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This Week: 🍎 Responding to Netanyahu's New York Lies | 🏛️ The Senators
Standing Up For a Future Palestinian State |💡 Spotlight on Michigan | 🚧
Word on the Street | 📝 From the Policy Center | 📖 This Week's Must-Reads |
🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List | And much more.

🍎 Responding to Netanyahu’s New York Lies: As expected, Netanyahu arrived
in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly ready to
blame everyone but himself for the horrors in Gaza and the West Bank,
rising antisemitism and Israel’s growing international isolation.

* "[The rise in antisemitism] is directly related to the actions and
behavior of the State of Israel… the horrors of Gaza [and] in the West
Bank," J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said on CNN ahead of the
speech.

“The root of the problem that we need to address is the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict – which is a political conflict… that
needs to be solved diplomatically,” he continued.

[ [link removed] ]Watch the full interview on CNN >>

* “Netanyahu used his UNGA speech not to repair the relationship his
government has badly damaged, not to signal any change in direction,
and not to accept accountability for isolating Israel from the world.
Instead, he doubled down: he blamed critics for daring to criticize
his government, and he waded into American domestic politics,”
[ [link removed] ]Jeremy said after the Prime Minister’s speech at UNGA. 

* Shame on Netanyahu: Our community showed up in force – [ [link removed] ]on social
media and at the UN headquarters – to remind the world that Netanyahu
doesn’t speak for American Jews, and that we demand a future where
Israelis and Palestinians are freed from the cycle of corrupt
leadership, violence and endless war.

🏛️ The Senators Standing Up For a Future Palestinian State: This week,
Senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Ruben Gallego, along
with 15 additional original cosponsors, introduced a bill that would
impose targeted financial sanctions on companies that facilitate, finance
or provide material support for the development of Israeli settlements in
the E1 region of the West Bank. This legislation is vital for preserving a
secure, democratic and Jewish Israel and protecting American interests
throughout the region.

* Both Democratic and Republican administrations have long opposed the
construction of settlements in this area due to the devastating impact
they would have on Palestinian daily life and the viability of a
future Palestinian state. With Israel moving forward with tenders for
housing units in E1 and Trump failing to stop it, Congress is stepping
in.

* “This bill marks the end of the era in which right-wing Israeli
governments could ignore US demands to halt settlement expansion and
expect American politicians to fall in line,” Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a
statement on the bill. [ [link removed] ]Read the full statement here >>

✏️ [ [link removed] ]Tell Your Senator: Sanction E1 Settlement Construction >>
☎️ After you sign the petition, we’ll follow up with a call script for you
to contact your senators' offices to demand that they hold the line on
settlement construction in E1.

💡 Spotlight on Michigan: The Wolverine State has become ground zero in the
battle over Israel in partisan politics and on campuses. This week on Word
on the Street Live, Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street Digital Assistant Lauren
Haines welcomed three Michiganders to give us a snapshot into the dynamics
on the ground.

* They were joined first by Adir Waxman, the current Vice President of J
Street U for the Midwest and a sophomore at Michigan for a tell-all on
the ultimatum that Hillel gave J Street U – disaffiliate from J Street
or leave Hillel entirely – and how Jewish communal institutions should
be responding to this moment.

* Democratic Nominee for Attorney General Eli Savit and University of
Michigan Law professor Samuel Bagenstos then hopped on to discuss a
letter they helped organize, signed by more than 500 Jewish voters in
Michigan, urging the community to remember that democracy is on the
ballot and vote for Abdul El-Sayed in November.

🥄🍨 [ [link removed] ]Get the scoop on everything Michigan >> 🥄🍨

🚧 Word on the Street: J Street’s Substack is your one-stop-shop for
commentary, video conversations and policy pieces throughout the week.
[ [link removed] ]Subscribe here >>

* [ [link removed] ]We’re Losing the Plot on Antisemitism
“Antisemitism is real. It is frightening. It is dangerous. We have to
talk about - and address - it. But we have to hold another truth at
the same time: our fear of antisemitism cannot become a reason to shut
down debate about Israel, Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank,” Jeremy
Ben-Ami writes after a flurry of backlash against celebrities
criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Asking the wrong questions: “It seems not a day goes by now without a
political or cultural figure publicly criticizing Israel and then
facing accusations of antisemitism… Too often, the Jewish communal
reaction to criticism, however, is to level exactly that charge. The
debate shifts from a conversation about what’s actually happening to
one about the critic. It’s no longer ‘What’s wrong with Israel’s
policies and actions?’ It’s ‘What’s wrong with the Democratic Party?’”
he continues. [ [link removed] ]Read more >>

📝 From the Policy Center: J Street’s Gallanter-Winograd Policy Center
publishes timely analyses of policy priorities and the diplomatic role the
US plays in the Middle East.

* [ [link removed] ]Escalating Turkey-Israel Rivalry: Gaza, Syria and Other
Flashpoints
In a new issue brief for the Gallanter-Winograd Policy Center, J
Street Policy and Research Coordinator Avraham Spraragen examines the
evolution of Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations, Turkey’s new
defense pact and the flashpoints between Turkey and Israel in Gaza,
Syria, Somalia, Greece and Cyprus.

“The main Turkish-Israeli clash is taking place in Syria, which sits
between Turkey and Israel and is critical for the security of both
countries. Since the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in late
2024, Turkey has filled the power vacuum and increased its military
presence in Syria. Ankara has worked closely with the new Syrian
President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, while Jerusalem remains wary of him,” he
explains. [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece here >>

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:

* [ [link removed] ]The Democrats’ Policy on Palestine Is Detached From Reality
“The debate inside the Democratic Party over Israel has changed more
in the last two years than in the previous 30… As dizzying as this
transformation has been, something essential is still missing. While
Democrats are rethinking their approach to Israel, they haven’t yet
rethought their approach to the Palestinians,” Peter Beinart writes in
The New York Times.

* [ [link removed] ]In Joint Appearance, Mutual Benefits And Risks For El-Sayed And
Harris
“Tali deGroot, a vice president at the liberal pro-Israel group J
Street, said the split between the two politicians on Israel and Gaza
would be sublimated by the pocketbook issues voters are more concerned
with, including the Iran war that has elevated gas prices for months.

DeGroot said the joint appearance exemplified Democrats’ willingness
to ‘work through disagreements’ in favor of a larger goal: retaking
Congress,” Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Laura Beveridge report in The
Washington Post.

* [ [link removed] ]Why Israel Fears This Searing New Documentary
“Israel’s fury at ‘NAZA’ — which has its U.S. premiere at the New York
Film Festival on Sept. 26 — is almost certainly not about journalistic
ethics. Part of the uproar is simply Netanyahu and his allies
demagoguing ahead of next month’s parliamentary election, trying to
cast the Israeli left as traitorous enemies of the military… But
there’s also a broader sense of a taboo being smashed, of Israel being
confronted with something it desperately doesn’t want to see,”
Michelle Goldberg writes in The New York Times.

🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[15][ ]  NEW: [ [link removed] ]Tell Your Senator: Sanction E1 Settlement Construction
>>

[17][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Demand Accountability for the Killing of US
Citizens in the West Bank >>

[19][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Pass the Antisemitism Response and Prevention
Act >>

[21][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Save The Date for the J Street 2027 Convention: November 6-9,
2027 in DC

[23][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress: Pass the Ceasefire Compliance Act >>

[25][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Don't Let Netanyahu Punish American Jews >>

[27][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Demand an investigation into ICE killings >>

[29][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Take part in 'Every Voice, Every Vote' >>

[31][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell your representative: Support the West Bank Violence
Prevention Act >>

[33][ ]  [ [link removed] ]198 Methods of Nonviolent Action to Fight Authoritarianism
>> 

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

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

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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 23-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
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