And palestinians. [applause] as a gathered together movement, at a time when our are sacred democratic norms under assault, when the United States global standing is at an low, when our relationship with many key allies has never been more in doubt, and when our president proudly aligns himself with auto ratts autocrats and demagogues. In israel, we are faced with a Prime Minister who has holeheartedly embraced President Trump. Deployed the same kind of rhetoric andigoted has worked with the president to and nch the occupation undermine prospects for peace. E know that in order to vercome these illiberal forces, defend our values and better, y toward a brighter future, we must start by defeating President Trump at the polls a year from now. [cheers and applause] thats why we at j street are ommitted to defeat the current occupant and to support the eventual democratic nominee for president. We also know that to achieve our goals in the long term we than a win in this pivotal election. E need for the next president to enter office ready to take to undo ermined steps the tremendous damage done by President Trump. See him or her embrace a progressive [applause] embrace a progressive diplomacy first Foreign Policy democratic izes values, promotes a twostate opposes and firmly occupation, settlement, expansion, and annexation. [applause] street, were making clear that this approach to foreign and good good policy politics. It has the support of a large democrats and american jews, and we are egularly discussing these issues with the candidates who are vying for the chance to efeat donald trump and become the next president of the United States. Last night, we had the honor of from one of those candidates, senator amy this morningsin plenary, well be joined by buttigieg. [applause] feel. E how you really castro. Y julian and this afternoon, well hear from senator Michael Bennet and bernie sanders. [applause] save your biggest applause for our two guests. To interview these candidates on about the. S. Israel relationship, the israelipalestinian conflict, be lucky to have with us again ben rhodes and tommy vitor. Very few people can claim to have done as much as tommy and to advance a progressive policy y first foreign and to ensure that this president ial primary campaign discussion of s Global Affairs. So please join me in now in welcoming them to the stage. Hello, again. Doing . Verybody gala tonight. You guys are warriors. Why without further ado, dont we welcome our first candidate of the day to the stage, mayor pete buttigieg. Senator welcome. Mayor buttigieg thank you. Foreign ve a major policy plan back in june. I think you were the first to policy vision. And in that speech you said, if Prime Minister netanyahu makes promise to annex would nk settlements he know that american taxpayers bill. Help foot the [applause] see, that was a wellreceived line in your speech. Unpack that a little bit . Ow would you ensure u. S. Taxpayer dollars wont be used to fund annexation . Mayor buttigieg it begins by basis of our the relationship with israel is not Strategic Alliance thats very important to us but also an lliance thats based on shared values. We need to make sure that our ooperation, our security and diplomatic and strategic cooperation with israel happens in a framework thats compatible values. Ose it also has to be compatible with our u. S. Security and policy objectives. And in the long run what makes the most sense for american as israeli as well as palestinian interests is peace solution. State [applaus [applause] so the problem, of course, with annexation is that it is twostate e with a solution and i believe ultimately moving in that represents moving away from peace. A responsibility as make y ally to israel to sure we guide things in the right direction. Support is urity based on strategic objectives. Its based on values. Need to make sure that it goahead urn into a where we would be endorsing annexation. Ke that means we have a responsibility. By the way, we have mechanisms o do this to ensure that u. S. Taxpayer support to israel does not get turned into u. S. Move likeupport for a annexation. [applause] so short of annexation is construction. Weve seen a spike in settlement construction. B. B. Netanyahu was prosettlement. There are some who i think a certain level, settlement construction, you could no longer have a state. Uous palestinian would you also consider conditioning u. S. Aid to israel leverage to stop or slow future settlement construction . Mayor buttigieg well, ill say the u. S. Law framework for Security Cooperation and aid to has very specific expectations about how that will be used. His is built into the arms export control act. Into law. Ilt we need to make sure that any funding is tion and going to things that are compatible with u. S. Objectives and with u. S. Law. See steps ontinue to that are potentially estructive, i think it is a reminder that we need to have the visibility to know whether. S. Funds are being used in a way thats actually not compatible with u. S. Policy. Nd u. S. Policy should not be promoting this kind of se settlement construction because its incompatible or at best what we want to happen. Whats important is what this means, what this friendship is like. In the same way that in the u. S. Be and we are deeply to our c and committed country thriving. Without that in any way meaning to support the current agenda. Sident and his [applause] by the same token, you can be u. S. Israel the Alliance Without that entailing that you are supportive of, for any individual policy choice by a rightwing government over there. [applause] doesnt have to entail that. You know, if you look at the Bigger Picture of the vacuum of u. S. Leadership world, w around the certainly it has emboldened adversaries. I mean, you look at the way that russia throws its weight around, the way that china is behaving in termsa real concern of what happens with our adversaries but i think the in terms of matter, the u. S. Abandoning her leadership role, is whats going our most important allies, with our neighbors, with our allies in europe, and with like israel. So when i think about what could continue in terms of these settlements and certainly omething like annexation, i think about it the way a friendship where your friend is you think way that might hurt your relationship, might hurt them and might even hurt you. What you do in that situation is you put your arm your friend and you try to guide them toward a better place, and i think thats our esponsibility with respect to thesele po cis. To these policies. Stop texting your ex. Got it. Ben not sure i can top that. [laughter] so obviously a lot of the focus is on our relationship with in this room today. I think obviously another party are the palestinians. Obviously the most highprofile hing thats happened in our relationship with the palestinians is the movement of the embassy to jerusalem. That, though, there has been a downgrading of our relations with the Palestinian People who used to have representation through our consulate in jerusalem. There have been efforts to cut unding for the palestinian authority. You, like a lot of people, have spoken about some of the with the palestinian leadership over the years but in addition to talking about how engage the government of israel, what would you do to engage the palestinians . What would you do to try to show he palestinians that we want a relationship with the Palestinian People as well as the israeli people . Go about trying to strengthen them as a potential partner for peace . Of all, tigieg first we have a strategic obligation an ry to be perceived as honest broker, which is very difficult in this environment. Obligation a moral to ensure that were doing what we can to support the peace and the wellbeing of all people in middle east, palestinian, otherwise. D [applause] we shouldnt have any illusions terms of the n in leadership capacity and governing capacity. The er were talking about west bank or whats going on in gaza. Hat we do know meeting one of those situations by withdrawing talking less and reducing lines of communication never a productive strategy. We want there to be greater on the palestinian side, and by the way, its in everybodys interest for there greater compassibility you dont have partner for peace. And the conditions especially gaza cannot s in continue without eventually an thats in utcome nobodys interest. [applause] that the misery in aza has many sources and theres plenty of blame to go around, we know this doesnt get there is Stronger Leadership capacity and capacity on the side. E know the u. S. Cannot assume responsibility for the development of ideal and mature governing capacity in other countries. What we can do is make sure that were a beneficial partner support. Includes that includes aid. That includes multinational multilateral engagement. At a minimum it means talking andly asking liasing. [applause] ben i am glad you brought up gaza. Ou know, obviously, you know, when we were in government in the Obama Administration, the challenges were wellknown. The threat posed by hamas, well the iron d, you know, dome system, very important, i hink, protecting israelis against rockets fired from gaza. Inthe same time, i look back regret about the intolerable humanitarian situation in gaza. I mean, horrific conditions people are living as you alluded to. Do you think the United States leadership, to s have a humanitarian approach to gaza that seeks to deliver there, nce to the people that seeks to potentially work ith the Israeli Government to loosen the elements of the blockade there . Can we use u. S. Leadership to make life better for the people of gaza even at the same with the veryling real threats that emanate from hamas . Mayor buttigieg this is what i that the world needs america right now, but it cant be just any america. It has to be an america thats authentically living the and humanitarian values that we preach. Nd it has to be one thats trusted on many sides. [applause] because lets face it, this is ot just an israel policy question. This involves the egyptians. Dynamics ves a lot of around the mediterranean. The short answer is, yes, a is the rian approach appropriate one. The challenges, if we really ground on the humanitarian front, in a way thats compatible with the interests ofcurity regional players, the u. S. Has o be engaging with tremendous nuance and a deep reserve of good faith. And good faith are not exactly hallmarks of the current administration. So i dont see how this gets any better with this white house at helm. Were in this bizarre place where President Trump is neofascists like accusing then everyone of antisemitism by a democrat, you said that. How can you as a supporter of israel, friend of israel, those policies, riticize people like b. B. Netanyahu who made blatantly racist statements and seeming authoritarianmore himself while not following into asrap of trump attacking you antisemitic because of those criticisms . Mayor buttigieg right. It shouldnt be hard [laughter] be against bad policies and antisemitism. Stakes. Uld be table and [applause] and i dont mean to be flip im mindful that we just marked the anniversary of the massacre. Fe and the worst violence antisemitic violence in modern history that this is a reminder is not theoretical. Antisemitism kills. Hate kills. T is killing right here in our country. And the upsetting cynicism of is that you use hand omebody who on one literal noshit Jews Antisemites ase very fine people and on the other hand believes he can get that hes a nk friend of the jewish people by aligning not even with israel with a certain kind of politics within israel. Nd i just think that the American People and the American Jewish community are a lot than that. [applause] tommy agreed. Thats very well said. One issue, obviously, how these issues have kind of been weaponized in issue that ne in particular, we experience on a administration was iran. The next if youre president , youll inherit a very omplicated situation where essentially trump has pulled out of the jcpoa, iran has resumed its Nuclear Activity, consensuse diplomatic has frayed, obviously. You seek to return to the existing Nuclear Agreement that of as a ked out platform to pursue an iran policy . Or would you seek to take a new and different approach . Mayor buttigieg so facts on the the ground have shifted and theyll continue to shift by the time takes office ent in 2021, by the time i takeoffs 2021. [applause] at y think we got to look the Iran Nuclear Deal as a floor. And but i think we got to take a look at the iran a floor. Eal as the iranians, in terms of the sponsorship of hezbollah, and regionally destabilizing activities and folks are saying, oh, i see the eal is no good because theyre doing this. The deal was to restrict Nuclear Activity and it worked. It worked. [applause] so by the same token, the policy priority, i would take, would be ensure that we contain and restrict Nuclear Activity. Of course, we care about all of other problems emanating from the iranian regime. Need dont think that we to solve everything in order to solve anything. And if you have to pick one to prioritize, i believe the Obama Administration got this right. One thing to prioritize to make sure theyre not nuclear. [applause] ben and one of the difficult challenges, of course, that the inherit and t will seeking to approach those issues to u. S. Ially the blow credibility from withdrawing not just from the iran nuclear from a whole slew of agreements. By the way, not just obama agreements. That. Eyond not to mention just the shifting of International Politics as a trend thats been building. Reengage onhave to january 21, 2021, and address an specifically, n, where you need to build international consensus, you need to work with our european russia and china, how do you restore the currency of leadership . What would be the approach for an incoming buttigieg rebuild our n to credibility with allies and partners that we need on certain issues in order to get something done, like restoring the iran Nuclear Agreement and building it . Mayor buttigieg so job number one in terms of Global Affairs going next president is to have to be restoring u. S. Credibility. And it would be hard to how costly the loss of credibility has been. Deployed, i could feel in ways i cant even fully flag onthe power of the my shoulder. Nd since that just as much as my body armor and any military equipment, part of what was that that safe was flag stood for a country known to keep its word. Allies knew it and our enemies knew it and it mattered. Osing that is unbelievably costly anyplace in the world where we are counting on in order to protect american troops and american interests. The moment that has really stuck me, even before this horrific betrayal of our kurdish president s he appearance at the general assembly. Speech by trump tandards was actually not memorable. [laughter] good. Is [laughter] here. Ng on a curve [laughter] what at was memorable and hurt was seeing the faces of the World Leaders watching the speak. Nt not as a democrat but as an american. See the leaders of the world who usually look at the american president for leadership, looking at our countrys leader with a mixture think pity and contempt. I never again want to see an looked on that world. Leaders of the [applause] about . Do we do something beyond saying do no harm, obviously there are things we do. To reverse or not i think we need to look for reas where American Values, american interests and the aspirations of people around the linked. E all because this has always been americas strategic edge. People, that many either publicly or privately, anywhere around the world what we stand for. And im thinking about the desire for democracy, the desire for religious freedom, providing at least moral support for, for the people of hong kong who have not heard a peep out of support. E house of [applause] m thinking about some of our biggest problems as a global community. Anytime theres a problem that cant solve alone and that the world cant solve without it, thats an opportunity for leadership which means thats an opportunity to earn credibility. Climate. King about imagine if Global Climate diplomacy were a thing. [applause] if Global Climate diplomacy were deeply g that mattered in geopolitics, it would not for this sign of hope Global Security crisis but also n example of how we might be back on the front foot with china. And so the biggest thing i think really answer the core of your question, to buildup u. S. Credibility, is for the see the u. S. Meaningfully advancing things that the world needs. And putting our resources and ur whole tool kit of diplomatic, economic, and ecurity resources behind those values. And behind getting something done. Then, we can recover some of the trust thats been blown up by this administration. [applause] so yesterday president told of the death of the head of isis, mr. Baghdadi. Think we can celebrate his work ofnd celebrate the our special operators and partners around the world who elped facilitate that operation. But also, i say this with considerable humility as someone obama ked in the administration and for a resident who sent 100,000 troops to afghanistan for a period of time and were still there 19 years later and it situation m like the is measureably improved. There are pockets of isis in afghanistan. Ben and i sat in countless hearings about battlefield. Al qaeda becomes isis. Are we missing as a u. S. Government, as a counterterrorism operation that led us to a point where there are more sunni extremists