This week: Home at Last 🎗️ | Join Nationwide No Kings Rallies This Saturday 👑 | Building a Movement Grounded in Democracy🎙| What Comes Next ❓ | Fighting Back Against Project Esther 📣 | The End of “Managing the Conflict” 🚧 | Reserve Your J Street 2026 Convention Ticket 🎟️ | This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
🎗️ Home at Last: Finally, all the living hostages held by Hamas have returned to Israel and their families after over two years in captivity. In Gaza, Palestinians are finally returning home after years of displacement and beginning to pick up the pieces of their lives. There is a long road ahead, but for the first time in a long time, there is a real chance to move toward a lasting peace – if our leaders seize this moment.
- Committing to a Future of Peace:“The United States will play an indispensable role in pressing this forward. All of us who care about Israel, Palestine and peace must join together to press our leaders on this. We must find a new path in our politics – an end to the blame games and hardened thinking that have poisoned this debate for too long,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote. Read here >>
- If You Watch Something Today, Let it Be This: Just after the announcement of the ceasefire last week, we convened a few extraordinary conversations here at J Street. Our speakers – Israelis and Palestinians, activists and journalists, parents and doctors, and even a hostage negotiator – came together to challenge us to reflect on what peace really means to those who have endured so much heartbreak. Watch and share here >>
👑 Join Nationwide No Kings Rallies This Saturday: Tomorrow, millions will gather in rallies across the country in the largest nationwide day of protest so far this year, coming together to denounce Trump’s assault on our democracy and stand up for our freedoms. J Street is proudly mobilizing our community and standing up for our Jewish, democratic values.
🎙 Building a Movement Grounded in Democracy: Jeremy Ben-Ami joined The Contrarian’s Jen Rubin for a wide-ranging conversation on topics including the government shutdown, the Supreme Court’s latest Voting Rights Act case, to the return of hostages and the dangerous rhetoric coming from the right. Watch here >>
❓ What Comes Next? Word on the Street with Rep. Adam Smith:Jeremy and J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with Congressman Adam Smith, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, about what comes next after the ceasefire. Watch the full conversation here >>
📣 Fighting Back Against Project Esther: This week, the Nexus Project released The Shofar Report: A Call to Defend Democracy and Confront Antisemitism, which offers recommendations to strengthen democratic institutions, invest in antisemitism education and build cross-community alliances. The Shofar Report is a comprehensive response to the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, which seeks to weaponize claims of antisemitism to undermine democracy and promote a right-wing agenda. Read and share the full report here >>
- Fighting for Us Means Fighting for All: “For Nexus, democracy and Jewish safety are inseparable, and protecting democracy is a foundational strategy for combating antisemitism,” the report states.
- US Foreign Policy Hinders Effort to Combat Antisemitism: “Implying, as Trump does, that Israel is an extension of all Jewish Americans fuels the misdirection of anger over Israeli government actions toward Jewish Americans. And allying the United States with far-right movements around the world boosts antisemitism in this country and around the world,” writes J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami in the report.
🚧 The End of ‘Managing the Conflict’: Since the Second Intifada, the Netanyahu government pursued a policy of weakening Palestinian moderates and rewarding extremists – with the end goal of containing Palestinian aspirations for statehood and representation. October 7 shattered the illusion that conflict management could replace conflict resolution.
- Now, Israel Faces a Choice: “It can double down on occupation and an increasingly militarized approach to the Palestinians that leaves Israel internationally isolated – a path Netanyahu recently described as a ‘super Sparta.’ The alternative is to use this moment to begin building a pathway towards a different future that we at J Street call the 23-state solution,” writes Ilan Goldenberg. Read more >>
🎟️ Reserve Your J Street 2026 Convention Ticket: From working to lock in this ceasefire to fighting for our democracy at the ballot box, J Street’s work has never been more important. Our 2026 convention will feature pro-peace leaders from Israel and Palestine, pro-democracy champions in the House and Senate, and challengers looking to defeat MAGA incumbents up and down the ballot. Don't miss out on the largest gathering of our pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy movement next year! Learn more and register here >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- The Hostages Are Home. The Fight for Their Future Is Far From Over
Sam Berkman, J Street Director of Communal Relations, writes in The Forward, “If we are sincere about preventing another Oct. 7, and that massacre's two years of brutal aftermath, we cannot become complacent. We must ensure that the murders of Oct. 7, the suffering of the hostages and the killing of thousands of Gazan civilians are the last great tragedies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
- Can the Israel-Hamas Deal Hold?
“Deal, schmeal,” former Palestinian negotiator Hussein Agha tells Ezra Klein. “In our region, in our part of the world, deals do not matter. What matters is what can be achieved, how soon it can be achieved and what it will lead to. And this deal, if it stops the slaughter permanently in Gaza and the prisoners have been released, that by itself is a big achievement. Everything else is padding.”
“The next stages – disarming Hamas, bringing in an international stabilization force, bringing in a new Palestinian technocratic government, full Israeli withdrawal, etc. – that’s where there’s divergence,” says former White House official and Iran Deal negotiator Rob Malley. “Neither Hamas nor Israel has an interest in that.”
- Mr. Trump, on the Middle East, Please Move Fast and Break Things
Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times, "If Trump wants to translate his 20-point plan into regional peace, he has to start by once and for all breaking the twisted, codependent relationship between Netanyahu and Hamas – who have helped to keep each other politically viable for over two decades."
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