Israel this week observed two important national holidays – Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) – as its political crisis over the Netanyahu government’s attempted judicial overhaul continued. Our News Digest includes reporting by veteran journalist Ron Kampeas on H.Res. 311. He documents the refusal by House Republicans to maintain precedent and include language on the two-state solution or any mention of Palestinians in the Abraham Accords-focused Israel 75th birthday resolution.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries led a delegation of 12 Democratic lawmakers to Israel this week, as PM Benjamin Netanyahu tried to minimize his disconnect with Democrats. Separately, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was in Israel, and gave a speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance, built on top of an ancient Muslim cemetery.

The Knesset returns to session next week, and lawmakers from the Netanyahu government are likely to push forward with the judicial overhaul. On Monday, Kevin McCarthy will become the second House Speaker ever to address the Knesset. (Newt Gingrich was the first.)

I hope you’ll check out, or continue making use of our regularly updated 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.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

All the best,
Debra

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

This week on j street

STATEMENT

H.RES. 311 OMITS US COMMITMENT TO ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE, DEVIATES FROM LONG STANDING BIPARTISAN POLICY

STATEMENT

J STREET CELEBRATES AND REFLECTS ON ISRAEL’S MILESTONE 75TH ANNIVERSARY

Political crisis overshadows Israel’s most sacrosanct national holiday

Israeli families gathered at military cemeteries and memorial sites across the country Tuesday to recite prayers and lay wreaths for the fallen, only to see the gravesites of their relatives transformed into political battlegrounds. In Beersheba, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was disqualified from serving in the military because of his activism in a racist, anti-Arab organization, was met by mourning families who demanded that he leave. “You don’t deserve to be here!” and “You’re not a fighter, you’re a fascist!” some shouted at Ben Gvir, while others applauded him. The politician departed as scuffles broke out among bereaved families. Similarly painful scenes unfolded throughout Israel, where a majority of 18-year-olds are required to serve in the armed forces and virtually everyone has been touched by war.. But no place is safe from politics this year, as the most far-right government in Israel’s history seeks to weaken the Supreme Court and, critics say, change the very character of the nation. “Our child gave his life for the country, but the contract was that the country never stop being free and democratic and become a place that my children wouldn’t want to live in,” [Avinoam Shiran, whose son Daniel was killed in the summer of 2006] said. “Daniel would have gone out to protest, too.”

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to congratulate Israel on its 75th birthday and to wish it well in making peace with other countries. But the encouragement of peace deals did not extend to the Palestinians, in a breach with the language typical of U.S. lawmakers’ past Israeli Independence Day resolutions — and, insiders say, a departure from the language originally drafted for this one. Democrats pressed for the inclusion of the Palestinians in a resolution focused on peace-making between Israel and its Arab neighbors, but Republicans rejected the language. The behind-the-scenes struggle to even mention the Palestinians reflects how far apart the parties have drifted on Israel issues, with the Republicans joining Israel’s hard-right government in refusing to countenance Palestinian statehood. It also undercuts a bid to show bipartisan comity on Israel issues, as the top House Republican, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and top Democrat, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are visiting the country to mark its 75th anniversary.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with a delegation of American congressional Democrats, as he continued to dismiss the notion that his government’s ties with the party and the United States more broadly were strained. The meeting with the 12-member delegation led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took place in Jerusalem, against the backdrop of polling showing waning popularity for the longtime Israeli leader among both parties in Washington… The Israeli cabinet has butted heads with US President Biden administration over its effort to overhaul the judiciary as well as its policies toward the Palestinians… A separate Pew Research Center poll from last week showed that Americans are more likely than not to see Netanyahu in a negative light, and a plurality of young Republicans have never heard of the longtime conservative premier. Still, the seniority of the delegation in Israel this week also indicated that the Democratic Party’s leadership remains closely invested in Israel, despite the hardline nature of the current government. Biden said last month that Netanyahu would not be invited to the White House in the “near term,” noting his distress over the government’s judicial overhaul effort and urging the premier to “walk away” from the legislation it had been advancing on the matter. Netanyahu said Sunday that he “valued” Israel’s alliance with the US and his personal friendship with Biden, and insisted that nothing can “get in the way of that.”

Presumptive Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis lobbed a series of jabs at the Biden administration on Thursday, criticizing the U.S. President’s record on Israel while visiting Jerusalem for a conference celebrating the country’s 75th anniversary. “My view is that the United States should be a strong ally to Israel but we should not butt into their internal affairs,” DeSantis told reporters following a speech at the “Faces of Israel” conference at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance… His comments come a month after U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel “cannot continue down this road,” after his administration put significant pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to postpone the planned judicial overhaul. [In his speech, DeSantis] added that “U.S. policy should recognize the truth” on Jerusalem as Israel’s “eternal” capital, while bragging about Florida’s record against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement and taking issue with the categorization of the West Bank as occupied territory. Asked what he would do as president to make peace in the region, DeSantis —who said that any announcement of his candidacy would “come at the appropriate time”— told reporters that “it goes back to recognizing what’s right in the Middle East and what’s wrong in the Middle East. What’s right is Israel working with the UAE and Bahrain and what’s wrong is Iran’s ambitions.”

Days before Israel’s Knesset is set to convene after spring recess, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition told opposition leaders on Thursday that they will continue the freeze on judicial overhaul legislation as long as negotiations between the two sides continue at the President’s residence, though the cabinet secretary admitted the agreement was reached despite the fact that the parties have yet to settle any of their disputes, and only a few days before the opening of the Knesset’s summer session on Monday, during which the coalition could continue promoting the legislation if it wishes to… Cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs, who is also a member of the coalition’s negotiating team, said the government is not planning to advance the judicial reform legislation with the opening of the Knesset’s summer session on Sunday. “It is not on the agenda,” Fuchs said. However, he emphasized that he “cannot control” individual Knesset members’ actions, meaning they could advance the agenda through Private Member’s Bills. Yoav Kish, who represents the coalition in the ongoing negotiations, said on Wednesday night at the Israel Awards ceremony that he is “hopeful that we can finalize a draft of an agreement as soon as possible”… The controversial override clause, which would effectively give the Knesset the power to override High Court decisions with a simple majority, has not been discussed and is not expected to come up in negotiations, since Netanyahu also voiced opposition to its current form.

A minister from the Otzma Yehudit party said he plans to ask the cabinet to vote on Sunday on his proposal to define Zionism as “a guiding principle of the government’s activities.” Nevertheless, a source involved in Negev and Galilee Development Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf’s proposal said the minister and his party chairman, Itamar Ben-Gvir, “are trying to determine facts on the ground and create a tailwind for this move in the media, but the proposal still isn’t ready.” The cabinet is supposed to decide whether to advance the resolution, and if so how, Thursday night. Wasserlauf tweeted that “at the next cabinet meeting, we’ll bring up a historic resolution – Zionism will be a guiding and decisive principle in all the activities of government ministries.” This resolution “will enable us to give preference to IDF soldiers and army veterans, entrench the Jewish people’s connection with its land and strengthen the Negev, the Galilee and Judea and Samaria,” he added, using the Hebrew terms for the southern and northern West Bank. Wasserlauf’s proposal is the first attempt by members of the current governing coalition to translate the nation-state law into policy. The resolution calls for adopting the principles of that controversial Basic Law as guiding and decisive principles in shaping both domestic and foreign policy and legislation.

In the halls of the Knesset, and inside ministers’ offices, it’s not hard to encounter people who rose to influence within Regavim, an organization waging a total war on Palestinian construction in the West Bank. Its top representative is Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry with responsibility over the Civil Administration, Israel’s military government in the West Bank…. Given these facts, it seems Regavim’s operations are a factor in the government’s agenda. One example is a document entitled “The Plow Line – A Plan to Halt the Palestinian Takeover of the Open Territories in Judea and Samaria,” which was distributed to politicians ahead of the most recent election and outlined the organization’s strategy in the West Bank. The document included a range of recommendations for the next government, some of which found their way into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition agreement with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party… But Regavim isn’t only looking ahead to what it can do in the future; it’s also touting what it has accomplished in the past few years. Perhaps the best illustration of this is how its ideology is being implemented. A partial list would include the demolition of a Palestinian school that was built inside what the military had declared as a “firing zone”; turning the eviction of Khan al-Ahmar’s residents into a core issue for the right… and changing the Civil Administration’s enforcement procedures regarding the demolition of Palestinian buildings.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | April 28, 2023

This week on j street

What we’re reading

Political crisis overshadows Israel’s most sacrosanct national holiday

Republicans nix two-state solution language in resolution marking Israel’s 75th birthday

Netanyahu meets with Democrats as he looks to buck notion of strained US ties

In Jerusalem, DeSantis Says U.S. Shouldn’t ‘Butt In’ to Israel’s Judicial Overhaul Debate

Despite Freeze, Israel’s Cabinet Secretary Says He Can’t Halt Individual MKs From Advancing Coup Laws

Far-right Israeli Minister Wants Cabinet Vote on ‘Zionism as Guiding Value’ in Government Decisions

ANALYSIS: This Pro-settler NGO Has Been Shaping Israeli Policy for Years. Now, It’s in Control