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This week: A Victory for Democracy, A Blow For Trump 🏆 | Democrats Take on
the Netanyahu Government 📣 | Remembering Rabin 🕯️ | Hamas and Netanyahu
Are Working Together Again ⚠️ | 📝This Week from the Policy Center 📝 | This
Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much
more.  

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🏆 A Victory for Democracy, A Blow For Trump: Tuesday’s elections saw
commanding victories for the Democratic Party and anti-Trump candidates in
New York, New Jersey, Virginia and California, signaling nationwide
opposition to the MAGA agenda. 

* Dive Deeper: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and Chief Policy
Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with Phylisa Wisdom of New York
Jewish Agenda to unpack Tuesday’s monumental results:

“When I worked for Kamala Harris on the campaign, we got 70% of the
Jewish vote. It wasn't because of Israel issues. It was because the
overwhelming majority of American Jews are liberal, and they
prioritize domestic policy issues. Jewish voters care about Israel,
but they align with the Democratic Party on all of these other
things,” Ilan said when discussing Zohran Mandani's win in New York
City and the varying levels of support for his campaign from the
Jewish community. [ [link removed] ]Listen to the full conversation here >>

* Speaking Out Against Fearmongering and Islamophobia in New York: “The
fearmongering we have seen from some Jewish institutions and leaders
surrounding Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is harmful, overblown and risks
needlessly deepening divisions in the city and in our community,”
Jeremy told the New York Times. “Our community’s responsibility now is
to engage constructively with the mayor-elect, not to sow panic or to
demonize him.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full story here >> 

📣 Democrats Take on the Netanyahu Government: J Street was proud to
support two crucial House letters this week centered around protecting
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza: 

* Saving Umm Al-Kheir: In just 24 hours, over 100 House Democrats signed
a letter led by Representatives Jamie Raskin, Jerry Nadler, Jim Himes,
Sara Jacobs and Dan Goldman demanding that the Netanyahu government
abandon its plans to demolish homes in Umm Al-Kheir, a village in the
West Bank known for its Jewish-Palestinian partnership and non-violent
activism. J Street has brought countless community members and
political leaders to the village and was proud to support [ [link removed] ]this
crucial congressional effort to push back on this injustice. [ [link removed] ]Watch
Congressman Raskin‘s video about the letter here >>

[ [link removed] ]Sign our petition, and call your Member of Congress to demand an
immediate halt to the demolitions >>

* Getting Aid into Gaza: Vice Ranking Member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee Gabe Amo led 125 colleagues in calling on Secretary
of State Marco Rubio to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid
reaches Gazans. The letter asks key questions about the implementation
of the ceasefire and the State Department’s plan to facilitate an
increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza. [ [link removed] ]Read the full letter here >> 

🕯️ Remembering Rabin: This week marked 30 years since the assassination of
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a fierce defender of Israel who led military
campaigns in his earlier years, but is now remembered for championing
peace in his Prime Ministership. His death, in retrospect, marked the end
of the peace process and a start of a much darker era in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

* “It’s important to remember that Rabin earned his reputation as a
peacemaker only after a lifetime as a warrior,” Jeremy writes on
Substack. “A leader unafraid to use force, Rabin also knew that only
peace could deliver true and lasting security.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece
here >>

* What Rabin’s Legacy Demands of Us: Former US negotiator Aaron David
Miller, who sat across the table from Rabin during the Oslo years, and
Yael Patir, J Street Policy Fellow and former Israel Director, who
heard Rabin speak as a young girl, joined the discussion moderated by
J Street’s Shimrit Braun Kamin to share personal memories and insights
into his leadership.

In discussing a path forward for peace at this critical point in
Israeli history, Aaron said, “There may be a way to build – maybe a
way – to build a bridge to something more. But it's going to depend
[...] in memory of a man that I still mourn and who I grew to love.”
[ [link removed] ]Listen to the full conversation here >>

⚠️ Hamas and Netanyahu Are Working Together Again: For years, Hamas and
Netanyahu have served each other’s interests as Netanyahu allowed Qatar to
funnel money to the terror group while starving the Palestinian Authority
of funds and credibility. Now, Netanyahu continues to obstruct aid and
stall progress on the 20-point peace plan as Hamas attempts to reassert
itself as a governing force. 

* “Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas – longtime adversaries on the surface –
are once again feeding off each other’s extremism, weakening moderates
in both societies, and steering Israelis and Palestinians toward yet
another cycle of despair. Each needs the other to stay in power,” Ilan
Goldenberg writes in Word on the Street. “If Washington and key Arab
capitals coordinate their pressure – one on Israel, the other on Hamas
– a new Gaza is still possible.” [ [link removed] ]Read more here >>

📝 This Week from the Policy Center: J Street’s Policy Center publishes
timely analyses of policy priorities and the diplomatic role the US plays
in the Middle East.

* [ [link removed] ]Egypt’s Role in Gaza and Its Relations With Israel
Dr. Marwa Maziad, an Egyptian-American professor of Israel Studies,
and J Street Policy and Research Coordinator Avraham Spraragen examine
Egypt’s historical role in Gaza, how Egypt helped achieve the Gaza
peace deal last month and Egypt’s role in Gaza’s postwar stabilization
and reconstruction.

“While Qatar is a Hamas interlocutor and the US is a global
superpower, Egypt utilized its leadership credibility in the Arab
world, intelligence capability, knowledge, expertise and institutional
memory accumulated over decades of engagement in Gaza and with all the
relevant parties.” 

* [ [link removed] ]Iran: What Comes Next
A second war between Israel and Iran is not only likely but also set
to be more intense. J Street’s latest Iran Policy Memo outlines our
proposed long-term strategy for facilitating diplomacy and reducing
tensions in the aftermath of the Twelve-Day War and the snapback of
sanctions by the E3 (France, UK, Germany).

“Israeli security officials have, in the past, backed a deal to
prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And, with Israel already
stretched thin on multiple fronts, in the West Bank, Gaza, Yemen and
beyond, it does not need more fighting with Iran. Nor should Israel
drag the US into another endless regime change war in the Middle East
that results in a power vacuum and regional instability. Diplomacy is
the only sustainable solution to the Iran problem.”

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:

* [ [link removed] ]The UN Must Help Consolidate Gaza Peace
“The US and its partners in Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey are rightfully
pushing hard on Hamas and Israel to comply with their initial
obligations, including the return of all hostage remains and letting
in desperately needed humanitarian assistance. But there is also an
urgent need to put the entire process on firmer, more sustainable
footing by implementing its long-term elements,” write J Street Policy
Fellow Frank Lowenstein and Policy Analyst Liam Hamama.

* [ [link removed] ]This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism
“Does it (the Democratic Party) need to be more populist? More
moderate? More socialist? Embrace the abundance agenda? Produce more
vertical video? The answer is yes, yes to all of it – but to none of
it in particular. The Democratic Party does not need to choose to be
one thing. It needs to choose to be more things,” says Ezra Klein in
the New York Times.

* [ [link removed] ]Why Are We So Focused on Mamdani – Not Nazi-Inspired Ideas
Proliferating on the Right?
“In a democratic society, the candidacy of a young mayoral candidate
who challenges the righteousness of Israeli actions is not a threat to
the ‘Jewish future.’ It is an invitation to engage in discussion about
those actions. By contrast, the rise of the ‘great replacement’ theory
and its ilk – baseless claims of ‘white replacement’ or ‘white
genocide’ – is a threat to the future of all minorities, including
Jews,” Michael Rothbaum writes.

🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[16][ ]  [ [link removed] ]NEW Tell Congress: Stop Demolitions in Umm al-Khair >>

[18][ ]  [ [link removed] ]NEW Tell Congress: No Excuses. Aid Must Flow Freely. >>

[20][ ]  [ [link removed] ]NEW Give Voice to Our Community: No Return to Gaza War >>

[22][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Support the West Bank Violence Prevention Act
>>

[24][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Order J Street Merch >>

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

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

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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.



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