Steve Masters

[J Street @jstreetdotorg]

Two young Palestinians – including a Palestinian-American – were just killed in a settler attack. This violence must stop.

🛑 Tell Congress: Support the West Bank Violence Prevention Act.

📝 Sign the petition: https://t.co/HC43VoeAGg

[Jeremy Ben-Ami @JeremyBenAmi]

When we founded J Street in 2007, we were written off as "fringe."

Today, we are proud to represent the mainstream of both the American Jewish community and the Democratic Party.

Read my latest here: https://t.co/prnxaIOmqu

[Steve Masters @ishshalom]

Awesome news!

[Andre D. Carroll @AndreDCarroll]

ITS OFFICIAL!

I will appear as the Democratic Candidate on the Special Election Ballot on September 17th 2024.

The purpose of this election is to fulfill the 201sf Legislative District for the duration of the year.

Join #TeamAndre TODAY by visiting https://t.co/tLP9cAwBMy.

[Lisa Blunt Rochester @LisaBRochester]

I was at the White House 3 years ago when President @JoeBiden officially declared Juneteenth a national holiday.

But we've been celebrating since long before then. Because we know the significance of freedom.

Happy #Juneteenth everyone!

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

OMG! Bette Midler just released this video about the Supreme Court. https://t.co/8HQcuQs5yU

[JustLaws @JustLaws]

JustLaws lobbies for climate justice, FULL STOP. You will NEVER find JustLaws promoting polluters, fossil fuels or pipelines.

Link to article: https://t.co/1e19kWCVjC

[JustLaws @JustLaws]

#PaidFamilyLeave is maternal health. Access to paid family leave can improve
birth outcomes and reduce the likelihood of re-hospitalization for moms and
babies. #Paidfamilyleavepa #Familycareact #paidfamilyleavepa

https://t.co/c8ZfmFnMJv

[JustLaws @JustLaws]

#RaiseTheWagePA has passed in the PA House and now we must #Pass15forPA in the Senate! Contact your local senator and demand that they #RaiseTheWage!

[J Street @jstreetdotorg]

As pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans, we know the Netanyahu government’s restriction of food and medical supplies to families in Gaza is a painful violation of our closest-held values.

Demand change, and sign our petition to Congress ⬇️
https://t.co/9tjBsco3yK

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

If you support the Palestinian people’s right to freedom and self-determination, please stop talking about “globalizing the Intifada” – I lived through the Second Intifada in Gaza, and I swear it was deadly, violent, painful, scary and I, along with many others, almost lost our lives because of it many times. Please don’t praise Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades; please don’t advocate for violence against Israelis or Jews, including those with whom you strongly disagree; please never tolerate antisemitism and be aware of how anti-Zionism can easily slide into antisemitism, though they’re not the same and I, of course, don’t believe any criticism of Israeli actions and policies is automatically antisemitic.

Please remember that Palestinians want a state of their own, and as such, you should promote the Two State Solution regardless of how seemingly impossible it is with the settlements in the West Bank – calls for the ending of Israel and the creation of a single state are impractical, wrong, unhelpful and won’t get us anywhere. Please seek alliances with mainstream Israeli and Jewish audiences, and don’t be deluded into thinking that by exclusively working with anti-Zionist Jews, you’ll be able to accomplish anything. Please encourage and permit for a healthy diversity within the pro-Palestine movement to allow for a whole variety of opinions, views, takes, positions, beliefs, and strategies – forced conformity never ends well.

Please adopt pragmatism as a necessary approach/ethos for actually getting things done instead of wasting time with slogan-driven and maximalist activism that does nothing. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are going anywhere. I’m under no illusion that figuring out how the two coexist will be easy; still, I beg all pro-Palestine activists and young people who are getting involved with this issue to please not be driven by pure emotion or ignorance. Use your Western privilege to actually help the Palestinian people and promote a pragmatic path forward by engaging Israeli and Jewish audiences.

[J Street @jstreetdotorg]

J Street is proud to partner with Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen this Passover and to support their work to feed millions in Israel, Gaza and conflict zones and disaster areas around the world.

Make a Passover contribution today ⬇️

https://t.co/2Xrm5OzVwy

[מסתכלים לכיבוש בעיניים @Mistaclim]

As-Sawiya (الساوية), Nablus Governorate, today. Settlers invaded the village and attacked the residents. According to testimonies of the local residents, the settlers shot live fire. The ambulance driver, Muhammad Awad, was shot and killed while treating the wounded. There are more Palestinians injured in the scene.
Palestinian paramedic narrates the details of the murder of his colleague by armed Israeli militia in the village:
"We headed to the village once we informed about the settlers' attack on civilians and homes. Suddenly, while we were evacuating the injured, Israeli troops and settlers deliberately and directly fired live bullets towards us"

As most of the villages in the West Bank since October 7 , the village has been suffering from repeated settler attacks. In the last week the attacks have increased. The settlers descend on the village from the area of the satellite outposts of Rachelim and Shiloh.

[Gershon Baskin🟣 غرشون باسكين גרשון בסקין @gershonbaskin]

Warning!!!
If Hamas and Israel do not reach an agreement on a cease-fire and hostage deal before Ramadan, and during the month of Ramadan the fighting will intensify to reach Rafah, there is a clear and imminent danger of the entire region igniting - starting from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan and beyond to other countries. American soldiers are already paying the price of US support for Israel. The worldwide mobilization against Israel is getting stronger every day. Israel's military pressure in Gaza is not freeing hostages - it is killing them. A ceasefire now would serve Israel's interests, but Netanyahu, the most failed prime minister since the establishment of the state, is a prisoner in the hands of Ben Gavir and Smootrich and it seems also in the hands of his son and the wife. There is no common sense in the absence of an Israeli negotiating team from the ongoing negotiations in Cairo. The Hamas team has been there for the past few days and it is possible that the hardening of Hamas' positions stems from the fact that Israel is not there. A senior Egyptian official told me that when Israel is not in the negotiations, Egypt looks like Israel's lawyer, a role that Egypt does not want to fulfill, and this does not serve Israel's desire to release hostages. In conclusion, it seems to me that the Israeli government has decided to sacrifice the hostages and that is more than sad - it is tragic.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

🧵My article for the Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron): Many Gazans like me despise Hamas but are too scared to speak out. "Although voices like mine might seem few and far between, I believe that many more Palestinians agree with me than you may think."

https://t.co/Vye53anjIT

[Gershon Baskin🟣 غرشون باسكين גרשון בסקין @gershonbaskin]

Humanitarian aid to Gaza NOW protected by the IDF!!!!!
Since a new deal between Israel and Hamas will include increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza, I am once again making my proposal to Israel (and passing it on to the policy makers in Israel): I have written this before and I will write it again and again. More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza will remain our neighbors even after the end of the war. There is already a vacuum of governmental authority in most of the territory. The humanitarian crisis is enormous. The people of Gaza need food, clean water, medical equipment and medicine, tents, blankets, warm clothing - and they need it urgently. Hamas confiscates a significant part of the aid entering Gaza. Israel should deliver aid to Gaza from the north, center, and south of Gaza under Israeli military escort to ensure that the aid reaches the people who need it and that it is not confiscated by Hamas. It is not only the right thing to do, it also serves Israeli interests vis-a-vis the world. Humanitarian aid to the Gazans has nothing to do with the situation of the hostages. Withholding humanitarian aid to Gaza will not improve the situation of the Israeli hostages. The threat of stopping aid will not positively influence Hamas - it can directly harm the conditions of the Israeli abductees. So let's do the right thing now regarding aid to Gaza - let it in, increase the number of trucks, have Israeli military convoys protecting the trucks and get it to the people who need it the most.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Just boycott them all? The decision by a large element of the pro-Palestine BDS movement (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) to shun & denounce Standing Together (Odim Beyachad/עומדים ביחד) is puzzling & truly short-sighted. It is also symptomatic of how far-left radical activists have & continue to sabotage, undermine, and weaken pro-Palestine activism with unrealistic, maximalist, aggressive, and, at times, even prejudiced positions, goals, and proclamations. At a time when the Palestinians desperately need diverse allies and partners, you’d think that some would focus on finding the slightest common ground with a wide-ranging audience, including and especially in Israel.

The problem with BDS is that it started as a reasonable nonviolent effort to induce corrective and different behaviors that serve Palestinians' legitimate and urgent grievances. Ultimately, this should mean achieving a just and equitable peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, two nations coexisting through pragmatic and realistic frameworks that are forward/future-oriented. As time went on, however, instead of seeking to expand the reach and efficacy of the BDS movement, it became a vehicle for the ideological expression of leftist dogmas and radical beliefs that are so common in social justice movements. Rather than pushing for political change through the use of pressuring tactics, for many within the movement, the goal became about dismantling Israel, eradicating Zionism, eliminating colonialism, and exceptionally maximalist, unrealistic, ineffective, and detrimental slogans and objectives. BDS only allowed for or promoted engagement with anti-Zionist Jews and Israelis, who are a minority that wields limited to no power. But any attempt to engage with “mainstream” Israelis or Zionists becomes a supposedly shameful act of “normalization” of Israel.

Just like the Occupy Wall Street & Women’s March movements, or even Black Lives Matter (the national organization, not the idea/principle) lost their potency due to leftists/communists/Marxists/anarchists dominating the strategic decision-making, the BDS movement started facing a similar trend. I used to be a supporter of BDS because I was a proponent of a targeted boycott that induces a specific action/desired outcome. However, I felt disillusioned with the devolution of BDS’s strategies because they were genuinely impotent and thought that Israel and Zionists could simply be isolated per the commonly cited South African model.

Specifically, I always took issue with the academic boycott because academia should be a sacredly open, inclusive, and tolerant space that allows for all ideas and expressions to take place, even if someone is an Israeli or a Zionist. The charge that Israeli academics are a fundamental part of Palestinians’ oppression/apartheid does not justify academic bullying and isolation attempts – if you don’t like what someone has to say, then provide a rebuttal or say something in response (you know, the answer to bad speech is more good speech). But don’t seek to shun them literally because they’re Israeli (specifically, because they’re Jewish because Arab/Muslim Israelis are looked at differently by BDS activists).

Most importantly, and after decades of conflict, separation, and polarization, I believe engagement with wide-ranging Israeli and Jewish/Zionist audiences is more important now than ever before. Not only will this be key for maintaining both peoples’ mutual humanity, but it will also be instrumental in fueling grassroots efforts to solve various issues, including the occupation, settlements, and other grievances. Palestinian liberation will occur partly due to cooperation with Israelis, not despite them. Palestinian freedom and self-determination will not take place if the long game is to dismantle and deconstruct Israel, Zionism etc., etc.

And for the record, I personally oppose attempts by various state governments to criminalize BDS activism, which ultimately is a form of protected speech (with a few exceptions where some BDS chapters acted irresponsibly). There has to be an outlet for people to engage in pro-Palestine activism that’s nonviolent, and I don’t doubt the sincerity and intentions of many BDS activists. However, BDS has ultimately failed to make any meaningful progress toward its own stated goals.

Furthermore, I’d argue that the movement is doing tremendous harm to the pro-Palestine movement by attacking Jewish and Israeli allies and is an increasingly fringe, radical effort that is going nowhere. Engaging with diverse Jewish/Israeli audiences, and yes, that includes pro-Israel Zionists, should be normalized, not criminalized. “Anti-normalization” slogans are a relic of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Pan-Arabism of the 50s and 60s, a bygone era of immense failures, defeats, and setbacks for Palestinians & the Arabs – not exactly the kind of inspiration that a rejuvenated Palestinian national movement needs right now.

Standing Together is incredibly courageous and has been on the receiving end of terrible treatment by many within Israel. They’ve taken principled stances and have worked tirelessly to build allyship with Palestinians (many of whom are actively involved in the organization) and bring an anti-occupation element to the pro-democracy demonstrations within Israel. They’ve been the primary voice within Israel, consistently calling for a ceasefire and decrying the horrendous impact of the IDF’s operation on Gaza’s civilians. And as any decent individual or group should have done immediately after October 7, Standing Together condemned Hamas’s terror and atrocities and rightfully criticized pro-Palestine leftists and allies who justified the attack as a legitimate act of resistance. They’re trying to operate within the mainstream landscape to be effective and become a political home for diverse Israeli audiences disillusioned with the Netanyahu/rightwing regime. That’s how you build effective power, not by appealing to fringe elements within the BDS/pro-Palestine movement. I commend and respect Standing Together and stand with them (no pun intended).

[PA Working Families 🐺 @PAWorkFamilies]

Philadelphia is officially a two-party town, but it’s not the Republicans and Democrats, it’s the Working Families Party and the Democrats. 😎

[İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي @iyad_elbaghdadi]

Good afternoon (or morning, or evening). I went dark yesterday, really dark. But I managed to sleep and I have some clarity about the Al Ahli hospital massacre that I want to share with you. I'll only tweet this rambling thread today and then log off. Please read and share.

[J Street @jstreetdotorg]

Here is a list of organizations providing much-needed services to those impacted by the ongoing crisis - from emergency medical services on the ground to resources for Israelis stranded here in the US.

👇Click to view and chip in if you are able.
https://t.co/I6qfg46hzs

[Steve Masters @ishshalom]

@Dan_UA @jenniferkates very exciting!