In December, I wrote an article outlining what I see as the four layers of the Middle East conflict — a framework for understanding the forces that shape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader region. That article was prompted by a statement from Standing Together Co-National Director Alon Lee Green suggesting that the conflict needs to be simplified.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended J Street’s national convention, where I interviewed two other leaders of Standing Together: Co-National Director Rula Daoud and National Field Organizer Uri Weltmann. Our conversation explored how their movement — the largest joint Jewish-Arab grassroots organization in Israel — engages many of the same dynamics described in that earlier framework.

Standing Together is a joint Jewish-Arab movement focused on advancing peace, equality, and social justice for Israelis and Palestinians through partnership and collaboration — an approach embodied by leaders like Rula and Uri themselves.

Rula is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who lives in Jaffa, while Uri is an Israeli Jew who resides next door in Tel Aviv. Together they represent the cross-community partnership the movement seeks to build — though they acknowledge that such work comes with significant challenges.

According to them, the movement’s greatest challenge since October 7 has been the growing strength of Israel’s far right. In the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack and the war in Gaza, they argue that the far right’s vision of a “Greater Israel” has gained unprecedented traction at the political level. Some political leaders have called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, the rebuilding of Israeli settlements there, and the annexation of the West Bank.

Standing Together seeks to challenge that vision with an alternative grounded in peace and equality. Central to that effort is what the movement calls building a “new majority” within Israeli society through Jewish-Arab partnership.

Standing Together’s structure as a joint Jewish-Arab movement not only allows it to challenge the far right’s political momentum by building a new majority, but also uniquely positions it to address deeper dynamics of the conflict itself.

In my earlier article, I described the first two layers of the conflict as rooted in the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)