This week: J Street's Political Fight in 2026 📆 | Word on the Street 🚧 | Orwellian Response to ICE Shooting Threatens Our Democracy ⚠️ | Standing with Protestors in Iran 🗣️ | Save Your Seat at the J Street 2026 Convention 🎟️ | This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
📆 J Street’s Political Fight in 2026: J Street Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with J Street Vice President of Government Affairs Hannah Morris and Vice President of Political and Digital Strategy Tali deGroot to discuss how J Street is taking on this year’s Democratic primaries, midterm elections and legislative battles.
- What a Fraying Republican Coalition Could Mean: “Dems are seeing the cracks happening within the Republican base on a variety of issues – you see that with Marjorie Taylor Greene deciding to resign from Congress early and going scorched earth on that. So, that will be an interesting dynamic to watch and it certainly gives Democrats a chance with the disenchanted voters,” Hannah said of opportunities for Democratic progress in 2026.
- The Gaza War and the Midterm Elections: “After two plus years of horrific conditions in Gaza and the spotlight that was on that on social media and in the news, Democratic voters – even if this isn't the issue that they're voting on – can’t accept a Democratic candidate who doesn't have some nuance on how the American government can support justice and security for Palestinians.
The major corrupting force on this issue is the enormous amount of political resources that AIPAC brings to bear every cycle. It's hard for candidates to square the political risks of taking positions that run the ire of these organizations. It's so important that J Street continues to grow and that candidates that we support get serious backing,” Tali 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 >>
- The Democratic National Security Community Is Beginning to Debate the US-Israel Relationship
This week, Ilan Goldenberg unpacked three different visions for the US-Israel relationship from prominent national security experts. Once reluctant to question US-Israel policy, he writes that the security community’s approach to this issue is beginning to diverge drastically.
“Views on the US response to October 7 and the war in Gaza are sharply divided, and it is far easier to coalesce around issues where there is broad consensus – and opposition to Donald Trump – than to engage a subject this sensitive and contentious. But that silence is breaking.
The bottom line is that the era of pretending that the US–Israel relationship can be managed through personal trust, quiet persuasion, and unlimited support is over [...] A strategy grounded in normal alliance politics – cooperation where interests align and consequences where they don’t – is the best way to protect US interests,” Ilan wrote. Read the full piece here >>
⚠️ Orwellian Response to ICE Shooting Threatens Our Democracy: This week, federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good – preventing medical professionals from reaching the scene as administration officials blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shooting. The shooting, and its response mark a profoundly dark moment for American democracy.
- “The Trump administration’s false narrative about this week’s shooting, and the demonization of the victim, are only part of a bigger lie. It wants the American public to believe that ICE’s heavily militarized crackdown across this country is an effort to keep cities like Minneapolis safe. It is not. It is about vilifying not just immigrants, but all who welcome them and their contributions to our communities,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote in the New York Times.
- “This isn’t the first killing by ICE, and it won’t be the last,” wrote Natasha Lennard in The Intercept. “Given ICE’s violent, impunity-drenched core, at a moment when the Trump regime is leaning heavily into a vision of dominance grounded in aggression and lawlessness, such a killing was all but inevitable.” Read more >>
🗣️ Standing with Protestors in Iran: J Street stands in solidarity with the thousands of brave Iranians who have taken to the streets in recent days to protest the Iranian regime and demand their rights. No matter how these events continue to unfold, they will have profound implications for the future of Iran and the Middle East. Be on the lookout for programming from our Policy Center next week on where things go from here.
🎟️ 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 >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads:
- Is Mamdani Bad or Good for Jews? Here’s How Not to Tell
"What if we asked practical, rather than symbolic, questions in response to [Mamdani's] day one actions? Not 'how outraged should we be by the revocation of the IHRA definition?' but 'will that revocation actually change how safe Jews are?' Or: What will the functions of the Office to Combat Antisemitism actually look like under Mamdani? How will the office track antisemitism?" Emily Tamkin writes in The Forward.
- Is Naftali Bennett Really Liberal Israel's Answer to Netanyahu?
"Bennett has become the darling of the liberal camp, but let there be no mistake: When he speaks of a 'Zionist coalition' without Arabs or ultra-Orthodox parties, numbering 90 members, it implicitly includes Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich's Religious Zionism," Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn writes.
- What Peaceniks Like Me Get Wrong About Peace
"It’s a brutal fact but a fact all the same: Credibility accrues to those who stood at the barricades, who risked their lives for the cause, and—sorry to say it, but this is the world as it is—who committed or at least condoned acts of violence. [...] Marwan Barghouti stands to be a leader of vision, one with credibility among his own people, and among his adversaries. Both Israelis and Palestinians have an interest in having him take a seat at the negotiating table," Bono, the lead singer of Irish rock band U2 writes in The Atlantic.
💡 More Resources:
- Watch our Webinars and Listen to our Podcast:
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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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