J Street\u2019s role in American politics has evolved significantly since the organization was founded in 2008, according to senior vice president Ilan Goldenberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early years of J Street, the function was to just try and get away from the conversation where the only option in American politics was to support any Israeli government, no matter what,\u201d Goldenberg told attendees. \u201cNow, we find ourselves just as much on the other side, because there\u2019s been such a shift in American politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldenberg spoke June 2 at Temple Emanu El in Orange during \u201cStraight Talk on the Middle East and America: A Conversation on Current Conditions \u2026 And What\u2019s Next,\u201d a discussion moderated by Dan Moulthrop, CEO of The City Club of Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Before joining J Street, Goldenberg served in several national security and foreign policy roles, including as executive director and policy director of the National Security Network. He also spent three years at the Pentagon working on Iran policy and later advised then-Vice President Kamala Harris on Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise Hamas attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n
Goldenberg said he was involved in efforts to develop plans for postwar governance in Gaza, including proposals to replace Hamas and restructure the Palestinian government.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting in October 2023 in the U.S. government, we were trying to build those plans,\u201d Goldenberg said. \u201cUnfortunately, we ran into a situation where we took those plans to Israeli colleagues and the IDF, and they wanted to work with us. They understood we needed this political strategy, but what they were telling us was, \u2018We can\u2019t do this because the political leadership in Israel was telling us we can\u2019t have this conversation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing recent developments, Goldenberg also discussed reports of a June 1 phone call between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to multiple media reports, Trump expressed frustration with Netanyahu and pushed for a ceasefire agreement involving Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Goldenberg summarized the dynamic bluntly, stating, \u201cTrump wants out\u201d of Lebanon and Iran, and his frustrations with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, Donald Trump does have a tremendous amount of leverage over Netanyahu because Trump is still very popular in Israel,\u201d Goldenberg said. \u201cNetanyahu has built a whole persona on, \u2018I can manage Trump\u2019 and has aligned himself very clearly with Trump over the years, and so this is now a really uncomfortable dynamic between the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians remains viable, Goldenberg said J Street advocates a broader regional approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt J Street, we talk about a 23-state solution,\u201d he said, referring to a framework that would include peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors throughout the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s hard to do now is just go through a deal that\u2019s just between Israel and the Palestinians,\u201d Goldenberg said. \u201cTheir real opportunity is having a region that wants to engage with this. Israel wants to be at peace with the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Goldenberg argued that Israeli politics may be moving toward an alternative to Netanyahu\u2019s governing coalition. Israel is expected to hold parliamentary elections by late 2026, and Goldenberg said opposition forces are beginning to take root.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very broad coalition that\u2019ll include people like Naftali Bennett, who\u2019s pretty right-wing, and Yair Golan, who\u2019s a former general and pretty left-wing,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you\u2019ll have this broad coalition as an alternative. The question is, can they come together? Can they bring Arab parties into that coalition to form an alternative?\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldenberg described Bennett as a \u201cnever Netanyahu\u201d figure and said voters seeking change could create an opening for a coalition government that includes Arab parties, which are expected to hold roughly 10 to 15 seats in the Knesset.<\/p>\n
Gregg Levine, chair of J Street Cleveland, also addressed attendees. Levine said recent polling suggests many American Jews occupy a middle ground \u2013 supporting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state while also expressing concern for Palestinian civilians. As a result, he said, J Street has often found itself at odds with organizations reluctant to publicly criticize Israeli government actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been particularly frustrating that our legacy Jewish organizations have remained silent in the face of many of these atrocities, and frankly, a number of our clergy have remained silent as well,\u201d Levine said. \u201cAnd yet, it\u2019s been fulfilling having countless, constructive, respectful conversations with so many in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levine said those conversations reflect J Street\u2019s mission of organizing pro-Israel, pro-peace and pro-democracy Americans to advance policies that support both democratic and Jewish values while helping secure Israel\u2019s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people. In addition to its Cleveland chapter, J Street maintains chapters in more than 45 cities nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J Street\u2019s role in American politics has evolved significantly since the organization was founded in 2008, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[1660,41,1655,1665,47497,1658,1411,21500,37,1653,10796,22744,1659,15920,1650,49,1652,4029,47499,498,13087,81,1654,9572,10801,1671,15984,13146,1657,10805,10804,47498,26187],"class_list":["post-146240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-arab-israeli-conflict","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-foreign-relations-of-israel","tag-gaza-israel-conflict","tag-goldenberg","tag-government-of-israel","tag-hamas","tag-impacts-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-israel","tag-israel-related-controversies","tag-israel-palestine-relations","tag-israel-united-arab-emirates-normalization-agreement","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-j-street","tag-judaism-and-warfare","tag-middle-east","tag-military-of-israel","tag-naftali-bennett","tag-orange","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-region","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-israel","tag-politics-of-palestine","tag-politics-of-palestine-region","tag-politics-of-the-arab-world","tag-politics-of-the-arab-israeli-conflict","tag-politics-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-politics-of-the-middle-east","tag-religion-based-civil-wars","tag-society-of-palestine","tag-temple-emanu-el","tag-two-state-solution"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}