This week: Big Questions Dominate the Saudi Visit 🇸🇦 | This Week’s Analysis on Word on the Street 🚧 | Gaza Needs More than a Ceasefire 🏥 | A Commitment to Peace at the UN 🇺🇳 | 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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🇸🇦 Big Questions Dominate the Saudi Visit: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with President Trump in the White House this week, the first visit by the Saudi leader since the 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The US approached the meeting with Gaza and Saudi-Israel normalization high on the agenda, as well as AI, weapons and nuclear cooperation.
- In the newest piece from J Street’s Policy Center, Policy Expert Jen Gavito and Policy Coordinator Avraham Spraragen discussed Trump’s propensity for transactional diplomacy and what this week’s meeting could mean for Israel:
“While such cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia would conceivably support Israeli security by serving as a greater counterbalance to Iran, the provision of advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia is nonetheless likely to erode Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge over its neighbors – a concept that is still enshrined in US law but seems no longer to serve as a check on US relations with the Gulf.” Read the full piece here >>
- J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg unpacked the Crown Prince’s visit to the White House with Daniel Benaim, who helped lead US engagement with the Saudis during the Biden Administration, focusing on the Israel-Saudi normalization stalemate amid Israeli refusal to recognize a Palestinian state.
“I think at the right moment, if the smoke clears from Gaza, you may see the Saudis be willing to accept something less. But so far, what the Israelis are willing to offer is just so much less. than what the Saudis are willing to accept,” Daniel said. Watch the full Word on the Street conversation here >>
🚧 This Week’s Analysis on Word on the Street: J Street publishes commentary, video conversations and policy pieces on our Substack throughout the week. Subscribe here >>
- Rewriting the Old Playbook: October 7 and the war in Gaza catapulted the US-Israel relationship into the mainstream of American voter consciousness. Ilan Goldenberg reflected on how the traditional approach for Congressional candidates on Israel – promoted by many Jewish groups – created policies that don’t align with most American Jews and Democratic voters.
“A candidate who sticks to the old playbook – reflexively supporting Israel, placing near-exclusive blame on Palestinians, paying lip service to two states while opposing any meaningful steps to get there, and giving an extreme right-wing Israeli government a blank check – will be noticed by their constituents. And the message voters will hear in a Democratic primary or even a general election is: I am the establishment. I am a Washington insider. I support the old ways.” writes Ilan Goldenberg. Read the full piece here >>
🏥 Gaza Needs More Than a Ceasefire: Despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, the situation in Gaza remains dire, with continued bloodshed, ongoing aid obstruction and thousands of critically injured people in need of medical evacuation.
- We spoke with Oxfam Palestinian Policy Lead Bushra Khalidi, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel Executive Director Dr. Guy Shalev and Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement Executive Director Tania Hary in a panel on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"There might be a level of relief that families in Gaza can sleep at night without concern that a bomb is going to be dropped on their homes, but they're still very much in survival mode. They're concerned with daily operations of life – how to secure enough water, how to secure enough food, how to get the medications that one of their family members needs," Tania said. Watch the full conversation here >>
🇺🇳 A Commitment to Peace at the UN: After months of vetoing UN Security Council resolutions, the United States successfully led a resolution, supported by key Arab and Muslim states, to ensure the continued implementation of the 20-point peace plan between Hamas and Israel.
- “The Administration must now work with regional partners to implement key elements of the resolution, including deploying an interim Palestinian technocratic government and an international stabilization force. These steps are essential to removing Hamas from power, ensuring its eventual disarmament and facilitating the surge of humanitarian assistance and reconstruction that Gaza’s civilians so desperately need,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote. Read the full statement 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:
- On Republican Neo-Nazism, Hamas and Israel: An Epidemic of Moral Cowardice
"Three examples preoccupy me personally: The Republican Party today has a neo-Nazi problem that it refuses to confront. The progressive left today has a pro-Hamas problem that it refuses to confront. And the Jewish people and Israel have a radical Jewish settler problem that they refuse to confront," Thomas Friedman writes in The New York Times.
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