The fighting between Israel and Iran is intensifying. Casualties on both sides are mounting. With residents of Tehran fleeing the capital and Israelis rushing into bomb shelters, the conflict is already taking an enormous toll on civilians with no end in sight.

To assess everything at stake, we held a J Street Policy Center briefing featuring Iran experts Ali Vaez and Sima Shine, moderated by J Street’s Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg.

Note: Sima was calling in while in transit to be closer to a bomb shelter in Israel. As such, her audio cuts out from time to time.

Last night, the Netanyahu government unilaterally struck Iran, damaging a nuclear facility and assassinating top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. Iran responded swiftly, launching at least a hundred drones that the IDF has intercepted.

What might come next – and the toll it could take on innocent Israelis and Iranians – is deeply disturbing.

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami was joined by our Chief of Policy Ilan Goldenberg, who’s spent a significant amount of his public service career focused on diplomacy with Iran, as well as J Street Policy Fellows Jen Gavito and Frank Lowenstein, as well as Kelsey Davenport, Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association.

President Trump takes off for the Middle East on Monday. There’s no shortage of pressing issues up for discussion in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. However, it's still unclear what Trump’s reaction will be to the Israeli government’s newly announced plans to re-seize large swaths of Gaza, and how the announcement might impact his discussions.

Notably missing from the itinerary? A stop in Israel. This comes despite reported lobbying on behalf of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political confidants.

J Street's Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg sat down with Middle East experts and former senior State Department officials Ambassador Michael Ratney and Jen Gavito to talk through what to expect on Trump’s visit.

As American supporters of Israel, we share a profound love for the Jewish homeland. And yet we see so clearly the dangerous, authoritarian path its leaders are taking. We feel this struggle even stronger as Israel celebrates its 77th Yom Ha'atzmaut, its Independence Day.

J Street, Hatikvah and our Progressive Israel Network partners gathered for a discussion featuring IKAR's Rabbi Sharon Brous and civil rights lawyer Evan Wolfson and moderated by Hatikvah delegate Talia Benamy to honor what we’re proud of – and what we continue to aspire to – in Israel.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nick Kristof has just returned from Israel and the West Bank, penning a series of blistering New York Times columns on the brutal impact of war on civilians, the failures of Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders, and the moral depravity of allowing this situation to continue.

Hejoined J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami to discuss his take on where we find ourselves now, the disastrous dynamic that’s taken hold between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, and what we can collectively do about it.

This year, J Street’s friends at the Forum for Regional Thinking and The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute released a landmark report answering the question we’ve heard a lot in the past year and a half: What else is Israel to do?

Titled 'The Present Day: Peacemaking Alternatives for Israeli Policy,' the report outlines an alternative path for Israel – one that it’s still not too late to pursue – designed to lock in lasting security gains, save innocent lives in Gaza and transform the prospects for long-term peace.

To help us unpack the findings and recommendations of the report, J Street’s Policy Center was excited to host a virtual briefing with the report’s authors, Dr. Assaf David and Dr. Smadar Ben-Natan.

Trump's assault on our freedoms and higher education writ large is being done in our names – our fears about antisemitism exploited to push an extreme, anti-democratic agenda. J Street U leaders will be the first to tell you that it’s only making things worse.

We spoke directly with students Lauren Haines at the University of Michigan and Ma’ayan Stutman-Shaw from Brown University, who told us how this moment is transforming the atmosphere on college campuses – how it’s impacting both Jewish and non-Jewish students alike.

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami zoomed out to discuss our response as a community and a movement that has to speak out – and how we’re pressing others in the organized Jewish community to take action as well.

Netanyahu’s decision this week to reignite the anguish of the Gaza war is a dark, painful milestone. In response, we were joined by Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin and Ilan Goldenberg to discuss the impact on Israelis, Palestinians, the United States and our own community.

The latest reports indicate that rather than moving forward to the next phase of the deal, Prime Minister Netanyahu is seeking to extend Phase I, aiming to secure the release of more hostages while avoiding any commitment to end the war.

The release of all remaining hostages and a lasting ceasefire look likely to be delayed – a devastating blow to Israeli families with loved ones still in captivity and Palestinians who, at best, have just begun picking up the pieces of their lives.

As the fate of the agreement hangs in the balance, tensions on the eastern and northern fronts are also growing. Israel has sent tanks to the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, as part of operations that have escalated to levels unseen since the Second Intifada, and violence is escalating on Israel’s border with Lebanon and Syria.

We’ll take a deep dive into considerations of the parties engaged in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, and look at the emergency Arab League summit in Egypt on March 4, the role that US mediators are playing, and how the regional developments impact the fate of negotiations.

Former West Bank and Gaza USAID Mission Director Larry Garber and Israeli-based peace advocate Dr. Yael Braudo-Bahat join J Street for an on-the-ground perspective of Trump’s and Musk’s efforts to shut down USAID.