This week: Standing Up to American Fascism 🛑 | TikTok Isn’t Building Settlements in the West Bank 🔨 | Charting a Practical Path 🛣️ | Word on the Street 🚧 | This Week from the Policy Center 📝 | Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention 🎟️ | Mark your calendars for Repro Shabbat! 🕯️| This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
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🛑 Standing Up to American Fascism: This week, amid vile attacks on the Somali immigrant community, the Trump Administration released a National Security Strategy that read more like a right-wing political manifesto than a defense of American interests and values. J Street remains committed to standing up for immigrants – drawing on our own history of being refugees and outsiders – as we live out our Jewish values.
- “This is how authoritarian movements grow. They dehumanize. They divide. And they erode the very foundations of democracy. History teaches us where that road leads.”
- “From the beginning, J Street was built around the idea that our values must shape the world we build. And, as we fight to protect Israel’s democratic future from leaders like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, we must fight the forces of fascism taking root in America,” J Street Vice President and Chief of Staff Adina Vogel-Ayalon wrote on the J Street blog.
✍️ Stand Against Fascism: Read and sign our petition here >> ✍️
🔨 TikTok Isn’t Building Settlements in the West Bank: Some argue that the global backlash among young people against Israel is the result of a bad PR campaign – rather than decades of destructive, anti-democratic policy. J Street Director of Multimedia Strategy Becka Wall responded to this argument on J Street’s blog:
- “The effort to scapegoat TikTok feels a lot more like an attempt to shift responsibility than grapple with it. [...] Facebook didn’t turn a blind eye to settler violence. Snapchat didn’t block food and medical supplies from families in Gaza. Instagram didn’t veto Security Council ceasefire resolutions. Twitter didn’t provide a blank check for Netanyahu’s war, long after it became clear that the civilian toll was unjustifiable,” Becka wrote. Read the full piece here >>
🛣️ Charting a Practical Path: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with Dan Shapiro, former US Ambassador to Israel, to discuss how US leverage shapes Israeli policy and debate the best way for Democrats to amend their messaging on the conflict.
- “Setting up a litmus test for Democrats about what they should say or what they shouldn't say – it's really a means of subtraction, not addition […] I think we should be careful about trying to banish from Democratic politics people who share some views we might disagree with [...] It's a very strange way to try to build a majority when you have to win,” Dan said. Watch the full conversation here >>
🚧 Word on the Street: J Street publishes commentary, video conversations and policy pieces on our Substack throughout the week. Subscribe here >>
- A Generational Divide: Jeremy ponders the stark generational divide on Israel among American Jews and how best to keep young people engaged when the Israel of today looks vastly different the fledgling state older generations understood it as.
“The country cannot and should not be an object of blind devotion. It is one country among roughly 200 in the real world, run by real people – imperfect people. And, as with all human efforts, it requires constant attention and repair.” Read the full piece here >>
📝 This Week from the Policy Center: J Street’s Policy Center published analyses this week on the potential paths ahead for Israel and the region.
- How the International Stabilization Force for Gaza Could, Over Time, Replace and Disarm Hamas
J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg attended the 2025 Doha Forum in Qatar this past week, where the next move in the American 20-point peace plan was at the top of mind for all attendees. Ilan offers a realistic outline to move forward with the peace plan and create a sustainable, disarmed Palestinian governing body in Gaza:
“At its core, the theory is simple: You cannot transform Gaza politically unless you transform Gaza’s security reality. Basic counterinsurgency 101 says you need a legitimate, functioning alternative to the existing monopoly on force. Right now, that monopoly is Hamas. As long as Hamas remains the primary security provider – deciding disputes, enforcing order, intimidating opponents – no political shift will take root.”
“The best option is probably to pull from multiple sources at once and see what begins to cohere. Some forces are already being trained in Egypt and Jordan under PA auspices. Some former PA security officers remain inside Gaza and could return to service. There are also 'blue police' – basic municipal police officers who worked under Hamas but aren’t necessarily ideologically tied to it, and may shift allegiances once a credible alternative emerges.” Read more >>
🎟️ Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention: From working to press the ceasefire forward to defending 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 >>
🕯️Mark Your Calendars for Repro Shabbat! J Street is proud to be partnering with NCJW on Repro Shabbat, coming up February 13-14. Repro Shabbat provides an opportunity to honor the Jewish value of reproductive freedom and discuss our community’s fight for reproductive health, rights and access. Check out NCJW’s Repro Shabbat Resource Page, and stay tuned for more announcements!
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- With a Mass Jewish-Arab Movement Behind Him, Alon-Lee Green Is Reshaping the Israeli Left
"Standing Together attracts this level of attention from the state's enforcement arms – and from its less official foot soldiers – because it proposes an alternative that threatens the dominant narrative enabling the right's rule: that Jews and Arabs cannot live together here, and certainly cannot cooperate to build a new, bloodless future for both peoples," Yana Pevzner writes in Haaretz.
- An Undemocratic Israel Poses a Grave Threat to Diaspora Jews
"But perhaps even more significant, the presumed compatibility of ‘American interests’ and ‘Jewish aim’ has collapsed. Brandeis could not have imagined that the two would conflict because it was inconceivable for him that Jewish aims as embodied by Zionism could run contrary to the principles of democracy as most Americans understood them" Joshua Leifer writes in Haaretz.
- Netanyahu the Great Pretender
"The truth is that the far-right government led by Netanyahu wants to play a double game, pretending to be committed to a plan that includes a pathway to a Palestinian state to please President Trump, while simultaneously sabotaging progress toward achieving that goal," Executive Director of J Street Israel Nadav Tamir writes in Times of Israel.
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