J Street official: ‘Quiet majority’ of US Jews reject both pro-Netanyahu and anti-Israel extremes

Most American Jews belong to neither the camp that supports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unconditionally nor the one that blamed Israel immediately after the October 7 massacre, J Street chief policy officer Ilan Goldenberg told i24NEWS, arguing that his organization reflects the views of the quieter majority between those poles.

Goldenberg recalled his work leading Jewish voter outreach during Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. He said the loudest voices he encountered came from people determined to support Netanyahu’s government regardless of its policies and those who were accusing Israel of genocide and assigning it blame as early as October 8, 2023.

“The overwhelming majority of people I talked to did not fit into those two spheres,” Goldenberg said. He described those voters as supporting security, freedom and political opportunity for both Israelis and Palestinians, a position he said J Street seeks to amplify.

Goldenberg, a former Middle East adviser to Harris who was born in Jerusalem, described himself as a liberal Zionist with a strong personal attachment to Israel. Supporting Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, he argued, does not require agreement with the conduct of its government.

He attributed the growing divide between Israel and the Democratic Party partly to Netanyahu’s increasing identification with Republican politics, beginning with his publicized clashes with former president Barack Obama over the Iran nuclear agreement and continuing through his close relationship with President Donald Trump.

Goldenberg rejected the claim that J Street had pulled the Democratic Party too far to the left. Instead, he said the organization now finds itself arguing both with groups that support the Israeli government without qualification and with activists calling for an end to the US-Israel relationship.

J Street continues to support Israeli missile defense and a bilateral security relationship, he said, while maintaining that US weapons transfers must comply with American law. The organization’s goal, he added, is to build a broad Democratic center that supports Israel but does not offer its government a “blank check.”

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Goldenberg advocated what he called a “23-state solution,” placing an eventual demilitarized Palestinian state within a wider agreement integrating Israel with the Arab world. He acknowledged that neither Israeli nor Palestinian public opinion currently offers a clear mandate for two states, but argued that attitudes could change if political leaders demonstrated a credible path toward regional peace and improved security.

Goldenberg was more categorical about Netanyahu’s relationship with American liberals. “The Netanyahu government has lost the Democratic Party for sure,” he said, while arguing that a different Israeli government could begin rebuilding ties even without adopting J Street’s positions.

He warned that another Netanyahu-led government dependent on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir could cause many American Jews to abandon hopes of repairing the relationship. A new government, by contrast, could begin restoring confidence by advancing a phased Gaza arrangement, confronting settler violence and renewing engagement with Palestinians and Arab states.

Watch Mike Wagenheim’s full interview with Ilan Goldenberg on American View for the complete discussion on J Street, the Democratic Party and the future of US-Israel relations.