Our Policy
J Street supports a comprehensive regional agreement that ends the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and provides Israel full acceptance by 22 former Arab adversaries, global recognition of its borders, and comprehensive security and economic relationships with neighboring states. Such an agreement is only possible if it allows for Palestinians to achieve their rights through the creation of a state of their own.
As exemplified by the Abraham Accords, Sunni Arab states have concluded that it is in their economic and security interest to find a way to normalize relations with Israel. However, while some in Israel and the United States may have seen a path to normalization without addressing the Palestinian question, particularly in the wake of the Gaza War, Arab leaders including in Saudi Arabia, have made it abundantly clear that normalization is only possible with a clear commitment to a path to Palestinian statehood.
J Street has proposed a viable path to an effective diplomatic process in the wake of the Gaza war that builds on the regional normalization efforts of the past two administrations. It starts with major international investments in rebuilding Gaza and establishing a transitional governance and security architecture that can lead to the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank, and includes significant unilateral measures to be taken by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the United States, Israel’s neighbors, and the International Community, and finally dual-track negotiations that culminate in the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognition of Israel by the Arab Sunni States.
As for what a Palestinian state would entail, despite a drop in support in recent years for the two-state solution, the contours of a workable negotiated outcome that would be broadly supported by both peoples are well known. Various initiatives by the parties and others have spelled out the principles and even many of the the details of such a resolution, including President Clinton’s parameters in 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert’s proposal in 2008, the offer by Arab states and the Palestinians in 2013 to adjust and negotiate based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, and the official US principles put forward by Secretary of State Kerry under President Obama in 2016. These positions would ultimately have to be negotiated between the parties, and updated for the evolving situation. J Street’s policy positions on the individual final status issues – and how they can be resolved as part of a conflict-ending agreement – can be found here: