How We Fight Trump, J Street
J Street Vice President Adina Vogel Ayalon writes, “J Street has assembled a raft of actions President Biden can take now to improve humanitarian aid access, reinforce American and international legal safeguards, restrain far-right extremists, and help return hostages to their families and end the war.”

The Mythology of the Jewish Vote, Substack
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami writes, “Every election cycle, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition and other right-of-center groups and donors spend mega-dollars in fruitless efforts to drive a wedge between Jewish voters and the Democratic Party on Israel. And – cycle after cycle – the effort fails spectacularly. So too in 2024. This election was marked by seismic shifts in the politics of numerous demographics, but the major story line of the 2024 Jewish vote is the remarkable stability of the community’s historic voting patterns.”

‘Where Are All the Jews at?’ A Year After Mass Rally for Israel, Turnout at Its Followup Is Sparse, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A coalition of Jewish progressive groups cited that protest movement in a statement last week explaining why they were skipping Sunday’s event after attending last year’s rally. The groups — including J Street, T’ruah, the New Israel Fund and Americans for Peace Now — called for the event to more explicitly align with the Israeli demonstrators.

Could Donald Trump’s Win End the War in Gaza and Bring the Hostages Home?, The Jerusalem Post
“Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street — the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby that has called for a ceasefire for months, endorsed Harris and criticized Netanyahu’s government — said he could not predict whether Trump’s election would accelerate an end to the war. Before the election, Ben-Ami said that he believed Netanyahu was positioning himself to declare victory if Trump won.”

The Limits of Biden’s Lame-Duck Foreign Policy, Jewish Insider
“J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami urged Biden to place sanctions on far-right Israeli legislators Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, arguing that even short-term actions likely to be reversed by Trump could still be worthwhile. ‘It sets a precedent,’ Ben-Ami told JI. ‘They should know that there will be presidents willing to hold them personally liable.’”

Qatar Halts Role as Cease-Fire Broker While Panel Warns of Famine in Gaza, The Washington Post
Qatar said Saturday that it would resume its role helping broker an agreement only when the parties, including Israel and Hamas, “show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians.” Amid the diplomatic wrangling, a U.N.-backed panel also warned that “immediate action, within days not weeks” was needed to protect northern Gaza from imminent famine.

Netanyahu Appoints Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s Ambassador to U.S. Hardline Settler, Ex-member of Far-right Kahanist Group, Haaretz
Leiter, a right-wing writer affiliated with Kohelet Forum, supports West Bank annexation and was once active in Kahane’s Jewish Defense League. His son died in combat in the Gaza war. The pick signals Netanyahu’s intention to align with Israel’s settler movement ahead of Trump’s new term.

Former Obama Adviser: Democrats Must Realize ‘Our Democracy’ Angers Voters, The Hill
Ben Rhodes writes, “Democrats understandably have a hard time fathoming why Americans would put our democracy at risk, but we miss the reality that our democracy is part of what angers them. Many voters have come to associate democracy with globalization, corruption, financial capitalism, migration, forever wars and elites (like me) who talk about it as an end in itself rather than a means to redressing inequality, reining in capitalist systems that are rigged, responding to global conflict and fostering a sense of shared national identity.”

Netanyahu Says He Spoke Three Times With Trump in Recent Days, Axios
Netanyahu is also sending Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer to Mar-a-Lago this week, a senior Israeli official told Axios. The calls would give Netanyahu a chance to influence Trump’s thinking on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Trump has previously called on Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, but the Israeli Prime Minister has continued to pursue maximalist aims rather than prioritizing a ceasefire.

Netanyahu’s Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza Is on Display for All to See, Haaretz
The Haaretz Editorial Board writes, “The Israeli military is conducting an ethnic cleansing operation in the northern Gaza Strip. The few Palestinians remaining in the area are being forcibly evacuated, homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, and wide roads in the area are being built and completing the separation of the communities in the northern Strip from the center of Gaza City.”

Hungry Palestinians in North Gaza Search for Food, Sealed off From Aid for a Month by Israeli Siege, AP
Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City, where they find the situation little better. One hospital reports seeing thousands of children suffering from malnutrition.

Israel Said to Believe US Prepared to Go ‘All the Way’ With Threats Over Gaza Aid Crisis, The Times of Israel
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly conveyed a “sharp” message to his new Israeli counterpart Israel Katz during their first phone conversation on Friday, saying Israel risks jeopardizing the ongoing provision of US weaponry for the Gaza war if it does not credibly show that it has improved the supply and distribution of aid to Gazan noncombatants.

In Sign of Growing Strains, Netanyahu Not Invited to Biggest Jewish-American Confab of the Year, Haaretz
Netanyahu not being invited to address the Jewish Federations of North America is a sign of how divisive a figure he has become in the U.S., even among Jewish organizations that have typically refrained from criticizing the Israeli prime minister and his government.

Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush His Political Enemies, The Intercept
Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act would grant the secretary of the Treasury Department unilateral authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a “terrorist supporting organization.”

The Israeli Army Is Allowing Gangs in Gaza to Loot Aid Trucks and Extort Protection Fees From Drivers, Haaretz
Sources told Haaretz that the armed men who belong to two clans from the Rafah district have blocked a large portion of the aid shipments entering Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. The looting is systematic, they said, yet the IDF has turned a blind eye.

Democrats Must Choose: The Elites or the Working Class, The Boston Globe
Senator Bernie Sanders shares, “The Democratic leadership must recognize that, in a rapidly changing economy, working families face an enormous amount of economic pain, anxiety and hopelessness — and they want change. The status quo is not working for them. In politics you can’t fight something with nothing. The Democratic Party needs to determine which side it is on in the great economic struggle of our times, and it needs to provide a clear vision as to what it stands for. Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of our country, or you stand with the working class. You can’t represent both.”

My Palestinian Sisters and Brothers, We Need a New Version of the Palestinian Resistance, Haaretz
Palestinian journalist Rajaa Natour writes, “Hamas has made Palestinians’ bodies a tool to carry out its political views and the only tool in the struggle for national liberation. […] Hamas has abandoned the Palestinian existence not just because it has made all Gazans bear the blame for the carnage carried out on October 7. It has abandoned the Palestinians because Hamas never planned to protect them; from the very beginning it planned to use them.”

Looming Trump Presidency Set To Embolden Netanyahu And Hurt Palestinians, HuffPost
Akbar Shahid Ahmed reports, “As Trump and Netanyahu craft their approach, both are likely to benefit from dissenting voices being in a weak position. In the U.S., Democrats will likely spend months focused inward to try to understand their broad election losses, and Republicans and the Trump administration are near certain to clamp down on the anti-war movement and pro-Palestinian voices who are challenging U.S. policy on the Middle East.”