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
