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.
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,” Jeremy said after the Prime Minister’s speech at UNGA.
- Shame on Netanyahu: Our community showed up in force – 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. Read the full statement here >>
✏️ 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.
🥄🍨 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. Subscribe here >>
- 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. 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.
- 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. Read the full piece here >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
💡 More Resources:
Follow us on Social:
Watch our Webinars and Listen to our Podcast:
Read More on Our Website:
