Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel lobby J Street, reiterated his group’s diplomacy-first preference in dealing with Iran during an appearance Tuesday in San Francisco, while recognizing the Israeli military’s tactical successes against Iran over the past week.
“Military force should not be off the table. It should be a last resort,” he said. “Escalation and the cycle of violence can get out of control quickly.”
Ben-Ami appeared with Israeli journalist Tal Shalev, the chief political correspondent and analyst for Hebrew news site Walla News, at Congregation Sherith Israel. Tuesday’s talk, one of four this week across the Bay Area, was moderated by Senior Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman Graf.
The event, titled “The Struggle for Democracy in Israel and the U.S.,” was initially billed as a discussion of what J Street sees as the similar struggles that both American and Israeli democracies are facing, but Iran was an ever-present topic throughout.
Shalev noted that being physically distant from the war, like people are here in the U.S., does not necessarily reduce anxiety among those who care deeply about Israel. In fact, it may be the opposite.
“To experience such a war from afar, I feel it’s a bit scarier to be here than to be in Israel,” Shalev told the audience of around 100 people in the sanctuary. “We have gotten used in the past year and a half to a constant state of war. When you are running in and out of the shelter, you’re in survival mode, you don’t necessarily notice what’s going on.”
Israel initiated a surprise attack against Iran early Friday local time by striking its military infrastructure and nuclear facilities and killing leading military leaders and nuclear scientists. Since then, Iran has retaliated by launching hundreds of ballistic missiles and armed drones toward Israel, which has been able to intercept most, but not all.
Twenty-four people in Israel have been killed and more than 600 injured by Iranian missiles, according to the Washington Post. At least 585 people in Iran, including 239 civilians have been killed in Iran and over 1,300 have been wounded by Israeli strikes, according to a Washington, D.C.-based Iranian human rights group, the Associated Press reported.
Ben-Ami, who has led D.C.-based J Street since its 2007 founding, said the organization’s diplomacy-first stance applies to Israel’s war with Iran. At the same time, he recognized that Israel’s military has achieved significant gains over the past week.
He pointed out that there is a consensus among American Jews that Iran should not be allowed to build a nuclear weapon. But, he said, “the distinction in the debate has been over the means of preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”
One argument against the use of military force, Ben-Ami said, is that it could end up motivating Iran to expedite its development of a nuclear weapon, even after its infrastructure has been weakened.
“You can set back Iran’s nuclear program by a certain period of time … by destroying some buildings and facilities, and killing some scientists,” he said. “But they can rebuild the buildings. The scientists have understudies. The knowledge is there, and the uranium is there. It won’t take long.”
Meanwhile, among Israelis, Shalev has noticed a renewed surge in patriotism over the past week. The intense national pride, which peaked after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, had been flagging as the Israel-Hamas war dragged on past Day 600.
Such patriotism can run parallel with a preference to strike first against enemies, she noted.
“There’s a strong feeling that you cannot wait and see what happens when enemies threaten to destroy you. You should take them at their word,” Shalev said. “That is one of the reasons why this war is widely in the consensus at the moment, even though it has brought severe damage and severe attacks.”
As the news cycle moves on, Shalev is concerned that the Gaza war and the 53 remaining hostages will be overlooked — if they haven’t already. Shalev also suspects that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s standing serves to benefit from Israel’s offensive against Iran, which over 80% of Jewish Israelis support, according to a new poll conducted by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Arab Israelis showed opposite sentiments, the poll found, with over 85% preferring a diplomatic solution to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
“One of the reasons why Netanyahu has been prolonging this war [in Gaza] is that he’s been wanting to run away from the 7th of October. It was a disaster that will always be on his name, and Netanyahu wants to reach the next election with a different story to tell,” Shalev said.
Israel’s next general election is scheduled for October 2026.
Looking ahead, Ben-Ami sees a potential path to peace in the region if the current Iranian regime can be weakened further.
“The partner for peace is the Sunni Arab world, led by Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Part of what brings everybody together is their desire to create a counterweight to Iran. I hope that there can one day be a rapprochement with Iran, and I think some of the Sunni states would like that as well.”