J Street and the Fight for Israel’s Democratic Soul

For decades, American Jewish organizations and institutions gave almost automatic support to the policies of various Israeli governments. Doubts were expected to remain unspoken, and criticism was nearly enough to expel its speaker from the community. But this “blank check” did not help Israel become a better place; on the contrary, it did the opposite.

The assumption was that we must help Israel improve its image to counter antisemites and Israel-haters. As an Israeli diplomat, I was part of that effort, presenting Israel in a positive way, until I understood that these efforts were shielding Israeli governments from self-examination and improvement. There are indeed antisemites and anti-Zionists around the world, but right-wing Israeli governments have only increased support for their antisemitic ideas by ignoring Israel’s own moral failures. It is those who insist on winning the “blame game” against the Palestinians, rather than solving the conflict, who are destroying Israel’s reputation on the world stage.

Yes, we focus on our need to improve rather than on our enemies. We do so because we are Israelis, Zionists, and Jews who feel responsible for ensuring the state lives up to its founding ideals. It is too simple and justified to condemn Hamas for its atrocities, but it is also necessary to acknowledge that Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government are only further empowering them.

In recent decades, and ever recent years, Israel has entrenched itself deeper and deeper in a policy of de facto occupation and annexation, with a trigger-happy military posture, armed settler militias raiding Palestinian villages, destroying property, and sometimes killing, while extreme right-wing elements have seized key governmental positions and brought their racist ideology into the heart of the Israeli establishment.

As an Israeli Jew who cares deeply for the State of Israel and is connected to it in every way, I feel the democratic space shrinking. Many Israelis, myself included, feel profound disappointment in the Israeli government’s failure, and especially in its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take responsibility for the failures that led to the October 7 massacre. We feel that the police, under the leadership of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was previously convicted of supporting a Kahanist terrorist organization, are becoming a force for suppressing free expression and dissent. We feel that our Prime Minister, currently on trial for fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, seeks to bend the state to his personal interests. And we fear that, as Israel’s next elections approach, steps will be taken to undermine their fairness and ensure their results do not reflect the full range of Israeli citizens’ views.

I also follow the difficult feelings of many American Jews who feel pain watching their national homeland change. They are troubled to see how too many Israeli Jews have forgotten what it means to be a minority and treat Israel’s Arab minority in ways that are incomprehensible to Jews who have themselves lived as a minority in the United States.

My love for Israel, and the love of J Street, which I am proud to represent in Israel, is demanding, but that demand stems from deep concern for the future of the Jewish people’s nation-state. It is a concern I share not only with many American Jews but with many within Israeli society as well.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, largely attacked J Street with harsh and ugly words out of frustration. He watches with dismay as the Israeli far-right loses influence in the United States, as American Jewish citizens are no longer willing to rubber-stamp every move of the far-right government he represents. He has no interest in criticism or partnership, only in American Jewry serving as a backing choir for Netanyahu’s government’s harmful policies.

J Street serves as a political home for American Jews who are Zionists, liberals, and supporters of Israel, peace, and democracy. They are also unwilling to choose between their love for Israel and their liberal values. These are Jews who believe Israel must be safe, strong, and prosperous, but also democratic, moral, and peace-seeking. They understand that genuine support for Israel cannot mean automatic support for any Israeli government, and certainly not for one that is leading Israel into a political, moral, and security abyss.

Those who ask American Jews to support Israel without question are not strengthening the bond between diaspora Jews and Israel; they are damaging it. They are essentially telling us that Zionism is incompatible with liberalism, democracy, and the values of tikkun olam that lie at the core of Jewish identity. This is an impossible demand, and at its heart, an anti-Zionist one.

Zionism has never been a project of blind obedience to a leader or any particular government. Anyone who reads Israel’s Declaration of Independence understands this well. The State of Israel was not established to be a coercive fortress that sanctifies control over another people. It was established to be a democratic national home for the Jewish people, built on the foundations of freedom, justice, and peace, and committed to full equality of rights for all its citizens, regardless of religion, race, or gender.

It is therefore precisely those who are fighting today, in Israel and in the diaspora, for Israeli democracy, for judicial independence, for the rights of the Palestinian minority in Israel, for an end to the occupation, and for a political solution, who are protecting the core of the Zionist vision. Those who seek to silence this criticism in the name of “love for Israel” are not defending the State of Israel. They are defending an extreme and harmful government that endangers the state’s future.