[ ]J Street [ ]
Friends,

Over the past few months, AIPAC has taken to tweeting incessantly that “J
Street is many things, but it’s not pro-Israel.”

It’s an odd shift for an organization that spent most of J Street’s first
decade ignoring us.

Their Twitter feed -- run now by the former digital director of Trump’s
Republican National Committee -- is not something I choose to respond to
often. Almost everything they tweet about us is either an outright lie or
a distortion.

Nonetheless, even an obnoxious Twitter feed can raise an important
question:

What does it mean to be pro-Israel?

I’ve talked about my personal relationship to Israel often -- from my
great-grandparents who made aliyah in the 1880s, to my grandparents who
helped found Tel Aviv, to my father who fought for the country’s
independence leading into 1948.

But it’s not my family history that qualifies me or J Street as
pro-Israel.

What’s pro-Israel is that we care deeply about the future of Israel and of
the Jewish people. And we care about the values to which Israel dedicated
itself at its founding: Equality, democracy and justice.

We care enough to stand up for its people and its place in the community
of nations, even as its own leaders do things with which we couldn’t
disagree more strongly.

[ [link removed] ]If that matches your vision of what it means to be pro-Israel, then
please help fund our work with an end-of-year contribution of
$18, $54,
$90 or any other amount >>

My pro-Israel vision for the future is of a strong, secure state that
provides a home with a strong Jewish character for all Jewish people while
providing full, equal civil rights for all who live there -- regardless of
race, religion, ethnicity and more.

The Israel I work for is at peace with its neighbors -- including a free
and independent state of Palestine -- and fully accepted into its region
and on the world stage.

That vision couldn’t be more different than the vision of the political
leaders -- led by Benjamin Netanyahu -- forming the new Israeli
government. Theirs is a vision of an ethnonationalist, authoritarian,
right-wing state, completely divorced from our most deeply held values.

That vision -- promoted by the settlement movement and its right-wing
allies in the United States -- traffics in racism, takes land and
resources as it pleases and lives forever by the sword.

It’s a vision that writes off the support of the majority of Jewish
Americans in favor of an alliance with the MAGA world in the US and the
Orbans and autocrats of the global right.

The clash of visions over what it means to be “pro-Israel” could not be
clearer.

[ [link removed] ]Your donation of any amount will help ensure that our vision --
grounded in our values -- prevails.

Our vision is rooted in our commitment to justice, democracy, equality and
minority rights -- values at the heart of American Jewish identity.

It’s painful that some influential groups who claim the mantle of
“pro-Israel” and to speak for Jewish Americans in politics and in
Washington smear those of us promoting these core values as “anti-Israel.”

We started J Street nearly 15 years ago because we wouldn’t let those
voices decide how American leaders set US policy. I’m so glad we did.

AIPAC’s most significant decision in 2022 wasn’t to start attacking J
Street publicly, it was their decision to form a Political Action
Committee and then endorse and fund election deniers and insurrectionists.

Now, the very same group that refuses to criticize the anti-democratic,
right-wing policies and leaders in Israel is endorsing and funding
right-wing, anti-democratic candidates here at home. Leaders like Jim
Jordan, Elise Stefanik, Kevin McCarthy, Scott Perry and so many others --
just because they are “pro-Israel.”

Organizations and voices that do that don’t speak for the majority of
Jewish Americans who support the rule of law and religious tolerance and
oppose racism and ethnonationalism -- here and in Israel.

The choice is clear. So is the need for us to organize, build and grow.

Your December donation of $18, $54,
$90 -- or any other amount -- will
strengthen our movement at a critical moment. [ [link removed] ]Please consider a
contribution of any amount today >>

With the help of thousands of supporters like you, we’ve spent the past 15
years re-defining what it means to be pro-Israel.

Together, we will show that it means standing up for democracy here in the
US and in Israel. And we’ll make sure that every US politician and
policymaker understands that is the majority view of Americans who care
about Israel.

Thank you, sincerely, for your support.

Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street


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© 2022 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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