I’m writing to share J Street’s statements and news updates. Top stories include the violent escalation in Gaza over the weekend, which ended with over 44 Palestininan deaths, 15 of which children, and over 1,100 projectiles of missiles from the Gaza strip before reaching a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. Additional stories include US pressing the Israeli government regarding its probe into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh and on the legislation required for its admittance into the Visa Waiver Program, analysis of Israeli policies towards the PA and Palestinians in Israel, and the restoration of JCPOA talks in Vienna.

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.

This week on j street

STATEMENT

J STREET WELCOMES GAZA CEASEFIRE, CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION TO ADDRESS UNDERLYING CONFLICT

STATEMENT

AMID GAZA STRIKES, J STREET CALLS FOR RESTORATION OF CALM, US TO HELP PREVENT ESCALATION

More than 40 people killed in Gaza in weekend of violence

Overnight, Khaled Mansour, a leader of Islamic Jihad’s operations in southern Gaza, was killed in an airstrike on a building in Rafah… Israel said that Mansour was responsible for a number of terror attacks against Israelis. He is the second Islamic Jihad commander to be killed since Friday, when Israel launched a surprise operation, “Breaking Dawn,” triggering the worst bout of violence between Israeli and Palestinian militants since a brief war last May. On the same day, Israel killed Tayseer Al-Jabari, the head of the group’s operations in the north of Gaza, in what it described a “pre-emptive” strike. Since then, the Israeli military says it has hit dozens of additional targets including rocket launching sites, weapons manufacturing facilities and a tunnel it said was being built to allow militants to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks. The Israeli military has also extended its campaign into the West Bank, detaining about 40 suspected Islamic Jihad militants across the territory in two nights of operations. Islamic Jihad, which is the smaller of the two main militant groups in Gaza, has fired more than seven hundred rockets since Friday… mainly launched toward Israeli communities living close to the Gaza Strip, but also firing several longer-range rockets. About twenty per cent of the launches have landed inside Gaza, an army spokesman told reporters… At least 43 Palestinians have been killed in the escalation, among them 15 children… Israel maintains most of those killed in its airstrikes were militants.

A ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appears to be holding… On Monday, Israel began lifting its blockade of the Strip, allowing the first fuel tanks to enter. The latest violence began with attacks by Israel on sites in the Gaza Strip, which its military said was in response to threats from a militant group… Gaza’s health ministry has blamed “Israeli aggression” for the deaths of Palestinians and for the more than 300 people wounded… Gen Kochav said 1,100 projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip during the flare-up… He said more Palestinians had died from those rockets that exploded inside the Strip than from IDF fire, and added that Israel would investigate the deaths of civilians, including children. No Israeli casualties have been reported… The ceasefire was mediated by Egypt, which has acted as an intermediary between Israel and Gaza in the past. But as it came into effect late on Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed it was striking Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in Gaza, in response to rockets fired just before. Israeli media also reported some isolated rocket fire from Gaza in the minutes after the deadline. US and United Nations leaders urged both sides to continue to observe the ceasefire. In a statement, US President Joe Biden praised the truce and called on all parties “to fully implement [it] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza”.

The Biden administration is under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to do more on the issue. In a meeting with Blinken last week, Abu Akleh’s family called for a U.S. investigation that “leads to real accountability.” Blinken called Gantz on Saturday and asked when the IDF would finish the operational investigation and publish the final report. The two sources said Gantz replied that it would happen in a few weeks… Blinken also told Gantz it is important that the investigation is finished as soon as possible and that the conclusions are presented to both the Biden administration and the Abu Akleh family, according to the sources. Last Thursday, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, raised the issue in a meeting with the Israeli minister of internal security, Omer Bar Lev, who visited Washington and asked why the investigation was taking so long, the two Israeli sources said.

An unnamed senior official at the US Embassy in Jerusalem told Israeli media Aug. 4 that if the Knesset fails to pass legislation necessary for entering the American Visa Waiver Program (VWP), Israelis may have to wait 12-18 months before another opportunity for visa exemptions for tourists becomes available. The official explained that if the procedure for applying to enter the VWP is delayed, US authorities will have to base their decision on data from 2023, instead of earlier data. This, in return, could harm the Israeli request. One of the conditions for a country to join the VWP is less than a 3% visa request denial rate. Over the years, Israel did not qualify for the program because of this condition… The last official hurdle remains Knesset legislation that would authorize the transfer of information regarding Israelis with criminal or security concerns, before they board flights bound for the United States. US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides has been pushing for this agreement since taking office. In a rare move, Nides appealed to the opposition already on June 28 to enable the legislation of the necessary laws.

Previous polls have shown a wide gap between Democratic Party constituents, on the one hand, and the positions of elected congressional Democrats and the Biden administration, on the other, regarding U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… Most Democrats who expressed an opinion said that the administration’s positions leaned toward Israel more than their own… Similarly, we asked about the positions of the respondents’ elected congressional representatives…. A majority of those who expressed opinions said their representatives were leaning toward Israel more than they were personally… The gap between the Biden administration and the Democratic public on Israel/Palestine remains wide — and the public perceives it. The Israel-Palestinian issue is not currently a priority in American politics…. But that does not mean that these issues have no consequence for the popularity of the administration. It is notable that in an era of deep political polarization, much of the drop in President Joe Biden’s popularity since spring 2021 has come from Democrats.

United Nations investigator Miloon Kothari apologized on Thursday for his comment that social media was largely controlled by the Jewish Lobby and emphasized that he had not meant to question Israel’s status as one of the organization’s 193 member states. His apology came 10 days after it was reported by The Jerusalem Post that had spoken of the Jewish Lobby to the internet site Mondoweiss… He told Mondoweiss that “We [the COI on Israel] are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by – whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs.” He added that “a lot of money has been thrown into trying to discredit us.” At least 18 countries, including the United States, have disavowed Kothari’s remarks as antisemitic, as has the European Union and the office of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The security cabinet voted to withhold over half a billion shekels from the Palestinian Authority on Sunday to offset funds that the PA paid to terrorists and their families in the past year. The NIS 600 million ($176 million) that the government voted to freeze will come from tax funds that Israel collects on behalf of the PA… In 2018, Israel passed a law requiring the government to withhold the equivalent amount of money that the PA is estimated to pay out to Palestinian terrorists and their families… Though popular with Israelis, who oppose the PA’s system… this law is believed to be potentially destabilizing for the perennially cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Israel has in the past offered loans to the Palestinians in order to keep the PA afloat and prevent its total breakdown. Labor head Merav Michaeli reportedly told the cabinet that the Palestinian Authority was prepared to halt these payments, which are not only deeply unpopular in Israel but also in the United States and Europe, who see them as incentivizing terror…. Michaeli insisted that they were ready but that such a move on the PA’s part was contingent on peace talks… The cabinet’s decision immediately drew criticism from Palestinian officials, calling it a “financial blockade” on the Palestinian economy. PA officials have similarly railed against this Israeli policy in the past.

“Before I went to the army I considered myself a centrist, politically speaking. I knew broadly about the occupation and the combat side of things. But it was so boring, so bureaucratic … It wears you down,” the 29-year-old said. “You don’t have time or energy to think of Palestinians as people. They are just numbers on a computer, and you click ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on their travel permit applications.” The sprawling system of military government created by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a world many Israelis are learning about for the first time, after the publication of testimonies from veterans exposing the “permit regime” that rules over Palestinian people and land… “We were told in training that everything we were doing for the Palestinians was basically generous, a favor. We didn’t question the bigger picture, like why there are no decent hospitals in the territories, so people have to travel,” said Carmel, who first served in the Gaza Israeli-Palestinian military coordination office, and then in the restive city of Jenin in the north of the West Bank. “The army raids your house at 2am and then at 8am you still have to get in line for hours for a permit for the most basic administrative stuff,” he said. “I think that’s something a lot of Israelis don’t realize. It’s not the carrot and the stick, it’s the stick and the stick. It’s the same thing.”

The Palestinian flag is not banned in Israel but its public display has come under increasing attack by Israeli authorities seeking to crack down on expressions of Palestinian nationalism. That is especially the case in East Jerusalem, the half of the city populated mostly by Palestinians. When President Biden visited this month, American flags were hung across Jerusalem for days, including along the edges of East Jerusalem. But most Palestinian flags raised there are taken down by the authorities within a matter of hours. In the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, a bill that would ban the flag at university campuses passed preliminary approval last month, although its fate appears unclear after the government collapsed. And in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, emboldened Jewish settlers are removing Palestinian flags displayed inside Palestinian towns, sometimes with the protection of the Israeli Army.

Indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal are expected to conclude Monday in Vienna, putting the final draft of an agreement in front of negotiators from Washington and Tehran… On Monday, The EU will officially circulate the final draft document to participants and will ask the U.S. and Iran to agree on it. If there is agreement, foreign ministers are expected to return to Vienna to formally restore the 2015 nuclear accord… There is still one major sticking point that prevents a breakthrough in the talks despite the draft agreement being finalized by EU negotiators. Iran has demanded that the UN nuclear watchdog close an investigation into the origins of multiple traces of man-made nuclear material that IAEA inspectors found at various sites in Iran during the past few years. Tehran insists that the nuclear deal can only be restored if this probe by the IAEA is closed once and for all. In search of a solution, Western diplomats involved in the negotiations in Vienna said that over the past five days, parties negotiated a separate political deal with Iran that could help close the probe — provided Iran cooperates… This deal will essentially be an updated version of a similar bargain that had been struck with Iran and negotiated by Britain, France and Germany in March.

Lapid spoke at a ceremony marking the installation of a new head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC)… Lapid said that Israel’s field of operation is made up of “defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities, and what the foreign media tends to call ‘other capabilities,’” an apparent reference to Israel’s reported nuclear weapons, which the Jewish state has never officially confirmed it possesses.“These other capabilities keep us alive and will keep us alive so long as we and our children are here,” Lapid said. Bennett said Monday that Israel has for the past year been working hard to counter the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, investing “enormous resources” in the effort. “A year ago we made a series of decisions whose aim was to refine assessments on our side to deal with the Iranian nuclear [weapons],” Bennett said. “We allocated enormous resources to close gaps that kept me awake [at night].” “The Iranians are making progress, but the Israeli system has been working at full strength for the past year,” Bennett continued. “I know you will continue to work, regardless of the political upheavals in the country.”

J Street Government Affairs News Digest | August 8, 2022

This week on j street

What we’re reading

More than 40 people killed in Gaza in weekend of violence

Israel-Gaza: Ceasefire holds overnight after days of violence

Blinken presses Israel to finalize probe into Shireen Abu Akleh killing

US urges Israel to expedite legislation needed for visa waiver

New polls: Democrats say Biden and members of Congress lean toward Israel more than they do

UN investigator apologizes for Jewish Lobby remark

Israel to withhold NIS 600 million from PA over its payments to terrorists’ families

‘The power we had was astonishing’: ex-soldiers on Israel’s government in the occupied territories

Palestinian Flags Aren’t Illegal in Israel. They Still Get Torn Down.

Agreement on nuclear deal within reach but obstacles remain

At atomic agency ceremony, Lapid says Israel’s ‘other capabilities’ keep it safe