Has Failed as 'Mr. Security'
Amir Tibon writes in Haaretz, "Netanyahu is trying to distract Israelis from the endless list of failures he presides over by highlighting tactical stunts that have little impact on reality. Just minutes before the army announced the deaths of the soldiers, he released a bombastic statement about 'collapsing Gaza's skyscrapers.'"
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