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Dear Friend, |
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Around J Street |
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Newly Announced Top Speakers for April’s National Conference |
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| J Street’s events team is continuing to announce rockstar speakers for our first ever all-virtual National Conference. Recently announced guests from the region include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli Labor Party Leader Merav Michaeli, Joint List Leader Ayman Odeh and Meretz Leader Nitzan Horowitz. They’ll be joined by progressive champions and political rising stars in the United States, including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tammy Duckworth, Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Chris Murphy and Reps. Barbara Lee, Joaquin Castro, Katie Porter and Jamaal Bowman. | ||
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See the latest speakers → |
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J Street on Track to Hold Largest Congressional Advocacy Event Ever |
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Usually, J Street plans an Advocacy Day at the end of each national conference. This year, to keep up with the energy from so many of our supporters to meet with their members of Congress, we’re making it an Advocacy Week. Beginning on Tuesday, April 20, over 1,500 J Street supporters from across the country will be joining our advocacy team for direct, virtual meetings with senators, representatives and key congressional staff. As our elected representatives work to shape a new era of American leadership, we’ll be pushing for them to go big -- to take the bold steps necessary to protect human rights, support diplomacy and advance our shared vision of a just and peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis. Register now for the J Street Conference & Advocacy Week >> |
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Join Us → |
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A Conference Full of Content, Engagement and Analysis |
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This year’s conference will feature cutting-edge programming across a broad range of priorities and key subjects for our movement. "Main stage" events will cover progressive political strategy, on-the-ground analysis of the situation in Israel and the occupied territories and deep dives into American foreign policy and the political and diplomatic challenges facing the Biden administration and Congress. Breakout sessions will include live specialty tracks, meetups, interactive discussion panels and networking opportunities with Jewish and progressive allies. Through it all, we’ll have a team of political, media and foreign policy experts on hand to offer live debate and analysis. Don’t miss out on what promises to be J Street’s most engaging, interactive and accessible conference yet. >> |
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Register Now → |
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The View from J Street: Israel’s Election Results |
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For those concerned about Israel’s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people and about ongoing attacks on core liberal values and democratic institutions in the country, this election had both encouraging and concerning signs -- and left Israeli politics once again with an uncertain and muddled picture. While Prime Minister Netanyahu lacks a clear path to forming a stable governing majority, so do his many opponents, meaning more weeks and months of deadlock could lie ahead.
On a positive note, several parties on the center-left and left, who had been in danger of entirely missing out on the threshold for entering the next Knesset (Meretz, Labor, Blue and White) performed better than expected. On the other hand, the extreme right Religious Zionist party secured six seats and may form a critical component in any Netanyahu-led government. These leaders include anti-LGBT activists and others who campaigned on blatantly racist, pro-annexation ideologies. They present a clear threat to Israel’s founding values of democracy and equality, and, concerningly, have received the full backing and support of Prime Minister Netanyahu. For J Street, this is a reminder that our shared fight for our vision of a just, peaceful and democratic Israel remains as important as ever. | ||
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Read and share our reflections on the results → |
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Hopes Raised of Path to Return to the Iran Deal |
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President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear agreement has been disastrous for US and Israeli interests. While the agreement had succeeded in blocking all Iranian pathways to a nuclear weapon, Trump’s failed "maximum pressure" approach has led to Iran increasing its stockpiles of nuclear material, rebuilding key facilities and warning international inspectors that they may soon be denied access. Despite both Tehran and the Biden administration signaling a desire to return to mutual compliance with the agreement, frayed trust and narrow political space in both countries have made restoring the deal a significant challenge.
With the urgency increasing by the day as looming Iranian elections threaten to shut the current diplomatic window, this past week brought welcome news of a potential breakthrough. In a meeting of the current members of the deal in Austria, Iran and the United States agreed to establish two working groups to coordinate a synchronized return to the deal -- one focused on returning Iran’s nuclear activity to compliance with the restrictions, and the other focused on reversing President Trump’s violations of the deal. We’re nowhere near the finish line -- and J Street’s advocacy will be sorely needed in the coming weeks to push hard for progress, and to defend the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts from bad-faith, dangerous right-wing attacks. Luckily, we’re not alone in this work, as we stand alongside our many allies in Congress, in the progressive movement and in the Israeli security establishment. Why some Israeli generals want to see the US return to the nuclear deal with Iran >> |
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Read Now → |
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J Street Welcomes Biden's Resumption of Palestinian Aid, Removal of Trump's Harmful ICC Sanctions |
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This month, J Street welcomed several key steps by the Biden administration that we had strongly advocated for. Under the Trump administration, aid to the Palestinian people was slashed to zero in a punitive and harmful effort to push the Palestinian leadership to the brink -- against the warnings of the Israeli security establishment. Last week, the Biden administration announced it would be resuming aid to important programs designed to enhance security, foster economic development and promote coexistence. They also announced the restoration of key aid commitments to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which plays a critical role in providing for the daily needs of refugees and in heading off humanitarian disaster and instability. These moves are among the steps that the administration must take in order to begin repairing its relationship with the Palestinians and restore its ability to act as a good-faith diplomatic broker. The Biden administration also announced the reversal of outrageous sanctions that Trump had placed on key personnel at the International Criminal Court. Such sanctions were completely inconsistent with the administration’s commitment to diplomacy, human rights and international law, and J Street was among the many advocacy groups that had called for their removal. “By removing these sanctions, President Biden, Secretary Blinken and their team are sending an important message that whatever disagreements they may have with the ICC or other international bodies, they will not act to improperly interfere with their proceedings or to intimidate and bully their personnel,” J Street said in a statement reported by Haaretz and the Times of Israel. These are important and encouraging steps forward and we must continue to push our leaders to go further. Together, we must push for further action to combat settlements, demolitions and de facto annexation, and to restore hopes for peace and diplomatic progress. Make a contribution this April to help push for a bold new era of progressive foreign policy >> | ||
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Give Now → |
Invitation: The Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony |
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| At 11am this Wednesday, April 14, a siren will sound across Israel and the country, quite literally, will come to a standstill. As any Israeli will tell you, Yom HaZikaron -- Israel’s Memorial Day -- is one of the most moving days in the nation’s calendar. With a painful history of conflict -- and almost every Jewish Israeli having served in the defense forces themselves -- it’s a day with special resonance to most citizens. For many, the cornerstone event on the day will be the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony. It’s a memorial that powerfully embraces the Jewish values of empathy and compassion, even for adversaries, and brings together both Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones to the conflict -- and long for the many decades of conflict to come to an end. Hosted by our progressive allies in Israel -- Combatants for Peace and Parents Circle: Families Forum -- we hope you can join us at this year’s virtual ceremony on Tuesday, April 13 at 1:30pm Eastern. | ||
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Register Here → |
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| Donate → | ||
© 2021 J Street | 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. This email has been sent to [email protected]. Don't want to get our Street Talk newsletter? Just click here. Just want less email in general? Choose to receive only occasional updates or unsubscribe here. Email not displaying correctly? View here. |
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