AJC's Ten Principles on the Israel-Hamas War and the Path to Peace
October 2025
AJC continues to mourn the victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attacks in southern Israel, is enraged by the brutal detention and starvation of hostages and insists on their return without further delay, and grieves for all Israelis and Palestinian civilians who have been killed, wounded, or displaced as a result of this war.
As the October 7 massacre and Israel’s military response continue to convulse the region and shape perceptions and debates about Israel, U.S. policy and presence in the Middle East, and the prospect of advancing Israeli-Palestinian and wider Arab-Israeli peace – and in the aftermath of the Twelve-Day War between Israel and Iran – American Jewish Committee sets forth the following policy principles on the necessary steps to achieve a more stable future for all peoples of the region.
Israel’s Right to Self-Defense
Israel has the right and obligation, as does any state, to defend its territorial integrity and the lives of its residents against any and all aggressors. Israel’s response to the mass murder, atrocities, rapes, and kidnappings by Iran-backed Hamas and other terrorist proxies on and since October 7 admirably strives to adhere to international law to an extent with no precedent in modern urban warfare. Hamas leaders’ diversion of resources to embed its terrorist infrastructure within and under Gaza homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques, together with its routine exploitation of Palestinian civilians as human shields, are deplorable and have created one of the most complex warfare environments in modern history.
Since Israel’s founding, AJC has been a steadfast ally and supporter of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. We condemn those who deny or disregard Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign state, and its right to self-defense, and who seek to hold Israel’s behavior to a standard applied to no other nation.
AJC is deeply disturbed by the campaigns of misinformation and delegitimization that have emerged since October 7, 2023, and have directly led to a rise in anti-Israel and antisemitic attacks and sentiment around the world. The global community has too often chosen to believe Hamas terrorist talking points and propaganda permeating mainstream and social media over the word of the only democracy in the Middle East. Slanderous accusations and binary narratives have become commonplace – casting aside facts and complexities about the situation on the ground in Israel and Gaza that pose any threat to the false narrative of Israel as the “oppressor.” AJC will continue to forcefully fight back against these efforts with every tool at our disposal.
As a primary example of these dangerous efforts, AJC strongly rejects the libelous and offensive claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is fighting a war in Gaza against Hamas and other armed groups that continue to hold Israelis hostage, and whose presence among civilians and civilian structures is pervasive. While extensive and distressing civilian suffering has resulted, evidence abounds that the IDF has sought to carry out its operations in line with international law, and to reduce the resulting harm to Palestinian civilians in numerous ways. “Genocide” refers to the physical destruction of an entire group in whole or in part that has been targeted on the basis of its identity. This clearly is not Israel’s objective in Gaza. Some of those who claim otherwise misunderstand the legal definition of genocide and what the laws of war permit; others base the charge on unsubstantiated claims; and still others seek to alter the definition of the term to further their own political aims. Whatever the reason, making unfounded claims against Israel does not advance the goal of bringing about a sustainable end to this conflict. Further explanation of this deeply problematic claim can be found here.
Humanitarian Aid for Palestinian Civilians in Gaza
It is essential that sufficient humanitarian aid continue to reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza. We feel immense sorrow for the grave toll this war has taken on Palestinian civilians, and we remain concerned about food insecurity in Gaza.
AJC recognizes that delivery of humanitarian aid in an active war zone is extraordinarily complex. We praise the United States and Israel for working together to create an alternative aid delivery system, through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in order to exclude Hamas from the aid distribution process. While GHF cannot yet stand on its own as the only distribution mechanism, its creation is an important development.
Whether through UN mechanisms, GHF, or collaboration with other NGOs, adequate aid must continue to flow and reach civilians. AJC welcomed Israel’s announcement in late July 2025 of a series of significant additional actions to increase the flow and distribution of aid in Gaza, including new airdrops, humanitarian corridors for United Nations aid convoys, humanitarian pauses, and measures to increase access to water. We urge Israel, GHF, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Since the beginning of the war, Hamas has prevented aid from reaching civilians and hoarded it for its own malign uses. The Iran-backed terror organization, whose priority is and has always been the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, and not the rights and welfare of the Palestinian people, has exacerbated the challenges of humanitarian aid distribution by diverting aid from civilians, exploiting aid to generate revenue which fuels its control over Gaza and war against Israel, and by using violence and intimidation to prevent civilians from accessing aid. Hamas has continuously and cynically created the conditions for, and weaponized, Palestinian suffering in order to demonize Israel — a tactic which too many continue to ignore. Hamas is ultimately responsible for this war and its continuation — further evidenced by its continued unwillingness to agree to terms which would result in a renewed ceasefire and hostage-release agreement.
Ending the War in Gaza
AJC believes that Israel has every right to fulfill its core objectives of the war: to bring home the remaining hostages and to end Hamas’s rule in Gaza and its offensive capabilities. A permanent end to hostilities in Gaza can be assured only once 1) all the hostages, living or deceased, are returned, 2) Hamas ceases to pose a security a threat to Israel and to the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace, and 3) Hamas has no continuing governing authority in Gaza.
AJC urges and supports ongoing efforts to negotiate a ceasefire which results in the liberation of all the hostages and sets the stage for a conclusion of the war in Gaza and a positive postwar future for Gazans, in a way which fulfills Israel’s legitimate security objectives and advances regional stability.
The Future of Gaza
Israel’s obligation to assure the safety of its citizens requires forceful steps, in coordination with willing and able outside parties, to prevent the continuation of Hamas rule in the enclave. Long-term success in countering terrorist threats from Gaza and meeting the humanitarian needs of its population will require an empowered local governing body or coalition, linked to a comprehensively reformed Palestinian Authority, which is committed to peaceful coexistence with Israel, and which is worthy of regional and international support to enable the enclave’s reconstruction.
Although it will be necessary, after the fulfillment of its military objectives and in the near term, for Israel to maintain an appropriate degree of responsibility for security in Gaza – so as to prevent a Hamas resurgence and to counter other terrorist threats – that role should be the extent of Israel’s presence in the enclave. While temporary Israeli administration in the Gaza Strip may be required during a period of transition, AJC strongly opposes the establishment of a permanent Israeli administrative presence in Gaza.
The Unique and Critical Role of the United States
AJC recognizes the unique role of the United States, Israel’s irreplaceable strategic partner and democratic ally, in supporting Israel materially and politically in meeting shared objectives in Gaza: the liberation of hostages, the end of Hamas rule, the vanquishing of persistent terrorist threats to Israel, and the establishment of postwar conditions which enable the rebuilding and revitalization of Gaza. We are grateful for the consistent and vital U.S. support Israel has received since October 7, from successive administrations and from strong bipartisan majorities in Congress, and we urge its continuation.
AJC encourages the United States, in close partnership with Israel and allied states, to lay the groundwork for the “day after” in Gaza, a plan reflective of Israel’s justified security concerns. We recognize that a “two states for two peoples” resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the current highly charged context – with the wounds of October 7 in Israel still fresh, hostages still held, hostilities on multiple fronts, and the massive devastation and loss of Palestinian life in Gaza – faces significant headwinds. Yet, with pragmatism and patience, we continue to imagine, and urge that all parties strive for, a more hopeful future, in which Israelis’ security requirements and Palestinians’ political aspirations can each be fulfilled.
Threats of Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
AJC regards the prospect of re-establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza, or of forcefully or coercively displacing Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, as immoral and contrary to Israel’s strategic interests. AJC strongly condemns extremist, inflammatory remarks made by certain Israeli officials in this regard.
AJC also condemns the repeated acts of vigilante violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank and urges strict enforcement of Israeli law against perpetrators of such crimes.
A Better Future for Israelis and Palestinians
The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, indigenous to both Jews and Arabs, cannot be the exclusive domain of one people and must be shared, as the UN General Assembly resolved in partitioning Mandatory Palestine on November 29, 1947. Alongside the thriving, democratic, and pluralistic state of Israel – the Jewish homeland, with citizens of many faiths and an integrated Arab minority – an autonomous, nonmilitarized, significantly contiguous entity must ultimately be created to afford political rights to the Palestinian population. Pursuing separation – the path to Palestinian statehood – will avert the emergence of an unequal one-state reality and will preserve Israel’s democratic values and predominantly Jewish identity.
The path for this future must begin with creating the conditions for a “day after” political process, which can only be realized by pressuring Hamas to return all remaining hostages and ensuring that Hamas’s extremist ideology has no future with the Palestinian people.
AJC strongly opposes unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state – an empty symbolic move that will not help the Palestinians, even as it strengthens Hamas, rewards terror, ignores realities on the ground, violates agreements like the Oslo Accords, and undermines much-needed Palestinian Authority reforms.
While the pursuit of a two-state solution, negotiated directly by the parties, can provide a political horizon envisioning greater stability and prosperity for both Israelis and Palestinians, international recognition must follow, not precede, such a process — conditioned upon new leadership, structures, and laws focused on state-building and deradicalization; the abandonment of educational curricula and civic practices which delegitimize Israelis and Jews and payment structures which reward and incentivize “martyrdom;” the demonstration of effective governance in the West Bank and Gaza; steps to establish a functioning, self-sustaining Palestinian economy; and provisions to assure freedom of operation for Israeli security forces as needed. There can be no Palestinian state unless and until the Palestinian narrative acknowledges that the modern Jewish State of Israel is here to stay.
AJC also opposes potential unilateral actions by the Israeli government that could obstruct a future path to Palestinian statehood, including annexation of the West Bank and applying Israeli sovereignty in Gaza.
Expanding the Circle of Arab-Israeli Peace
Navigating the challenging path to a more stable reality in the context of a rebuilt, deradicalized Gaza, a constructive separation between Israelis and Palestinians, and deconfliction with the new governments in Lebanon and Syria, will require regional support, in which Arab states which engage Israel – immediate neighbors Egypt and Jordan, and those with newer relations through the Abraham Accords – will have a necessary and productive role. Historic steps toward Israel’s regional integration, advancing an agenda to which AJC has long been committed, offer evidence that old mindsets can change and inherited hatreds dissolve. The UAE’s Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence and its Abrahamic Family House, introduction of Holocaust education in Morocco and Bahrain, and reforms of Saudi school curricula offer further evidence. In that regard, we encourage and support continued expansion of the Abraham Accords circle of Arab-Israeli peace and economic cooperation.
Countering the Iranian Threat
AJC applauded the decisive actions taken by Israel and the United States in June 2025 to disrupt the Iranian regime’s progress toward military nuclear capability. In the aftermath of the Twelve-Day War, AJC urges the United States to take the lead in formalizing unambiguous, inclusive, and enforceable understandings with the Iranian regime that extend the ceasefire between the regime and Israel and end Tehran’s decades-long threat to regional and global stability and peace.
Issues related to the Iranian nuclear program – the disposition of its massive stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and its continued ability to enrich – as well as Iran’s ballistic missile development, regional interference through its network of terror proxies, and ongoing human rights violations, must all be addressed in any comprehensive diplomatic settlement. If the Iranian regime refuses to negotiate in good faith, further action to degrade its capabilities and impose meaningful economic sanctions must be taken. Additionally, in light of Tehran’s record of international assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and other terror plots, we call on the European Union and all governments to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Doing so would cripple its operations abroad, and make Jewish communities and broader society more secure.
Celebrating the Miracle of Israel
Although granted no lasting respite from war and terror throughout its 77-year history, Israel has been a beacon of democracy and progress, a contributor to regional security and prosperity, and an inspiration and source of pride for Jews and other admirers worldwide. Israel cannot simply be defined as an item on the evening news, a subject of debate in parliaments and podcasts and on university campuses, or a bold architect of a transformed Middle East. Israel is a promise that has lived in the hearts of the Jewish people through their millennia in diaspora; a dream of freedom and safety fulfilled in our time; a modern state of all its citizens, Jews and non-Jews. We celebrate, and are pledged to defend, its endurance and its ongoing contributions to mankind. Am Yisrael Chai!
