[ ]J Street [ ]
Friend --

What an amazing boost to start the year.

While we still await the final tallies, it’s become clear that JStreetPAC
endorsees Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have both emerged victorious
in the critical Georgia Senate runoffs. With these twin victories, two
more pro-Israel, pro-peace champions will take their place in the Senate
-- shifting the balance of power and ending Mitch McConnell’s incredibly
destructive tenure as Senate majority leader.

We’re very proud to have played our part in what was an overwhelming
in-state and nationwide mobilization, led first and foremost by the
talented organizers and strategists on the ground in Georgia. Together, J
Street supporters contributed over $380,000 for the Ossoff and Warnock
campaigns and over $118,000 for the organizing efforts of Stacey Abrams’
Fair Fight PAC. Our members hosted phonebanks and filled GOTV shifts as we
pitched in for this last, pivotal battle of the 2020 cycle.

Now, at the end of an unbelievably long and difficult election season that
brought moments of excitement, frustration, heartbreak and ultimately
relief, we can say that our democratic values have won out and our core
political goals have been achieved.

This victory is tremendously meaningful for our country, for our politics
and for J Street.

It heralds a new era of unified, desperately-needed leadership on the
urgent challenges facing our nation -- from the COVID-19 pandemic to
climate change to immigration to racial justice.

For J Street, our pro-Israel, pro-peace endorsees will not only enter the
White House this year, but will now hold significant majorities within the
majority party in both the House and Senate. In the months and years
ahead, this gives us the opportunity to not only reverse much of the
terrible damage done by the Trump administration, but to also push for
meaningful new measures to promote lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace and
push back against occupation and creeping annexation.

After four long years of policymaking dominated by the Trump-Netanyahu
agenda, we can now push for a US-Israel relationship rooted in mutual
respect for democratic values, for even-handed and good faith American
diplomacy and for a foreign policy based on multilateralism and
negotiation instead of belligerence, bullying and the threat of war.

It’s also important to take stock of what these results tell us about the
state of American politics on our issues.

In a battle in which his opponents weaponized Rev. Raphael Warnock’s race
and outrageously tried to use his support for Israeli-Palestinian peace
and justice to paint him as ‘extreme,' ‘anti-Israel’ and even
‘antisemitic,' he emerged not only with the full-throated support of local
Jewish leaders, but as Georgia’s first-ever Black Senator-elect.

After a race that featured a despicable antisemitic attack ad that
enlarged the candidate’s nose, Jon Ossoff has emerged victorious as the
first Jewish Senator-elect from Georgia, and one of just a handful of
Jewish Senators ever elected in the South.

The majority of Georgia voters rejected the hate, the lies and the fear.
They refused to buy into the idea that compassion and a commitment to
democracy, equality and peace are somehow dangerous or extreme. They
refused to allow racism and antisemitism to tear apart a powerful
multi-faith, multi-racial coalition.

Going forward, the fights will continue to be difficult and the challenges
daunting. But our movement should have confidence that, slowly but surely,
our own work has helped to build an American political playing field where
the 'old playbook' of smears and intimidation doesn’t work.

We should have confidence that our values and goals are shared by the
majority of our community and by the majority of Americans -- and that
they can and will win out.

So let’s relish this feeling of victory, celebrate all the work that went
into it and then gear up for the work that’s ahead of us.

Thank you for all that you do,

Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street

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© 2021 J Street | [ [link removed] ]www.jstreet.org | [email protected]

J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace 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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