J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | April 13, 2023

April 13, 2023

 

Government Affairs News Digest

I’m writing to share J Street’s statements and news updates.

The J Street News Digest was on hiatus last week due to the start of the Passover holiday – days which tragically (though not unpredictably) saw several deeply troubling events transpire, beginning with two nights of forced entries by Israeli police into al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif to confront Palestinians who had locked themselves inside with fireworks and rocks. Video of the incidents – which also involved the beating of worshipers – was shared widely, and Palestinian militias launched rocket attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip and an unusually large barrage from Lebanon. The rocket attacks have stopped, but tensions remain high between Jordan and Israel as the former (whose monarch is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem) condemned Israel’s raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque and accused it of violating the status quo at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Also last week, a British-Israeli mother and her two daughters, residents of the large Israeli settlement of Efrat, were tragically killed by Palestinian gunmen while driving on a highway in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley.

While the Netanyahu government’s push for judicial overhaul is on pause during the Knesset’s Passover break (presumably to be resumed when parliament returns to session in early May), pro-democracy protests have continued as Israelis recognize that the threat to democracy has not subsided. Following massive protests after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, when the latter pushed for a pause in the judicial overhaul, Netanyahu this week reversed himself and indicated that he would keep Gallant in his job. For more on the turbulent first 100 days of the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history, I recommend the analysis by Israeli journalist Tal Schneider that you’ll find at the end of the news digest.

hope you’ll continue to make use of our dossier on the Netanyahu government. As always, you can find our Congressional briefing book, background information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recordings of previous briefings and more at J Street’s Congressional Resource Page.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

All the best,
Debra


Debra Shushan, PhD
Director of Policy, J Street
mobile: (757) 746-0366 | [email protected] | @DrShushan

This week on j street

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J STREET WELCOMES ISRAELI SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN FAVOR OF THE SUMARIN FAMILY

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What we’re reading

Tensions boil between Israel and Jordan over Jerusalem

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Escalating tensions and violence at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the last few weeks have exacerbated the already strained relations between Jordan and Israel, two U.S. and two Israeli officials said… The first two weeks of Ramadan were largely calm, but the situation escalated last week when Israeli police raided the compound to remove Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque… Jordan harshly condemned the raid and blamed Israel for the escalation… It also pushed for a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Jerusalem. A press statement by the council condemning Israel was blocked by the Biden administration… Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday accused Israel of unprovoked aggression against peaceful Palestinian worshippers… The Israeli Foreign Ministry fired back, claiming the Jordanian Waqf, which administers the mosque, didn’t take steps to stop violence by Palestinian worshipers… The Biden administration and the Israeli government were concerned that the tensions with Jordan would create a flare-up on Sunday, but both Jewish and Muslim prayers ended calmly with the Israeli police not raiding the mosque and Palestinian worshipers not using violence. “The Israelis told the U.S. afterward that things didn’t explode because the Biden administration pressed Jordan and the Waqf, and the Jordanians told the U.S. things didn’t explode because the Biden administration pressed Israel,” a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.
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Netanyahu Reverses Firing of Israeli Defense Minister

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced on Monday night that he had reversed his decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, 15 days after Mr. Gallant was nominally dismissed for criticizing the pace of the government’s contentious plan to overhaul Israel’s justice system. Mr. Netanyahu had never formally confirmed Mr. Gallant’s ouster, which set off widespread unrest and led the government to suspend its judicial plan until the summer. But the announced reversal came amid a wider effort within Israel to project a sense of unity at a time of deep social division and upheaval, and amid fears that Israel’s enemies had been emboldened by the instability created by the judicial plan… Mr. Gallant was technically fired on March 26, a day after he said the government’s plan to limit the influence of the Supreme Court had provoked disquiet within the military he oversees, and that it was endangering Israel’s national security. Mr. Gallant’s reinstatement was greeted with relief in much of the country, as there have been growing calls for greater expressions of military strength after a rise in attacks from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, as well as spiraling violence in the occupied West Bank.
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Lucy Dee dies of wounds three days after terror attack that killed her 2 daughters

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Lucy (Lucianne) Dee died of her wounds on Monday, three days after a West Bank terror shooting in which her two daughters were slain, hospital officials said. “In the name of all Israelis, I offer deepest condolences to the Dee family over the passing of mother Leah (Lucy),” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. President Isaac Herzog noted the prayers for her recovery, “but tragically Leah… has died of her injuries.” Thousands of mourners gathered on Sunday afternoon to pay their last respects to sisters 20-year-old Maia Dee and 15-year-old Rina Dee, who were killed in the attack. The three were dual Israeli-British nationals who lived in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, just south of Jerusalem, after moving to Israel some eight years ago. In the Friday attack, near the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the victims’ car, causing it to crash on the highway’s shoulder. The terrorists then opened fire at the car again, killing the two sisters and critically wounding their mother. The Israel Defense Forces launched a manhunt for the gunmen and other suspects who fled the scene, but they remained at large as of Monday afternoon… Several hours after the deadly shooting, an Arab Israeli man drove his car into a group of tourists near a promenade in Tel Aviv, killing Italian national Alessandro Parini and wounding seven others.
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Israeli Cabinet ministers lead thousands in pro-settlement march and rally in West Bank

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Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition. The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over a contested Jerusalem holy site. In new violence, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, while a 48-year-old Israeli woman died of wounds sustained in an attack last week that killed two of her daughters… The march to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous Israeli government in 2021, was being led by hard-line ultranationalist Jewish settlers. Daniella Weiss, another settler leader, told Kan public radio that the ministers’ participation in the march could be a “therapy for the government to free yourselves from the dictates of the U.S. and Europe” concerning West Bank settlement… Monday’s march appeared to be aimed in part at shoring up support for Israeli hard-liners like Ben-Gvir. Recent polls have shown a sharp drop in support for the new hard-line government in the wake of months of violence, including growing dissatisfaction among people who voted for it.
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Israel Moves Forward With Far-Right Plan for National Guard

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The Israeli government agreed in principle on Sunday to establish a national guard, handing a political victory to the far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had long demanded the militia as a condition for supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… the government’s decision on Sunday reflected the influence that figures like Mr. Ben-Gvir, a once-marginal activist, wield within the most right-wing government in Israeli history. It also amplified questions, dismissed by Mr. Netanyahu, about the control he exerts over his government. Mr. Ben-Gvir had demanded that the government move forward with the national guard as a quid pro quo for supporting Mr. Netanyahu’s decision last week to suspend a judicial overhaul which set off months of protest. Critics fear that the national guard would be used to target Israel’s Arab minority, which forms roughly a fifth of Israel’s population of nine million, as well as Jewish protesters and dissidents. If Mr. Ben-Gvir is put in direct charge of the guard, opponents worry that he might use it as a personal militia, a suggestion he denies. As a teenager, Mr. Ben-Gvir was barred from military service for his extreme views, and he later accrued several criminal charges. He has been convicted of inciting racism and of supporting a terrorist organization whose leader sought to strip Arabs of their Israeli citizenship and pushed for segregation of Israeli public spaces… There is also opposition to the plan within the security services and among moderate government ministers, who issued anonymous briefings to the Israeli news media that criticized the proposal for redirecting millions of dollars from other ministries.
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Tensions Subside in South Lebanon but Rise Again in West Bank and Israel

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After a rare outbreak of violence along the Israel-Lebanon border, the situation across the region remained volatile on Friday, when two Israelis were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and at least one other civilian was killed during a car-ramming in Tel Aviv. But fears of a wider escalation on multiple fronts involving Israel, Lebanon and Palestinians in Gaza subsided, at least for the moment. Palestinian militias stopped firing rockets toward Israel, tensions cooled at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, and the Israeli military ended its counterattacks on Lebanon and Gaza… Experts said the confrontation along Israel’s northern border was the gravest involving Israel and Lebanon-based militias in 17 years, and it left the region braced for the possibility of a longer battle across multiple arenas. But by Friday afternoon, those fears had ebbed, at least temporarily, as all sides signaled they were not seeking an immediate escalation. In Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, however, two new attacks stirred tensions. Hamas praised both attacks and said they were a response to Israel’s mosque raid in Jerusalem earlier this week and also to the Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza. But it stopped short of taking responsibility.
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ANALYSIS: The Hundred Days War: Chronicles of a government in chaos and a nation at the brink

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Sworn in on December 29, 2022, Israel’s 37th government is marking its 100th day in office. But this particular government, the sixth led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is yet to enjoy a moment’s grace. In democracies around the globe, governments are often granted a 100-day grace period during which voters, critics, rivals and others tend to display tolerance and patience as it finds its feet. But this norm doesn’t generally hold true for deeply divided nations, and certainly not this one. In June 2021, when Naftali Bennett was sworn in as prime minister, he was not granted the privilege of a 100-day grace period. Netanyahu loyalists shouted him down in the Knesset plenum and embittered his life at every turn — from the first 100 days all the way through to his political demise. Netanyahu, on the other hand, was seen as someone who did not need a 100-day grace period; he had been in power for most of the past 15 years. He has new ministers, but any grace period they may have enjoyed evaporated during the formation of the government as Netanyahu struggled to nail down his coalition, despite projecting immense self-assuredness. Immediately after the government’s swearing-in, the country entered into a state of upheaval the likes of which have not been seen for decades. The self-proclaimed “full-fledged” right-wing government claimed it would stand as a pillar of stability, with a unified voice and shared goals; instead, those voices and goals are fracturing the nation.
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