I hope you are doing well.

I’m writing to share important updates from the region, as well as J Street’s statements and resources from this past week. As a reminder, you can always find our most recent statements on J Street crisis response page.

All the best,
Hannah

—
Hannah Morris
She/Her
Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 832-606-1817
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page

This week on j street

STATEMENT

J STREET CONDEMNS IRAN’S RETALIATORY ATTACK ON ISRAEL, URGES DE-ESCALATION

STATEMENT

STATEMENT ON THE UNSC RESOLUTION FOR PALESTINIAN UN MEMBERSHIP

STATEMENT

J STREET U STUDENTS DEEPLY FRUSTRATED BY ADL’S CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM REPORT CARD

Tehran plays down reported Israeli attacks, signals no retaliation

Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war. The limited scale of the attack and Iran’s muted response appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a group of American Jewish leaders on Tuesday that further escalation with Iran is not in the interests of either the U.S. or Israel… The Biden administration and several other Western countries allied with Israel are urging Benjamin Netanyahu’s government not to rush into a retaliation against Iran that could lead to a regional war. The U.S. assessment is that Iran would respond to any significant, overt Israeli strike on Iranian soil with a new round of missile and drone attacks, a senior U.S. official told Axios. “We think it will be very hard to replicate the huge success we had on Saturday with defeating the attack if Iran launches hundreds of missiles and drones again — and the Israelis know it,” another U.S. official said.

Iran launched an unprecedented large-scale drone and missile attack at Israel on Saturday night, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria, bringing the long-running shadow war between the two sides into the open and raising the prospect of full-blown regional conflict. More than 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israel in an immense aerial attack overnight, but “99%” of them were intercepted by Israel’s aerial defense systems and its “partners,” according to the Israeli military.

Nearly three-quarters of the Israeli public oppose a retaliatory strike on Iran for its massive missile attack on the country if such action would harm Israel’s security alliance with its allies, according to a poll published Tuesday. The Hebrew University survey also found that over half the public believes Israel “respond[s] positively” to the military and political demands of allies… Over half (56%) of respondents believe Israel “should respond positively to political and military demands from its allies” in order to “ensure a sustainable defense system over time,” the statement said. Of the remainder, 32% were undecided, and 12% disagreed. Also, 59% believe that the US assistance to Israel against the Iranian attack obligates Jerusalem to coordinate future security actions with Washington, while 26% were undecided on the matter and 15% disagreed.

President Joe Biden took to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal Wednesday to ramp up the pressure on Congress to pass foreign aid legislation that would help bolster Ukrainian and Israeli defenses and deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “Now is not the time to abandon our friends. The House must pass urgent national-security legislation for Ukraine and Israel, as well as desperately needed humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza,” Biden wrote in the op-ed, promising that the U.S. would not “write blank checks,” to either country.

The attack by Israeli settlers on this Palestinian village was the worst anyone here could remember. There were pools of dried blood on the rooftop where assailants shot a man dead; a pile of lambs with their necks slit was thick with buzzing flies. At least two Palestinians were killed in the rampage across West Bank villages near Ramallah over the weekend, according to residents, monitoring groups and paramedics, fueled by calls for retribution after a 14-year-old Israeli shepherd went missing in the surrounding area and was later found dead. The Israeli military said he was the victim of a “terrorist attack.” Hundreds of settlers roamed the roads and hillsides of al-Mughayyir, eyewitnesses said, throwing stones and firing on residents. They set homes and vehicles ablaze, including a fire truck that had been called to put out the flames engulfing a family business. Palestinians threw rocks back at the attackers, they said, but were easily outmatched.

Israeli law only allows Jews to reclaim property based on ownership rights dating back to before Israel’s establishment, and both eviction cases were the result of claims made by right-wing Jewish activists. It is estimated that about a third of the real estate in West Jerusalem was owned by Arab Palestinians prior to Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, but that property was transferred to the Israeli government and to private ownership in accordance with the country’s abandoned property law.

The Biden administration’s Gaza humanitarian envoy warned Wednesday that “there is an imminent risk of famine for the majority, if not all, the 2.2 million population of Gaza.” “This is not a point in debate. It is an established fact, which the United States, its experts, the international community, its experts assess and believe is real,” David Satterfield said during a virtual event hosted by the American Jewish Committee… He stated that the roughly 300,000 Palestinians left in northern Gaza are facing the highest risk of famine as a result of being cut off from most aid deliveries. This group of civilians didn’t or couldn’t heed Israeli calls to evacuate at the beginning of the war.

Life changed in Israel on October 7 last year. The unexpected and overwhelming assault by at least 1,500 Hamas fighters, pouring into Israel by land, sea and even paragliders, killed about 1,200 people, Israeli authorities said. More than 250 people were taken hostage and moved to Hamas’ Gaza stronghold. Much has happened in the six months since. The massacres at a music festival in the desert and kibbutz communities prompted Israel to declare war on Hamas, leading to air and ground attacks that have devastated Gaza and the lives of the more than two million people for whom it is home.

The U.S. commitment to Israel — including $3.8 billion a year in military aid, the largest outlay of American foreign aid to any one country in the world — is a reflection of the exceptionally close and enduring relationship between the two countries. A bond of trust, however, must prevail between donors and recipients of lethal arms from the United States, which supplies arms according to formal conditions that reflect American values and the obligations of international law… In February, Mr. Biden signed a national security memorandum (NSM-20) that directed the secretary of state to obtain “credible and reliable” written assurances from recipients of American weapons that those weapons would be used in accordance with international law and that recipients would not impede the delivery of American assistance. Failure to fulfill those measures could lead to suspension of further arms transfers.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | April 19, 2024

This week on j street

What we’re reading

Tehran plays down reported Israeli attacks, signals no retaliation

Blinken: Escalation with Iran is not in U.S. or Israel’s interests

Iran Launches Unprecedented Retaliatory Strikes on Israel in Major Escalation of Widening Conflict

Poll: 74% of Israelis oppose counterstrike on Iran if it harms security alliances

‘We won’t write blank checks’: Biden urges Congress to pass Ukraine and Israel aid

Homes burned, animals killed: Palestinians describe Israeli settler rampage

Courts Order Evicting 35 Palestinians From East Jerusalem Homes; Properties to be allocated to Israeli Right-Wing Groups

‘It’s an established fact’: US envoy says most Gazans at risk of imminent famine

Six months after October 7, it still feels like Day 1 for hostage families

Military Aid to Israel Cannot Be Unconditional