Recent Blogs

• The Israel Debate Requires Empathy and Nuance

  Two recent op-eds in the New York Times articulate the outer poles of the Israel debate.

• Israeli Election Update 1/30/2019

  In the first poll taken following Gantz’s speech, Walla! Newsfound that the Gantz-Ya’alon joint slate would garner 19 seats -- up from the 12-14 seats shown in previous polls. The Walla!survey found Likud dropping from 33 to 29 seats. 

• J Street’s Commitment to Israel’s Future

  In this polarized environment, it is important to define and defend a space where Jews can care deeply about Israel and be proud of its accomplishments while remaining free to recognize its shortcomings and criticize some of its government’s policies.

• Israeli Election Update 1/22/2019

  Following an initial campaign phase in which he remained mostly silent, Hosen L’Yisrael leader Benny Gantz is now stepping up his campaign messaging as he seeks to play up his security credentials and establish himself as the top rival to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Trump officials promote joint action against Iran and downplay Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, Los Angeles Times

“In a choreographed show of rare unity, officials from the United States, Arab states and Israel joined together at a Middle East peace conference Thursday to pledge tough action against Iran, calling that nation a threat to all. The focus on Iran, however, overshadowed discussion of the still-secret Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that President Trump has long promised — and that may be just how his senior representatives at the forum wanted it, given nettlesome issues that remain….The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which Greenblatt is drafting with Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, former Trump lawyer David Friedman, has been kept largely under wraps, its unveiling repeatedly delayed as the authors were forced to rewrite sections condemned by Arab leaders. Kushner on Thursday briefed delegates at the conference, behind closed doors, on the broad outlines of the plan. He did not disclose details.”

With Procedural Maneuver, House G.O.P. Elevates Anti-Semitism as Political Issue, The New York Times

“The latest war of words over anti-Semitism on Capitol Hill is making some Jewish leaders increasingly uneasy. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, the liberal Jewish lobbying group, said in a recent interview that he worries that charges of anti-Semitism are being thrown around lightly. ‘This pattern of overheated, ill-considered and reductive attacks, playing out on social media and in the press, has failed to address these issues with the nuance, sensitivity and seriousness that they deserve,’ Mr. Ben-Ami said Monday in a statement, after Ms. Omar apologized. ‘It does nothing to advance the true interests and needs of Israelis or Palestinians, nor those of the American Jewish community.’”