Nick Jonas

We're not going to be the folks pulling at the edge of the Overton window.

That's not our role.

And I think, you know, we can talk about how change works on a whole variety of issues, but there's always people who play a little bit more of an inside game and a little bit more of an outside game.

And we're definitely, we are a DC lobby, right?

And we're

for the things that we stand for.

In the late 2010s already, in our 2019 presidential candidate forum at our national convention, it was the fall of 2019, we had the Pod Save the World guys on our stage questioning the Democratic candidates for president about their willingness to start imposing restrictions on aid to Israel.

So we have made it our

point over the course of our entire existence to try to push the envelope on these debates.

And the discussion of restrictions on arms in the 2019-2020 window, that was a first within the Democratic Party.

We were pushing the envelope there.

And then over time, we got to

start to have, let's say, in the course of the Gaza War, discussions that began to be not about restrictions, but about conditioning aid and backing for the joint resolutions of disapproval, which really get the ire of the Israeli ambassador.

against Senator Sanders, supporting Senator Van Hollen as he tried to insist that critical elements of the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act and the Leahy Act, they need to be enforced against Israel because we have provided a blank check to Israel throughout the entirety of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

And to no one else in the world do we provide a blank check.

The other thing that we do is we provide diplomatic immunity

We say to Israel, no matter what you do, even if you're violating international law and some international body wants to then censor you based on the international law, we will veto it at the UN Security Council, or we will defund UNESCO, or we will do anything we can to provide diplomatic immunity.

So for the entirety of J Street's existence, pretty much, we have said there shouldn't be a blank check and there shouldn't be diplomatic immunity.

The specifics have changed as the debate has evolved over these last 20 years, and we got to the point now where we can firmly say Israel should just be treated like every other country.

It's a wealthy first world country.