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I’m writing to share important updates from the region 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
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Hannah Morris
She/Her
Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 832-606-1817
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page
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What we’re reading
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Negotiators race to secure Israel-Hamas hostage and ceasefire deal ahead of Ramadan
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| The Biden administration is racing against the clock as it attempts to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war before Ramadan next month, with senior US officials believing that the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza is the only plausible way to bring the first pause to the deadly conflict since a seven-day truce in late November – and possibly, an eventual end to the war. Looming over the hostage deal discussions is the threat by Israel to launch an offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza, where around 1.5 million displaced Gazans have fled. US officials have pointedly warned Israel against pushing farther south without guaranteeing the safety of those civilians – a seemingly impossible task. “If there’s an operation against Rafah, we can forget about a deal happening,” said a diplomat familiar with the negotiations between Israel and Hamas being mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan beginning on March 10, the next two weeks of negotiations are “pivotal,” a source familiar with the ongoing efforts told CNN. An aggressive military push by Israel during Ramadan would only further inflame tensions across the region. |
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Israeli Finance Minister Sparks Outrage After Saying Returning Gaza Hostages ‘Not Most Important Thing’
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| Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was asked on Tuesday in an interview if returning the hostages was the most important thing, and he replied: “No, it’s not the most important thing. Why do you want competition? Everything is important.” In an interview with Kan public radio, the far-right minister added that calls to release the hostages at any cost are “incorrect and irresponsible statements.” According to Smotrich, the only way to get them back is to defeat Hamas “and increase military pressure even more. That’s what brought about the previous deal.” Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old hostage Liri Albag, referred to Smotrich as “a dark and petty man” and blasted him for abandoning “my daughter, his daughter, our children.” At a spontaneous demonstration in front of the defense ministry in Tel Aviv, Albag addressed Smotrich and said: “Let them take your children, and I will shout in the street ‘it’s not the most important thing’.” |
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U.S. envoy says Israel has not shown evidence that Hamas is diverting UN aid in Gaza
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| Israel has not presented specific evidence for its claim that Hamas is diverting U.N. aid, and its recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely, a top U.S. envoy said in rare public criticism of Israel. David Satterfield, the Biden administration’s special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues, said that with the departure of police escorts following Israeli strikes, criminal gangs are increasingly targeting the truck convoys carrying badly needed aid. He said the lawlessness as well as regular Israeli protests at entry points by those opposed to aid going into Gaza have disrupted delivery… Satterfield said that Israeli officials have not presented “specific evidence of diversion or theft” of U.N. assistance, but that the militants have their own interests in using “other channels of assistance … to shape where and to whom assistance goes.” Even before the latest setback, the U.S. has said aid reaching Gaza is woefully inadequate. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are packed into the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, having heeded Israeli evacuation orders. Yet nowhere is safe, with Israel also carrying out airstrikes in Rafah. |
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U.S. backs Israel before U.N. court as Biden-Netanyahu tension simmers
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| The United States again diverged from allies Wednesday to back Israel before the International Court of Justice, despite growing tension between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. In a presentation in The Hague, U.S. officials warned that an advisory opinion from the top U.N. court, if not properly written, could frustrate peace efforts. “A movement toward Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza requires consideration of Israel’s very real security needs,” State Department official Richard Visek told the court… Washington is becoming increasingly isolated in its support for Israel, a development that’s been evident at The Hague. A lawyer for the Palestinians said the United States was “the only state besides Fiji to defend Israel” during the proceedings. |
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Far-right ministers demand more settlements, checkpoints, after deadly terror attack
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| Far-right ministers reacted to a deadly West Bank terror attack on Thursday, in which an Israeli man was killed and 11 others were wounded, with calls to impose increased restrictions on the Palestinians and to step up settlement construction. The attack was carried out by three Palestinian gunmen near a checkpoint on Route 1 between the West Bank settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem at about 7:30 a.m., police and medics said. Speaking at the scene of the attack, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the shooting was further proof of the need to arm the Israeli population and limit freedom of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank… He also indicated that he would be seeking restrictions on access to prayers at the Al-Aqsa compound atop the Temple Mount for Muslims on Ramadan. And he said, in an aside, there is no such thing as the Palestinian people. |
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Top IDF Lawyer: Some Soldiers’ Behavior in Gaza Has ‘Crossed the Criminal Threshold’
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| Military Advocate General, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, sent a letter to Israel Defense Forces commanders on Wednesday morning, in which she wrote that during the war in Gaza she had encountered actions by IDF soldiers that “do not meet IDF values, deviate from orders and disciplinary boundaries – and have crossed the criminal threshold.” Tomer-Yerushalmi warned that these actions cause strategic damage to the State of Israel and the IDF in the international arena, and that it was “difficult to exaggerate their severity.” Among the actions the MAG noted during the four months of the war so far, were “inappropriate statements that encourage unacceptable actions; operationally unjustifiable use of force, including against detainees; looting, non-operational use or removal of private property; and destruction of civilian property in violation of orders.” However, she noted that these act were carried out by individuals and were not representative of the IDF as a whole. Tomer-Yerushalmi noted that following the investigations into these acts, the military prosecution would decide what measures to taken against the suspects – on the command, disciplinary or legal dimensions. |
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Analysis | How Israel’s war went wrong
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| At the end of November, Israeli reporter Yuval Abraham broke one of the most important stories of the war in Gaza to date — an inside look at the disturbing reasoning that has led the Israeli military to kill so many civilians. Citing conversations with “seven current and former members of Israel’s intelligence community,” Abraham reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had changed its doctrine to permit far greater civilian casualties than it would have tolerated in previous wars. IDF leadership was greenlighting strikes on civilian targets like apartment buildings and public infrastructure that they knew would kill scores of innocent Gazans. “In one case,” Abraham reported, “the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander.” Abraham’s reporting showed, in granular detail, the ways that this war would not be like others: that Israel, so grievously wounded by Hamas on October 7, would go to extraordinarily violent lengths to destroy the group responsible for that day’s atrocities. In doing so, it would commit atrocities of its own. |
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Opinion | The U.S. should immediately mobilize ‘Operation Gaza Relief’
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| For months, the Biden administration has made urgent and repeated requests to the Netanyahu government to pursue a more targeted campaign against Hamas and to dramatically increase the facilitation of humanitarian aid delivered through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossing points. Israel has largely disregarded these appeals… Given the lack of a meaningful response to the Biden administration’s appeals to the Netanyahu government, the responsibility to lead falls upon the United States. It falls on the United States because we are the largest provider of military assistance to Israel. It falls on us because the United States has supplied many of the bombs and artillery shells that Israel has employed in its Gaza campaign. It falls on us because the United States has a massive sealift capability to deliver aid and might be the only nation Israel would allow to coordinate the direct provision of aid to Gaza to address the suffering. |
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