FUTURE OF JEWISH
J Street is not being honest about Israel
Joshua Hoffman
June 2, 2026

…In a recent essay, J Street founder and president Jeremy Ben-Ami posed a question that he says is increasingly common among younger progressives: “How can someone claim to believe in equality, human rights and liberal values while supporting a state that defines itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people?” But perhaps the more relevant question is the opposite one: How can someone claim to believe in equality, human rights, liberal values, pluralism, democracy, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, religious freedom, minority rights, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the rule of law while supporting the Palestinian national movement? That is not a rhetorical question. Israel is and has always been the only democratic country in the Middle East which is, by definition, liberal. Israeli citizens vote in free elections, our courts operate independently, our press is free and often fiercely critical of the government, and our minorities enjoy political and legal rights that remain rare throughout much of the region. READ MORE