I hope you are doing well.

I’m writing to share important updates from the region as well as J Street’s statements 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 WELCOMES EXECUTIVE ORDER ADDRESSING SETTLER VIOLENCE

ISSUE BRIEF

CATASTROPHE IN GAZA: RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE THE DELIVERY OF HUMANITARIAN AID

STATEMENT

UNILATERAL STRIKES ON IRAN RISK FURTHER CATASTROPHIC ESCALATION

Biden issues executive order targeting Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians

President Biden on Thursday signed an executive order allowing the U.S. to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers — and potentially Israeli politicians and government officials — involved in violent attacks against Palestinians. The unprecedented executive order is the most significant step any U.S. administration has ever taken in response to violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.The executive order also allows the administration to impose sanctions on additional individuals who directed or participated in acts or threats of violence against Palestinian civilians, intimidated Palestinian civilians causing them to leave their homes, destroyed or seized property of Palestinian civilians, or were involved in acts of terrorism against Palestinian civilians. It allows the administration to sanction leaders or government officials directly or indirectly involved in violence against Palestinians… “Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it,” Blinken said later Thursday. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich called what he described as a “settler violence campaign” an “antisemitic lie.” Smotrich added that he will continue to work to strengthen Israeli settlements. “If the price is U.S. sanctions against me – so be it,” he said.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken asked the State Department to conduct a review and present policy options on possible U.S. and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials briefed on the issue told Axios. While U.S. officials say there has been no policy change, the fact the State Department is even considering such options signals a shift in thinking within the Biden administration on possible Palestinian statehood recognition, which is highly sensitive both internationally and domestically. For decades, U.S. policy has been to oppose the recognition of Palestine as a state both bilaterally and in UN institutions and to stress Palestinian statehood should only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the war in Gaza has opened the door for rethinking a lot of old U.S. paradigms and policies, a senior U.S. official said.

The raid on Tuesday took place as the Israeli military battled Hamas on multiple fronts: with the dramatic operation in the West Bank, renewed clashes in northern Gaza, and beneath the territory’s surface. The Israeli military confirmed for the first time on Tuesday that its engineers had begun pumping seawater into the vast Hamas tunnel network beneath Gaza. Israel’s latest efforts in the nearly four-month war came amid a renewed push by multiple peace brokers, including the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt, for an agreement to pause the fighting. The political chief of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Tuesday that he was studying a proposal for a temporary cease-fire that had come out of talks between officials from those nations in Paris. But even as those talks continued behind closed doors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted anew that Israel would continue fighting until it achieved “complete victory.” And the raid at the Ibn Sina Specialized Hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin suggested that Israel would continue chasing down Hamas leaders across the region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government does not support the immediate discontinuation of UNRWA, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday as a host of Western countries moved to suspend funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinians amid allegations that roughly a dozen of its employees took part in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and hundreds more are either operatives or have close ties with members. “If UNRWA ceases operating on the ground, this could cause a humanitarian catastrophe that would force Israel to halt its fighting against Hamas,” the senior Israeli official said, briefing The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. “This would not be in Israel’s interest and it would not be in the interest of Israel’s allies either.”

On Sunday night, the largest “joyful” event since October 7 took place in Jerusalem as 5,000 Israelis (according to the organizers) gathered at the International Convention Center, singing and dancing at the “Conference For the Victory of Israel – Settlement Brings Security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria…” Before the proceedings began, the plan to build six new settlements in Gaza was presented in pragmatic security terms… But as soon as the first speaker took to the stage, it was clear that they are planning a much broader move… Most of the speakers rarely spoke of the hostages, if at all – as if acknowledging that they are still being held in Gaza was a sign of weakness. Even government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Haim Katz didn’t mention them. Daniella Weiss, one of the organizers of the event, said “it is forbidden to negotiate” with Hamas, and that she was sure the hostages could be saved if Israel just cut off all supplies to Gaza.

As Israeli troops push farther south in Gaza, officials in Jerusalem are signaling what could be a central, and politically perilous, aim of the war’s next phase: taking control of the border crossing with Egypt. Since December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that Israel cannot eliminate Hamas without exercising authority over Gaza’s southern border region, including Egypt’s Rafah crossing, which has served as a vital transit point for people and humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave… But the idea of Israeli troops returning to the border has set off alarm bells in Cairo, which said in recent weeks that such a move would risk undermining the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty — a landmark accord that led to a half-century of coexistence and cooperation between the once-bitter foes.

A one-way attack drone killed three U.S. service members at a base in Jordan over the weekend, officials said, marking a significant escalation in the attacks by Iran-linked militias against American troops in the Middle East. These militias, having also targeted troops in Iraq and Syria, claim they are acting in opposition to the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Where have pro-Iran militias targeted U.S. troops? Who are the pro-Iran militias targeting U.S. troops? How has the United States responded? What does Iran say?

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | February 1, 2024

This week on j street

What we’re reading

Biden issues executive order targeting Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians

State Department reviewing options for possible recognition of Palestinian state

Israel Raids West Bank Hospital as Clashes Erupt With Hamas in Northern Gaza

We oppose axing UNRWA mid-war, senior Israeli official says amid global funding halt

Analysis | Ethnic Cleansing in God’s Name: The Only Israelis With a Plan for the ‘Day After’ in Gaza

Egypt-Israel ties in jeopardy over intensifying Gaza border dispute

Explainer | Why pro-Iran militias are attacking U.S. troops in Iraq, Jordan, Syria