Supporting Democracy In Israel — Jeremy Ben Ami, President of J Street

Today's episode is a Shabbat Replay of our service on April 10th which featured a fascinating conversation between Rabbi Lizzi and special guest Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street. Rabbi Lizzi sits on the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, which works in the American political system and in the Jewish community to advocate for diplomacy-first American leadership and policies that advance justice, equality, peace, and democracy in Israel. 

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;12;25
Unknown
that I have to tell you, we really adhere to the adage A community that prays together stays together. You know, like there's something that happens in a roomful of people, and you sing for a long time.

00;00;12;28 - 00;00;44;27
Unknown
It opens us up and we talk to each other. You hear each other's gratitude, and it makes it so much more possible, I think, to encounter, ideas and, you know, perspectives. That might not be your own. In the same way that harmony enriches a song. Perspective does that for us as well. And so, for everybody who was coming tonight just to hear our conversation and mostly Jeremy, so I'm so glad you were here for the first hour.

00;00;45;00 - 00;01;07;04
Unknown
And for everybody who came for the music and you're like, oh, God. Politics. Really? Don't I get enough of this in my life? Hopefully, hopefully this will feel very different than, you know, the conversations you're listening to on Ezra Klein or Pod Save America or whatever is your podcast of choice that's delivering the horrors of the day.

00;01;07;06 - 00;01;33;18
Unknown
So this is a little bit of background, in the summer of 2022, Michigan did our what I will what I hope will be our first trip, but so far only trip to Israel on the West Bank. And Deb helped us plan it. And we really did, like travel from south to north and east to west, like, we didn't go as far south as a lot, but we did go as far north as the Lebanon border.

00;01;33;20 - 00;02;04;09
Unknown
And we went from the literal river to the literal sea. And, you know, while we were up the Lebanon border, we saw the tunnel that Hezbollah dug underneath the border to kidnap people on the Israeli side with and spirit them back underground to Lebanon. And while we were in the West Bank, we saw and traveled on roads that were for Jews only and went through checkpoints easily that Palestinians were standing in for hours.

00;02;04;12 - 00;02;42;14
Unknown
We talked to intelligence experts who were like sharing the real, terrors that Iran and this was in 2022, was visiting upon Israeli civilians, whether through missiles or through proxies, whether Hamas or Hezbollah. And we we sort of looked up close at the deep discomfort and immorality. That occupation just inherently contains and and we danced at beautiful Shabbat and we ate amazing Israeli and Palestinian food.

00;02;42;14 - 00;03;26;19
Unknown
And it was like an intense and beautiful trip. And, and some of you in this room were on that trip, and Lance Friedman over here at the end of the trip said, you know, look, this is a place I love and care deeply about, but I don't know where is the political home for somebody like me who sees this place and the nuance that it has, and, you know, recognizes that, like, this country, it should exist, but that existence can't be contingent upon occupying another people, for example, you know, and, and so many other sort of like the both and of what it means to be in a relationship with Israel.

00;03;26;19 - 00;04;01;02
Unknown
He said. Is there a political home for somebody like me? And I was so happy to be able to say, indeed, I sit on the rabbinic cabinet of such a home. It is called J Street. And so Jeremy, come on up here because, if you haven't heard of J Street, it has not been around as long as, as AIPAC, which is the other pro-Israel lobby, and J Street came into existence because actually, that wasn't cutting it for a lot of American Jews.

00;04;01;10 - 00;04;24;27
Unknown
And so I actually feel like what I want to do is stop talking and, ask the occasional question, but mostly understand, from you, Jeremy, fellow founder, actually, fellow founder of an organization here at J Street's a little bit older than Michigan. J Street was founded in 2008. If I'm not mistaken, Michigan was founded in 2011.

00;04;25;00 - 00;04;49;19
Unknown
Is that right? Yes. That's right. And when you found an organization, it's because you have you have realized that there is a problem with the status quo, and you are content neither to opt out and say whatever, you know, but I don't love the way it is, but I just won't pay attention or I opt out. I divest of my interest in this, or I can live with it.

00;04;49;26 - 00;05;12;01
Unknown
I can live with the way it is. It's fine. A founder says in the presence of a status quo I can't deal with, I will create something else. So what was the status quo back in 2008? Of the state of kind of the relationship, the American Jewish relationship with Israel? And what was the problem with it, and why did you create this organization?

00;05;12;03 - 00;05;35;01
Unknown
Well, first of all, let me just say thank you very much to Rabbi Lizzi and to Mishcon. This is a beautiful, beautiful evening. And somebody who I was sitting near asked me if I'm used to this kind of an override to this kind of an atmosphere on a Shabbat. And I said, it takes me back, to a place in Jerusalem that I called my home when I lived there.

00;05;35;03 - 00;05;59;13
Unknown
Some of you may know, call in the shimmer, and it is a it's one of my favorite things in the entire world to go to Friday night service. The calling, the shaman and the shaman of this room brings me back to the feeling of Jerusalem on Shabbat night. So thank you for that. And thank you for the question, which gives me a chance to, you know, say a word about why we started J Street.

00;05;59;16 - 00;06;24;07
Unknown
And it really is, to to fill a vacuum. And in the beginning of the 21st century, in the early 2000s, there was really only one voice from the American Jewish community saying what it meant to be pro-Israel. And that was in the policy space. It was in the political space. It was in the Jewish community.

00;06;24;14 - 00;06;53;13
Unknown
And that voice said, to be pro-Israel, you have to support the government of Israel. And Israel itself is going through a lot. It has real enemies, it has real problems. And the role of Jews around the world is to support the state and the people in the government of Israel, and that's it. Don't ask questions, don't criticize. If you stand up too loudly and say something, that's that's not appropriate, because we don't live there and we don't have a right to do that.

00;06;53;15 - 00;07;18;15
Unknown
And that really was the model of American relationship, the American Jewish relationship with Israel for decades and decades after the founding of the state. And I understand that, and I'm sure many of you do as well, that Israel was founded and it was a miracle that it survived. After the horrors of World War Two. And many of us have family who know that horror.

00;07;18;17 - 00;07;40;21
Unknown
Many of us a family, were involved in starting the state. And in the 40s, 50, 6070s, 80s, Israel faced enormous challenge and war after war in the neighborhood that wanted to drive it into the sea. And the American Jewish response, which was appropriate, was, let's join hands together and let's do everything we can to ensure that this critical state survives.

00;07;40;23 - 00;08;11;24
Unknown
And that was the model of American Jewish advocacy for Israel. Then Israel evolved, and in the 70s, 80s, 90s into the 21st century. It became a regional, if not a global, in the opinion of the prime minister military superpower, and developed a first world economy and became strong and won a number of wars and took over a lot of land and took over a lot of people with that land.

00;08;11;27 - 00;08;36;15
Unknown
And something fundamental began to change, in the nature of the state of Israel and its challenges, the challenge was no longer to survive attacks from enemy nations. The challenge was to figure out, what do we do with the fact that there are seven now, 7.5 million Jews and seven and a half non seven, half million non-Jews living in the same land?

00;08;36;18 - 00;09;13;02
Unknown
And in order to be a Jewish in the democratic state, we either have to give full rights to all 15 million people so that it's a democracy or we're going to lose our democracy in order to keep our Jewish power. And the choice between being a Jewish state and a democratic state became a fundamental choice. And under the leadership of the right wing, under the leadership of Netanyahu, over the course of these years, we have seen the state move further and further to the right and for many American Jews, some of the policies and the actions of the government of Israel were no longer supportable.

00;09;13;04 - 00;09;36;13
Unknown
And it became very hard to abide by a US Israel, US Jewish, Israeli Jewish relationship. That said, the only way to support Israel is to support Israel, right or wrong. And many of us said 20 years ago now, 25 years ago, we care so deeply about Israel. My great grandparents were in the first Aliya in 1882. My grandparents founded Tel Aviv.

00;09;36;13 - 00;09;58;03
Unknown
My father was in the Irgun. He fought in 1948. I lived in Israel. I started a business in Israel. All of us involved in J Street are involved in it because we care about Israel, but we are deeply concerned about the direction that this government is taking Israel today, that it's no longer the Israel that we grew up knowing.

00;09;58;05 - 00;10;21;29
Unknown
It's an Israel that is endangering its own future security. It's an Israel that is acting not in accordance with the values on which we were raised. And that, I'm sure, in this congregation is very central, to who you are. You don't treat other people the way you don't want to be treated yourself. The lessons of Passover that we just taught about oppression and freedom and the need to fight for freedom for people everywhere.

00;10;21;29 - 00;10;46;28
Unknown
Well, what if we're the people doing the oppressing? And so J Street was born out of a belief that you can be pro-Israel. You can support the state and the people of Israel and stand up and say, no, I don't agree with Bibi Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Talo Smotrich, the occupation, the settlements and the things that were done in the Gaza war.

00;10;47;01 - 00;11;10;21
Unknown
And these are pro-Israel positions. This is not anti-Israel. You do not have to be anti-palestinian to be pro-Israel. You don't have to be pro-Palestinian to be anti-Israel. There has to be an end to both. And I think you were saying that earlier. J Street is pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. We are pro-peace, we are pro-democracy. And that voice was missing 20 years ago.

00;11;10;23 - 00;11;37;00
Unknown
And today we feel J Street is grabbing the center space in the American Jewish community. We are not the group that is anti-Israel and doesn't believe there should be. In Israel. There's a very strong, growing anti-Zionist streak within the Jewish community that doesn't believe that this is good for the Jewish people. And then there's another part of the Jewish community that doesn't believe the Palestinian people exist, or have rights, or should have a state just like the Jewish people.

00;11;37;05 - 00;12;16;14
Unknown
We're the group in the middle. That's who J Street is, and that's the vacuum we were looking to to fill. Thank you. Can you share about, what the five principles are that you founded the organization based on and how and how adhering to them has evolved? You know, as the situation in the world has evolved, like the Israel, Israel of 20 years ago, wasn't the Israel that you grew up with, but the Israel of 20 years ago is actually very different Israel from the Israel of right now.

00;12;16;17 - 00;12;36;10
Unknown
And so you founded the organization with like five principles. Yeah. Can you share what those principles are and how they show up and specifically how they're showing up now? So the great thing about principles is that they don't change. Right? And and what changes is the circumstances around you? I always like in this to navigating, you know, the stars are there.

00;12;36;10 - 00;13;06;01
Unknown
You know, the stars, but you're, you know, encountering winds and shifting tides and all sorts of things happen to you as you're navigating a boat. But your North Star doesn't change, right? And you know where you're going. Principle number one, we believe that there must be there should be a state of Israel that is the national home of the Jewish people, and that national home is, appropriately, in the land of Israel, which is the land of our ancestors.

00;13;06;03 - 00;13;33;00
Unknown
So that's principle number one. Principle number two, we believe the exact same thing for the Palestinian people. We believe that the Palestinian people two have a right to national self-determination. It's very, very, very tragic that it's in the exact same geographic area. And that's the root of the conflict. And if Israel is going to be secure for the long run, if it's going to be democratic, if it's going to be Jewish, then there needs to be a state of Palestine.

00;13;33;00 - 00;13;57;09
Unknown
So that's our second core principle. Third core principle gets it. What I was saying earlier about being pro-Israel, what does it mean to be pro-Israel? And we said it in 2008. We still say it today. You can be pro-Israel and disagree with the government of Israel. Fourth core principle is that what I just outlined for you causes a lot of argument in the American Jewish community.

00;13;57;14 - 00;14;22;18
Unknown
And so our fourth principle is that argument is good. That argument is healthy. One of the most dysfunctional things about the American Jewish community is our effort to shut down debate and discourse and discourse and dissent and that when people stand up and they say, I don't agree or I want to represent a different voice, they're told that there isn't room for them in the tent, and that is not good for the Jewish people.

00;14;22;24 - 00;14;44;16
Unknown
So our fourth core principle is we're going to stand up for the principle of free speech and for open discourse. And so much of we're seeing what we're seeing happen today in the name of fighting anti-Semitism is shutting down free speech and shutting down discourse. And so antithetical to who we are as a people. If we're one thing for sure, we are argumentative, right?

00;14;44;16 - 00;15;15;08
Unknown
It is. It is the core of how you learn, right? It's the core of how you teach in the Jewish tradition is to have the argument and preserve both sides of the debate. So that's our fourth key principle. And the fifth principle is the values that give us our identity, the values on which you're raising your children and the values on which I'm sure the children in this community are being raised to pursue justice, to believe in the equality of all, to not treat other people the way you wouldn't want to be treated yourself.

00;15;15;11 - 00;15;38;25
Unknown
Those are the values that we strive to live up to and to put into the world. On behalf of the Jewish people. Then the state of the Jewish people has to be held to the exact same values and the exact same standard. If we're holding our country, if we're holding other countries to that standard, we have to hold Israel to that same standard, maybe even more so, because it is the state of the Jewish people.

00;15;38;25 - 00;16;02;14
Unknown
And these are the Jewish values and the Jewish standards. And those five principles were on our website on day one. And it makes me really proud that as we hit 18, we hit adulthood, and that those five principles are still unchanged, the same five principles on our website today, because that's what guides us.

00;16;02;16 - 00;16;11;02
Unknown
You don't want to put some. Yeah.

00;16;11;04 - 00;16;44;25
Unknown
I'm tempted to go in one of two directions because one direction is to take you up on your invitation to feisty discourse, please. That'll wake everybody up. Well, I got, I swear, I have, I have two different, you know, a question from over here and a question from over here. The question from over here is, is from the Jewish non or anti-Zionist that says, look at the troubles that the Jewish state has created for Jews internationally.

00;16;44;25 - 00;17;04;27
Unknown
Israel gets into a war, whether it's a war it asked for or not. Antisemitism rises. Bibi Netanyahu does a thing, anti-Semitism rises. So like, how is this good for us? So that's on the one hand, why, why at this point in history, are we not just trying to do 15 million people in one big Democratic state? Why are we not trying to do that?

00;17;04;27 - 00;17;36;11
Unknown
Why is J Street not actually trying to do that? And then on the other side, isn't it very naive to imagine that through such liberal values as justice and equality and democracy, you can protect this tiny, little, fragile, only Jewish state amid a sea of countries that surround it that would prefer it not to be there. Isn't it naive to imagine that we can, with those good American values or what we're American values?

00;17;36;11 - 00;18;03;25
Unknown
Until very recently, you know, protect and keep the Jewish state safe. So to respond to the non-scientist or of whom there are, you know, in this room and every room you speak. Right. So the there were two different parts to your question. One was, are the Jewish people worse off globally because Israel exists the way it exists?

00;18;03;25 - 00;18;37;02
Unknown
And what it's doing is that is the fact of it increasing anti-Semitism and, you know, let's start with the fact that antisemitism is there. It is ages old. It is not going anywhere. I think everybody in this room probably has a story, a family story that is rooted in some horror that has been done to our people over the course of the centuries, and so to believe that somehow that but for Israel, there wouldn't be anti-Semitism, I believe, is naive and wrongheaded.

00;18;37;05 - 00;19;07;23
Unknown
I think it would be analytically dishonest to say that there isn't additional problems, additional source for the Jewish people as a result of what Bibi Netanyahu and these people are doing. I think it is ratcheting up. It is pouring extra accelerant on the flame that's already there of anti-Semitism. But it's not the reason for the anti-Semitism. The second part of that question was, wouldn't we be better off if there was just one state for 15 million people?

00;19;07;26 - 00;19;28;21
Unknown
So that gives me a transition to the second question. There are those who say that the idea that you will ever draw a border and have a second state in the land between the river and the sea, that those people are naive, that those of us who believe that's the answer, that that's naive. I say the only thing less realistic than the thought.

00;19;28;21 - 00;19;55;27
Unknown
There will be a second state is the thought that there will ever be only one state with equal rights for all people. That will never happen. Why? Because the people of Israel, the Jewish people, are not going to vote out of existence a Jewish state. It isn't going to happen. As much as we would love for us to imagine that there could be one wonderful glowing democracy of equality between the river and the sea for all the people there.

00;19;55;27 - 00;20;24;00
Unknown
They hate each other. We have to be honest, the hatred that we as the Jewish people feel at times. Look at October 7th, the hatred. There is hatred from the Jewish people towards the Palestinian people in these two peoples now have killed each other for a hundred years. And the hatred is real, and they're not going to suddenly just put down their weapons and say, oh, you know, let's just all live together peacefully.

00;20;24;00 - 00;20;45;11
Unknown
No, that's not going to happen. And the Jewish people are not going to go to the Knesset and vote the state of Israel out of existence and give everybody equal rights. So that's the only thing less likely than drawing a line, building a nice solid fence and border along that line and saying, your state's here and our state's here.

00;20;45;13 - 00;21;13;14
Unknown
Neither one of them looks particularly likely today, but I don't think I could even imagine the idea of that one state ever becoming a reality, as sad as that is. So that's the answer that I would give to the people from the left. Now, the the question on the other side. There has never been a greater moment of opportunity for the State of Israel than today.

00;21;13;17 - 00;21;43;13
Unknown
The neighboring states are ready to normalize relations with Israel. Even Lebanon is offering to sit down and talk. Syria is offering to sit down and talk. We were on the verge of seeing normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. We've seen it with the UAE and Bahrain. The entirety of the Arab world through the Arab League has had an offer of peace on the table for 25 years, called the Arab Peace Initiative.

00;21;43;15 - 00;22;17;24
Unknown
It's something that our parents and grandparents could never have imagined. The founders of the State of Israel in 1948 could not have imagined, as the armies were gathering on their borders to push them into the sea. They couldn't have imagined that the day would come when the Arab world wants to normalize relations with Israel. The only thing the Arab world is asking of the people of Israel and of the Jewish people is there has to be a state for the Palestinian people to not instead of but next to there's 22 states in the Arab League.

00;22;17;26 - 00;22;45;11
Unknown
One of those states is called Palestine. Those 22 states want to make peace with Israel. We call that the 23 state solution. We're not talking about a two state solution anymore. We're talking about an entirely regional, comprehensive agreement to normalize relations with Israel. And that isn't naive. That's what the Arab world wants. It's what the founders of the state of Israel wanted.

00;22;45;14 - 00;23;15;18
Unknown
It's what all of us should want. It's what the whole world wants. They want us to stop killing each other. And this is available if we had a government of Israel that wasn't messianic, that wasn't bent on river to the sea domination, but didn't believe in Greater Israel, that actually was willing to sit down and talk about the creation over time of a viable, well-run, developed Palestinian state that the neighbors are willing to invest in.

00;23;15;20 - 00;23;43;21
Unknown
Billions and billions and billions of dollars had been offered. If only Israel will say, we agree to the creation of a Palestinian state. And so I don't think it's naive. I think this is the only way for Israel to be secure, is the only way for Israel to remain legitimate in the eyes, not only of the world, but of our own Jewish community.

00;23;43;23 - 00;24;12;04
Unknown
Look at the numbers in the polls and look at the view of the next generation. The legitimacy of Israel is sinking with every day, not only in this country, but around the world. And so this isn't naive. This is self-preservation. To pursue this strategy. This is how you get security. Not through bombing Lebanon, not through destroying Gaza, not through bombing Tehran.

00;24;12;06 - 00;24;19;24
Unknown
You get security by reaching an agreement with your neighbors.

00;24;19;26 - 00;24;49;03
Unknown
Thank you. I'll just do a couple more questions now and then for folks who want to keep talking or challenging, upstairs after services will be the same spread of food that we have downstairs. But, Jeremy will be upstairs and will host a conversation for those who want to continue it.

00;24;49;05 - 00;25;23;21
Unknown
The conversation that we're having right now, I feel like you actually, we could have had this conversation 5 or 10 years ago, and everything you're saying would still be true. What has changed since October 7th and since? You know, everything that has happened since October 7th and specifically for American policy, and I guess the way that I want to ask this to you is the way that you're speaking is the way I feel like I hear a lot of American Jews speak, which is in the we using we interchangeably to talk about Israel and American Jews.

00;25;23;23 - 00;25;44;14
Unknown
And it actually has never felt more clear to me that that is conceptually, yes, we're all members of the Jewish people, but, very often I, you know, they're making different decisions. And I would make they're making different votes than I would make. It's it does feel like a different collective. You know, I we we have different collective priorities.

00;25;44;14 - 00;26;09;17
Unknown
They're moving further to the right. We're moving further to the left. So it's a little bit of a painting with two broad brush to just say we like we all share the same values and we are we don't clearly. So J Street operates in the realm of American policy. And J Street, lobbyists talk to legislators. I had the privilege of going on a legislative, what do you call it?

00;26;09;17 - 00;26;45;16
Unknown
Visit lobby that lobby day. You know, where I went and talked to some Illinois legislators with Lance and other folks here in this room. And it was it was really extraordinary how, how much, seriousness and interest these, these lawmakers and their aides give to J. Street's research policy recommendations they appreciate so much. Clearly, they appreciate so much that there is not only one voice speaking about what is good for Israel and what should be American policy vis-a-vis Israel.

00;26;45;16 - 00;27;09;16
Unknown
They really appear to appreciate, the the multifocal party that J Street provides and, and the idea that there is another perspective, sometimes the opposite perspective. And so it must be confusing for them because you have this organization over here saying this is what pro-Israel is. You have, you know, J Street actually saying, you know, the thing that the Israeli government wants right now, actually, we advise against it.

00;27;09;19 - 00;27;43;21
Unknown
We advise America not, you know, go to war with Iran, go to war with Iran, for example. So, so what I want to know is, in terms of policy, especially post October 7th, what are the kinds of recommendations that J Street has been making? Like, what have you been standing for? Well, I think one of the things that has made it possible for the, Israeli rights under Netanyahu to go where it has gone has been that there's been no consequence from the United States for the things that it has done.

00;27;43;23 - 00;28;11;18
Unknown
We have written a blank check. We provide money no matter what, even if we have laws that say recipients of our aid shouldn't do X and Y and Z, Israel does X or Y or Z, and it still gets the money. So first thing we can do is we can actually enforce the law. So if our law says we shouldn't give money to a country that's blocking humanitarian aid in a war zone, then we should not give money to a country that is blocking humanitarian aid in the war zone.

00;28;11;18 - 00;28;34;05
Unknown
That would be a starting point, right? To enforce our actual laws. The other thing that we do all the time is we provide what I call diplomatic immunity. We provide cover in every international setting for Israel. Any attack on Israel, the United States till now has stood up and said, no, you can't do that. You can't condemn Israel in the Security Council.

00;28;34;05 - 00;28;56;29
Unknown
You can't bring them in front of the international court. Anything that you're doing, you shouldn't be doing it because it's Israel. So why is it that the United States protects Israel in this way, writing them a blank check that nobody else gets, and providing diplomatic immunity that nobody else gets? Our view is our relationship with Israel needs to be normalized.

00;28;57;02 - 00;29;39;13
Unknown
We need to treat Israel like every other country. And if Israel is acting in ways that go against our values and go against our interests, then it's time to stop providing the blank check. It is time to stop providing diplomatic immunity. So that is a very significant shift. We happen to think it would be a very good thing for Israel if Israel faced consequences for what it's doing, and if it actually had to consider, well, maybe if we stand back and allow settlers to burn olive groves, if we're going to result of that is we're going to get sanctioned by international courts, we're going to lose American assistance.

00;29;39;13 - 00;30;02;20
Unknown
We're not going to be able to buy American weapons. Then maybe we should actually send the army in and stop these terrorists from destroying Palestinian villages. So, you know, these are and I think we're we're getting more and more to the point where, time is running out. The big difference from five years, ten years, 15 years ago is how far we've let this go.

00;30;02;22 - 00;30;31;25
Unknown
We are so close to the edge. Who's the we we we as American Jews, American Jews. It is on us. We have lobbied. We have set up a system in this country politically that says to politicians, don't cross a certain line, don't criticize, don't put conditions on aid, don't do anything that limits this because you will suffer a political consequence.

00;30;31;28 - 00;31;08;12
Unknown
I don't know how politically you want me to get here, but yeah, yeah. Anything that you say people already know. Excellent. All right. It's not just the policies of the government of Israel. It's the political tactics of groups like iPAC. Right? It is the combination of the two that are causing the problem. And if we try as a Jewish community, as an American Jewish community, to impose on the American political system a no questions asked relationship with Israel, that is going to backfire not just on Israel, but on the American Jewish community.

00;31;08;15 - 00;31;37;22
Unknown
And I think that's really important. This is why we have such a stake in this, and it is really important. And it's and it's not just about a PAC. And Congress. It's about the way we approach universities. And we say to them, if you don't shut down this student group, if you don't fire this professor, if you don't kick out this student, then you're going to lose that $100 million I was going to give you for a dorm, right?

00;31;37;22 - 00;32;10;11
Unknown
Or we get the government to come in and say, you're going to lose your cancer research funding if you don't shut down this encampment. And to throw around money and power to shut down criticism of Israel is not good for the Jewish people. It is not good for our future in this country. Thank you. Thank you. I imagine that people have many more questions.

00;32;10;13 - 00;32;33;29
Unknown
And, and so we're not going to be done here. I will ask you one last, one last question, which is, everyone agrees. Anyone you know, in this space from far left to far right that, like, we're not in a great place. So we found common ground. Yeah, right. Everybody agree? Agree on that. We're not in a great place.

00;32;33;29 - 00;33;03;18
Unknown
And discussions of peace, you know, solution, permanent solutions that that help everyone begin to heal and rebuild, that those feel very far off. You know, Sally Abed who I'm sure you know and have heard speak. You know, she was asked this way here in this room, actually, a couple of years ago, they were here and somebody said, what do you think is the answer to, you know, we're one state, two states where?

00;33;03;18 - 00;33;32;19
Unknown
And she said, you know what? You Americans sitting around with your like what, one state Tuesday like, actually we're so far from that conversation. She said, you know what we're talking about. We're talking about minimum wage. We're talking about just getting Israelis and Palestinians a good minimum wage. We're talking about like just having, you know, being able to like, ride the bus and not get harassed, you know, and and she said, like, come, come visit us and see the day to day and you'll stop asking all these big pie in the sky questions.

00;33;32;22 - 00;33;52;11
Unknown
From your safe distance of this far away, you'll stop doing boycotting. That actually hurts us, you know? And she said, come and visit and see how it goes. But, but from this far distance, we we really just have the headlines. We have the news that we're fed. You know, for those of us, that includes maybe 2 or 3 newspapers and, you know, perspectives.

00;33;52;11 - 00;34;22;16
Unknown
But like it it's it's hard to get into the daily, you know, sort of the, the beauty of the day to day, the beautiful mess of the day to day. We kind of we're forced to talk in these big categories, one state to, you know, policy stuff. But I wonder, you know, you live in this world, what keeps you hopeful that the work you are doing matters, that it will make a difference?

00;34;22;19 - 00;35;09;02
Unknown
So I think that the work that we all do matters not because it will necessarily solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring peace to the Middle East. That that to me isn't the standard. The standard is are we acting out in real life, the values that we pray about and that we teach our kids? And success for me is that people feel that they have a place that they can go to tell their elected officials and policymakers, this is how our country should act, that we are able to weigh in in the political system, in support of people who are going to stand up for those values, and then we're going to work in our

00;35;09;02 - 00;35;35;08
Unknown
own Jewish community, with our own institutions, to hold them accountable here at home for living up to the values that they say they stand for. And what gives me hope is how many people are willing to stand up and fight for those values. And success, for me, is holding ourselves accountable to acting in accordance with the values we say we believe.

00;35;35;10 - 00;36;06;15
Unknown
And I think we're doing that at J Street. And I feel really good. And I think we've created a great community, that was on the fringes of American Jewish life when it started and was regarded as an upstart, an outsider. We don't know what that's like. Right. But today, J Street is in the center of the American Jewish community, and the values and the positions that we hold are attacked from the right and from the left, and represent the middle, the moderate middle of our community.

00;36;06;17 - 00;36;31;13
Unknown
And I feel really good about that. And we are growing and we've doubled in size in four years. And I feel very hopeful that a voice of reason grounded in values, standing up to extremism, whether it's Trump or Bibi, whether it's extremism on the right or on the left that we represent, what I think are the grounded values of our community and putting them into action.

00;36;31;15 - 00;36;45;28
Unknown
Thank you. Let's give Jeremy a round of applause and thank you.

00;36;46;01 - 00;45;46;27
Unknown
Thank you.

00;45;47;00 - 00;45;56;03
Unknown
I know.

00;45;56;05 - 00;46;48;22
Unknown
To move. Yeah I and I love tonight I re I love to say no. Here on another night. Do I really do anything on the night. My one I can't, I can't go on every other story I love, I love. To be around. Hurry up now I know we know. You know yeah I don't, I don't, I don't know I have no love for the love me.

00;46;48;24 - 00;47;03;09
Unknown
With my mom and I. For the night. With me right now. Me and my ring. I'm not I'm not gonna lie to me tonight.