[ ]J Street [ ]
Friends,
 
Last night’s election results in Israel are deeply troubling for all who
care about Israel and about liberal democracy globally -- for those whose
core values of justice, equality and freedom are fundamentally at odds
with the parties and leaders who stand on the cusp of victory. 
 
Votes are still being counted, but all signs point to Benjamin Netanyahu
-- currently on trial for corruption -- forming the next government with
the support of one of the most extreme, anti-democratic, far-right
political parties ever to enter the Israeli Knesset: Itamar Ben Gvir’s
Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party.
 
Ben-Gvir and his fellow ultranationalist Bezalel Smotrich raise the
specter of a government willing to strip Israel’s Palestinian-Arab
citizens of their rights, weaken the independence of the Supreme Court,
short-circuit Netanyahu’s legal charges and ratchet up intercommunal
tensions within Israel and violations of Palestinian human rights in the
Occupied Territory.
 
As Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer wrote last night, “that over 10
percent of Israelis voted for an openly anti-Arab party with proudly
homophobic representatives is a frightening moment for Israel’s limited
and fragile democracy.”
 
The final vote tallies and the whims of Israeli parliamentarians may yet
thwart Netanyahu’s plans, but here is what we do know:
 
An ultra-right-wing Netanyahu government will force a moment of reckoning
for the US-Israel relationship, and for all Americans who care about a
just, equal and democratic future for all those living in Israel and
Palestine.
 
We Americans didn’t have a vote in yesterday’s election, and we respect
the outcome even as we declare our staunch opposition to those who won.
 
As Americans, our role is to ask what we can and now must do.
 
What will be the policy of our government if Israel’s government moves to
illegally annex territory in the West Bank, cementing permanent occupation
without rights for millions of Palestinians?
 
Who will be the primary political voice of our community? Will it be
those, like us, who stand for justice, democracy and diplomacy? Or those,
like AIPAC, who demand not just support for the State of Israel, but
uncritical enabling of Israel’s government no matter what its actions,
while backing those who undermine our democracy here at home?
 
And what will America’s Jewish communal leadership do? Will they stand up
loudly and clearly to racists and autocrats who threaten Israeli
democracy? Or will they focus their criticism on those of us who speak up
in dissent?
 
J Street has long warned that a relationship based on an ‘Israel right or
wrong’ approach that tolerates without meaningful objection settlements,
demolitions, discrimination and endless occupation serves no one’s
interests -- not this country’s, not the Jewish people’s and not the State
of Israel’s.
 
Under the looming ultra-right Israeli government that may take shape, that
business-as-usual approach will be strained to untenable limits. 
 
We will be forced to reckon with the prospect of de jure annexation and
ever more blatant discrimination and incitement. Forced to reckon with
leaders who cast off any pretense of caring about human rights, equality
or peace. And I fear we will also be forced to reckon with the prospect of
massive volatility in the West Bank that could well lead to fracturing and
violence within Israeli society itself. 
 
This is a moment of truth and of choice.
 
American Jews -- and the United States itself -- must align our policies
with our values. The Biden administration and Congress need to be pressed
to do more than give lip service to a commitment to equal measures of
peace, justice and self-determination for both peoples. They must be
pressed to take action.
 
In order to make our voice heard and win the important debates that lie
ahead, those of us who feel passionately about democracy, Israel and our
core Jewish values must stand tall, grow our ranks and build our power as
a movement.
 
If history is any guide, we can expect many in our community will find
ways to avoid speaking out.
 
Some will express doubts that the new government will do the things its
members have committed to do. Some will excuse the inexcusable. Others in
our community may give up hope altogether for Israel’s future as a
democratic homeland for the Jewish people. 
 
I cannot speak for those groups, but I can speak for J Street. 
 
Whatever the election’s final outcome, we will press the United States to
be committed as much to Israel’s democracy as we are to its security. We
will argue that Israel should be not just a homeland for the Jewish
people, but for Jewish values.
 
We will make the case that there is no contradiction -- none -- in
supporting Israel's secure, democratic future while loudly and
unapologetically championing the rights of Palestinians who are citizens
of Israel and of those who live under its authority without civil and
political rights. 
 
And we’ll fight back against groups in our community willing to sacrifice
their commitment to democracy here at home and in Israel in order to
promote lockstep support of whoever holds power in Israel. 
 
Our loyalty is to our values, to Israel’s founding ideals and to a vision
of a world rooted in equality and justice.
 
To us, being pro-Israel means standing firm when those values are
threatened by extremist political forces.
 
The news from Israel today and in the following weeks may be dispiriting,
but that only means our work is more important today than it was
yesterday. 

We cannot despair; we must recommit.
 
We founded J Street to take on this fight, and together we stand ready for
this moment. 
 
I hope to see you -- as a first step -- in Washington, DC, December 3-6
for our [ [link removed] ]National Conference. Together, we’ll process what is happening,
formulate our plan of action and ensure our voice is heard loudly and
clearly at this critical moment for our country, for Israel and for our
values.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street 


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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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