This week: Fighting West Bank Setter Violence ⚠️ | The Path Forward for Democrats 🔵 | Who Speaks for You 📢 | The Way Forward on Syria and Lebanon 🛣️ | Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention 🎟️ | This Week's Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
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⚠️ Fighting West Bank Setter Violence: The annual olive harvest – an economic lifeline for many Palestinian families – is underway in the West Bank, as are increasing attacks from violent settlers.
- Settler and soldier violence against Palestinian civilians has surged in the West Bank since October 7, with little let-up since the ceasefire. Those who kill and injure Palestinians are rarely held to account, with soldiers often acting as security for extremist settlers as they carry out attacks. This year’s attacks have been so serious that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli President Isaac Herzog have been pressed to speak out, describing the violence as “shocking and serious.”
- “On the days we commemorate the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, there are Israeli citizens who are carrying out pogrom-like attacks against Palestinians – burning homes and cars, beating Palestinians and Jewish solidarity activists, killing sheep and dogs, and even murdering people," writes former IDF Officer and J Street Israel Director Nadav Tamir. Read more >>
The West Bank Violence Prevention Act just passed 100 cosponsors in the House. Call your Member of Congress and urge them to support sanctions on violent settlers who undermine peace >>
🔵 The Path Forward for Democrats: Democrats won big in races across the country last Tuesday – but they still have significant ground to cover if they have any chance at taking back the House or Senate in 2026. J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with political strategist Michael Podhorzer to unpack the results.
- “What these alienated voters hear is that their choice is between a fascist and someone who's defending the system that screwed them over. And so you need someone who's not complicit in that [...] The way to change the Democratic Party is to have more Democrats who are different and who are going to be aggressive in fighting for what people want,” said Podhozer. Watch the full conversation here >>
- “If the goal is to defeat Trump – and Trumpism – and to save democracy as we know it, the path to victory can’t be to purify and narrow the Democratic Party. The challenge is to grow it. Grow it geographically. Grow it socially. Grow it culturally. Grow it generationally. Grow it into something big and messy enough to win the power to govern,” Jeremy said. Read the full piece here >>
📢 Who Speaks for You? In the past two years, many Jewish Americans distanced themselves from establishment organizations like AIPAC and the ADL that demanded unwavering support for an increasingly undemocratic Israeli government while sacrificing core organizational goals. Jeremy Ben-Ami discussed this dangerous shift in an email to supporters this week:
- “I’ve been especially troubled to see the organization minimize incidents involving Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and even recently remove the entire ‘Protect Civil Rights’ section from its website. This pick-and-choose approach has allowed some on the American right to weaponize charges of antisemitism as a pretext for ideological attacks on higher education, immigration and the rule of law – with little pushback from organizations meant to be representing our values," Jeremy wrote.
🛣️ The Way Forward on Syria and Lebanon: Ahead of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s historic visit to the White House, the J Street Policy Center hosted regional experts Ibrahim Al-Assil and Jasmine El-Gamal to discuss what Sharaa’s rise means for the future of US foreign policy.
- “Counterterrorism cooperation has already been ongoing between the US and the al-Sharaa administration […] Bringing Syria formally into the Defeat ISIS Coalition is a natural progression of work that’s already underway,” Jasmine said in discussing US-Syria security cooperation.
- “None of the countries in the Abraham Accords have been at war with Israel. This (Syria-Israel) is a completely different situation […] but a healthy security deal to de-escalate […] is in everybody’s interest,” Jasmine added in reference to the opportunity for diplomacy between Syria and Israel. Watch the full conversation here >>
🎟️ Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention: 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:
- There Is No Cease-Fire in the West Bank
"Since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers; one in every five dead is a child,” writes Mairav Zonszein in the New York Times.
- The Gaza Plan Needs Fleshing Out Quickly
"With a detailed roadmap, clarity over implementation, Palestinian-led governance and the two-state destination, based on UN Security Council resolutions and the principles of the Arab Peace Initiative, the vision may yet evolve into something genuinely historic: a credible path to peace and security,” writes former Israeli Security Chief Ami Ayalon in The Economist.
- What Reconstructing Gaza Really Means
“Leadership means taking responsibility – investing in hospitals, prosthetics, and rehabilitation centers, say, rather than in propaganda. It means securing the peace, however fragile, not just with handshakes and press conferences but with actions that confer legitimacy and inspire hope,” writes Samer Sinijlawi in The Atlantic.
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