 |
| I hope you are doing well.
As Labor Day weekend approaches, I wanted to highlight a few key updates from the region, including a polio vaccine campaign slated to begin in Gaza on Sept. 1, the recently contained escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, U.S. sanctions against violent settlers in the West Bank, and the welcome return of Bedouin Israeli hostage Kaid Farhan Elkadi.
In light of the uncertainty surrounding the state of ceasefire negotiations and the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, J Street also hosted a webinar this week with leading experts, Dr. Shira Efron and former Egyptian diplomat Ambassador Hesham Youssef. You can find the recording here.
I hope you find these resources helpful. As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions.
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
|
|
|
| WEBINAR |
|
Inside Hostage and Ceasefire Negotiations
|
| Watch → |
|
|
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J Street Welcomes ‘Significant’ Sanctions on Hashomer Yosh and Civilian Settlement Security Official
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J Street Overjoyed by Hostage Rescue, Stresses Need for Ceasefire and Hostage Deal
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
| WORD FROM J STREET PRESIDENT, JEREMY BEN AMI |
|
Biden: Call It As You See It
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
What we’re reading
|
U.S. sanctions group that supports illegal West Bank outposts
|
 |
| The U.S. State Department and the Department of Treasury on Wednesday announced new sanctions against an Israeli non-governmental organization that operates in the occupied West Bank for its support of violence by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians… The organization “Hashomer Yosh” has been funded and supported in recent years by the Israeli government. Senior members of the NGO are affiliated with the parties of ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich. The Yesha council — the umbrella organization of settlement municipalities — is highly concerned about the gradual expansion of U.S. sanctions to a wider circle of individuals and entities involved in the movement. |
| read more |
Israel agrees to pauses in fighting in Gaza for polio vaccination
|
 |
| The aim of the immunization campaign is to vaccinate about 640,000 children under the age of 10 with two doses each. According to Peeperkorn, 1.26 million doses of vaccines and 500 vaccine carriers have already been delivered to Gaza. He warned that the three-day periods “might not be enough to achieve adequate vaccination,” adding that it “has been agreed, when needed, the campaign will be extended by one day per zone, or even more when necessary.” He added that it would be a two-round vaccination campaign with a four-week interval between the first and second doses. The Hostages Families Forum, which campaigns for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, has also asked the WHO and the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, to include the hostages in the ongoing polio vaccination campaign and all other health interventions. A United States official told CNN that Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their meeting last week on the polio vaccinations, telling Netanyahu it had to be a top priority and it had to get done. |
| read more |
Inside the Frantic U.S. Efforts to Contain a Mideast Disaster
|
 |
| In the month since Israel’s assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, U.S. officials have worked almost nonstop to contain the latest tit for tat, with Israel on one side and Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on the other. They are desperate to avert a regional war that they fear could pull the United States into the fighting. So far, that kind of disaster has been avoided, however narrowly. Biden officials believe they have played an important role in staving off the worst, though they concede that other factors have kept a precarious lid on the fast-boiling pot. And while they have managed to contain the wider war for now, they have not secured a cease-fire in Gaza, a failure that could ultimately undermine their work. Reinforcing the point, U.S. diplomacy has sprung into action again this week, in an effort to prevent a major Israeli military operation in the West Bank from triggering new waves of violence in the region. |
| read more |
Negotiations so far more effective than rescues in bringing Israeli hostages home from Gaza
|
 |
| Israel’s military has rescued its eighth hostage from Gaza since the 10-month-old war began. While the rescue Tuesday set off celebrations, it also renewed calls from the families of hostages who are still being held in Gaza for a deal that would bring home their loved ones before it’s too late. They say an agreement, not military rescues, is the best hope. International mediators have tried for months to broker a deal that would see scores of hostages still held by Hamas exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and a cease-fire. But Israel and Hamas cannot agree on key portions of the deal… “After 10 months, the IDF managed just to release a small number of hostages from Hamas and the rest of them must be released by negotiations and by ending this war,” said Mazen Abu Siam, a close friend of Qaid Farhan Alkadi, the hostage who was freed Tuesday. |
| read more |
US: Ben Gvir ‘sowing chaos, undermining Israel’s security’ with Temple Mount remarks
|
 |
| The Biden administration on Tuesday accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of “sowing chaos” and “undermining Israel’s security” in its harshest critique yet of the hardline cabinet member. The statement from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller came after Ben Gvir’s comments earlier this week expressing support for the establishment of a synagogue on the Temple Mount, with the Otzma Yehudit party leader responding enthusiastically in the affirmative when asked during an interview if he would put a Jewish house of worship at the flashpoint holy site if he could. This initiative “would demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,” said Miller. |
| read more |
Israeli military says it failed to protect civilians in settler attack on Palestinians
|
 |
| The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had failed to protect civilians when settlers carried out a deadly attack on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, amid mounting international pressure on Israel to crack down on such violence. Four suspects have been arrested over the attack in the village of Jit on Aug. 15, when around 100 settlers went on a rampage, burning cars and houses and killing at least one Palestinian. Additional arrests are planned, the military said… The Jit attack was larger than recent raids by West Bank settlers but hardly unique, with violence against Palestinian villages already on the rise as settlement construction has spread unchecked across the West Bank and Israel wages war in Gaza after a cross-border assault by Palestinian militants. |
| read more |
Israeli Military Says Hamas Falsified Gaza War Poll Results to Exaggerate Public Support
|
 |
| The Israeli military said on Thursday that Hamas manipulated public opinion poll results it sent to a respected polling institution in order to falsely inflate public support… For instance, in a March survey, the polling institute reported that 62 percent of Gaza’s population was satisfied with Hamas’ performance in the war. That result aligns with the falsified results shown in the document released by the military. According to the military, the original survey indicated only 31.9 percent support. Another question in the survey, the military said, showed that in the original document, only 30.7 percent of Gaza residents supported Hamas’ decision to attack Israel on October 7. However, both the fabricated results in the document and the published results from the polling institute stated that 71 percent believed the decision was correct. |
| read more |
Former Shin Bet Director: Netanyahu is dragging the US down a dangerous path on Iran
|
 |
| The struggle in the Middle East is not between barbarians and freedom seekers, nor between those who sanctify life and those who sanctify death, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted in his recent address to Congress. Rather, it could be better characterized as a struggle between radical messianic groups that are fighting in the name of God, and the majority who aspire to a secure life of personal and national freedom…The only path that could lead to more stability in the region is a regional agreement comprising a security-based coalition of all moderate regional actors, most importantly Saudi Arabia. Yet Netanyahu rejects such a path, because it requires Israel to embark on a process that will eventually lead to a Palestinian state. With his current extremist coalition, Netanyahu cannot agree to such a course of action and still remain in power. |
| read more |
