I’m writing as a J Street advocacy leader to share several updates from the past week that are top of mind among our community, including reports of continued progress toward a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, a spate of antisemitic attacks in the US and Australia, and Israel’s military activities following the fall of the Assad regime.

I want to also highlight the J Street Policy Center’s latest report, which examines potential shifts in Middle East policy under the next administration.

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions.

All the best,
Lily

—
Lily Adelstein
She/Her
Deputy Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 202-699-2701
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page

This week on j street

STATEMENT

J Street Welcomes House Letter Demanding Biden Administration Take Further Action on Gaza Humanitarian Crisis

BLOG

From Campus and Beyond, Fighting Antisemitism is More Critical Than Ever

STATEMENT

J Street Responds to Collapse of Assad Regime in Syria

SYMPOSIUM REPORT

Middle East Policy Under the Next Administration

WEBINAR

FIGHTING AGAINST THE CLOCK

Watch →

What we’re reading

Hamas Concedes on Israeli Troops in Gaza, Raising Hopes for Hostage Deal

Hamas has yielded to two of Israel’s key demands for a cease-fire deal in Gaza, Arab mediators said, raising hopes of an agreement that could release some hostages within days despite the repeated collapse of previous negotiations. The militant group told mediators for the first time that it would agree to a deal that would allow Israeli forces to remain in Gaza temporarily when the fighting stops. Hamas also handed over a list of hostages, including U.S. citizens, whom it would release under a cease-fire pact, something it hasn’t done since the first truce in the conflict last year. The new plan, proposed by Cairo and backed by the U.S., seeks to build on momentum generated by the cease-fire in Lebanon secured in November, which has broadly held despite both Israel and Hezbollah accusing each other of violations.

Humanitarian aid to northern Gaza mostly blocked for the last 2 months, UN says

Sigrid Kaag, the senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors Tuesday afternoon that civilians trying to survive in Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.” She pointed to the breakdown in law and order and looting that has exacerbated a very dire situation and left the U.N. and many aid organizations unable to deliver food and other humanitarian essentials to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need. Kaag said she and other U.N. officials keep repeatedly asking Israel for access for convoys to north Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south, and to approve dual-use items.

Iran’s supreme leader accuses U.S. and Israel of orchestrating Assad ouster

“The main plotter, the main planner, the main agent, the main command room is in the United States and in the Zionist regime,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday to a crowd of hundreds packed into a Tehran hall to hear his address. His remarks, while steeped in the Islamic Republic’s rhetorical tradition of condemnations of Israel and its Western allies, verged at moments into rare confluence with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s characterizations of Assad’s fall. In an address earlier this week, Netanyahu said the collapse of the Assad regime was “a direct result of the blows” Israeli forces “have dealt to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.”

The Netanyahu Corruption Trial, Explained

Mr. Netanyahu’s testimony is expected to continue, on and off, for several weeks, creating the spectacle of a sitting prime minister defending himself against graft charges, even as Israel continues to fight Hamas in Gaza. The case is at the heart of a deep political rift among Israelis about Mr. Netanyahu’s character and has led to half a decade of political instability. His supporters claim that a liberal deep state is trying to oust him by judicial means after failing to do so at the ballot box. His opponents have called on him to step down, with some accusing him of prolonging both the war and the trial to keep himself in power and out of jail

How a hostage family leader became one of the loudest anti-war voices in Israel

Polls show that Metzger’s views are today in line with the vast majority of the Jewish-Israeli public, which has shifted over the last year from wall-to-wall support for the war to an overwhelming majority in favor of a negotiated deal to end it and return the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. She came to the conclusion “early on” that the war had to end, and like many others, she couldn’t comprehend how every so-distant military “victory” — from the invasion of Rafah to the assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, and Hassan Nasrallah — wasn’t bringing the release of the hostages any closer.