I hope you are doing well at the start of the new year.

I’m writing to share J Street’s first News Digest of 2024, containing important updates from the region as well as J Street resources from the past couple of weeks. As a reminder, you can always find our most recent statements on J Street crisis response page.

I’m also happy to share that J Street is hiring for a Deputy Director of Government Affairs – please feel free to share with anyone who might be interested.

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 ISRAELI SUPREME COURT’S DECISION TO UPHOLD DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES, URGES NETANYAHU TO RESPECT COURT’S DECISION

WEBINAR

Palestinian Public Opinion with Dr Khalil Shikaki

Watch →

What we’re reading

Israel’s Supreme Court just overturned Netanyahu’s pre-war power grab

The ruling, released on New Year’s Day, annulled the single biggest piece of legislation passed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition. The Court’s reasoning fundamentally changes the balance of power in Israel’s democracy — so fundamentally, in fact, that some members of the elected government have vowed not to abide by it. If that happens, Israel will be thrown into a full-blown constitutional crisis… the Court came to two key conclusions. First, that it has the general power to overturn Basic Laws — a power it had never deployed before. Second, that this new Basic Law was threatening enough to Israeli democracy that the court was justified in overruling it. In peacetime, a ruling this epochal would transform Israeli politics, reorienting everything around the question of the court’s new claim to power and (plausible) claim to be saving Israeli democracy. But with the country enmeshed in an existential war in Gaza, the domestic reaction to the court’s ruling is far less explosive than it would be otherwise. Whether this lasts — or whether Israel erupts into a domestic political crisis to match its current international peril — is far from clear.

The Israeli military confirmed on Monday that it was beginning to withdraw five brigades from operations in Gaza, including many reservists, citing the growing toll of the deployments on Israel’s economy… U.S. officials, who were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive discussions, are now breathing small sighs of relief. They view the reduction as a signal that Israel is beginning to finally shift away from large-scale bombing and more toward targeted, surgical strikes on senior Hamas leaders — a move the U.S. has long been urging as the civilian death toll among Palestinians continues to rise… But Israeli officials say the fighting will last well into 2024. And U.S. officials are skeptical that any shift will happen quickly… The killing of a senior Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in a suspected Israeli drone strike in a stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah near Beirut on Tuesday, could be another sign Israel is ready to shift to more surgical operations, the second U.S. official said.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday outlined his plans for the next stage of Israel’s war in Gaza and his vision of a future arrangement which would see the enclave run by a Palestinian body under overall Israeli security control. He said the military would base its strategy on a new, more targeted approach in the northern section of the enclave and a continuing pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south… After the war, Gallant said Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would reserve its operational freedom of action, with a multinational task force led by the United States in partnership with the European Union and regional partners taking responsibility for rehabilitating the territory. But he ruled out a return of the Israeli settlements in Gaza withdrawn in 2005, saying there would be no Israeli civilian presence and that Palestinian bodies would govern the enclave… Israel would “provide information to guide civilian operations” and continue to inspect goods entering Gaza for security reasons… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted laying out a clear vision for the future of Gaza but has ruled out a role for the Palestinian Authority, the body that was set up under the 30 year-old Oslo Accords and exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli officials say that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck — the rave, the military bases along the Gaza border and the kibbutzim — they brutalized women. A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7. Relying on video footage, photographs, GPS data from mobile phones and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counselors, The Times identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated… Many of the accounts are difficult to bear, and the visual evidence is disturbing to see.

Israel’s war in Gaza has created a humanitarian catastrophe, with half of the population of about 2.2 million at risk of starvation and 90 percent saying that they regularly go without food for a whole day, the United Nations said in a recent report. Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Program, said the humanitarian disaster in Gaza was among the worst he had ever seen. The territory appears to meet at least the first criteria of a famine, with 20 percent of the population facing an extreme lack of food, he said… Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, contended that Israel did not stand in the way of humanitarian assistance and blamed Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza, for any shortages. He accused Hamas of seizing some of the aid for its own uses. He did not provide evidence, but Western and Arab officials have said that Hamas is known to have a large stockpile of supplies, including food, fuel and medicine.

Rejecting the US State Department’s condemnation of calls for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday reiterated his support for encouraging “voluntary emigration” of the Strip’s population to other countries as part of his postwar vision… National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, another senior far-right coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hit back at Washington shortly after it aired its criticism Tuesday… In the relatively rare, unprompted statement, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller labeled the calls by the far-right ministers as “inflammatory and irresponsible.” The critique underscored growing frustration in Washington with Netanyahu’s government, which the Biden administration has continued to support diplomatically and militarily in the war against Hamas but has increasingly sparred with regarding planning for Gaza once the fighting ends. “We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the government of Israel, including by the prime minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately,” Miller said. While he has issued statements insisting they do not represent government policy, Netanyahu himself gave the go-ahead for government members to support the plan to encourage Palestinians to leave the enclave.

For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism. The State Department said Friday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had told Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5 million sale for equipment, including fuses, charges and primers, that is needed to make the 155 mm shells that Israel has already purchased function… The emergency determination means the purchase will bypass the congressional review requirement for foreign military sales. Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented, when administrations see an urgent need for weapons to be delivered without waiting for lawmakers’ approval… The State Department sought to counter potential criticism of the sale on human rights grounds by saying it was in constant touch with Israel to emphasize the importance of minimizing civilian casualties… Bypassing Congress with emergency determinations for arms sales is an unusual step that has in the past met resistance from lawmakers, who normally have a period of time to weigh in on proposed weapons transfers and, in some cases, block them.

As the fighting in Gaza continues to intensify, the U.S. is increasingly becoming more involved — militarily and diplomatically — in three other hotspots in the Middle East, with fears growing that rising tensions could spiral into a much bigger war… The U.S. has over the last three months sent dozens of Navy ships, hundreds of fighter jets and other aircraft, and thousands of soldiers to the Middle East in hopes of deterring Iranian-backed groups from launching attacks that could lead to a regional war. But tensions have continued to escalate across the region, particularly in the last month… Secretary of State Tony Blinken is scheduled to leave for the region later Thursday. He will visit several countries, including Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as the occupied West Bank. “He will discuss urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric and reduce regional tensions, including deterring Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and avoiding escalation in Lebanon,” the State Department said.

The odds of achieving the complete elimination of Hamas were nil from the moment that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared it the chief goal of the war. Even then it was clear to anyone who thought about it that the complete destruction of the terrorist organization is wishful thinking that is militarily unfeasible even under conditions unlike those that exist in the Gaza Strip… Of course Netanyahu knew from the get-go that his rhetoric was baseless and would ultimately collapse in the face of a military and humanitarian reality that would force Israel to reach an end point in the current campaign. That time has now arrived. The defeat of Hamas is a long way away. We haven’t even reached the point at which we are in control of the timetable of the war that began on October 7… What should we do? I believe that the time has come for Israel to express its readiness to end the fighting. Yes, end the fighting… At that time, Israel will need to bring back the hostages, those who are alive and those who are dead. If we wait, it won’t be long before the only ones we can bring back will be the dead, because there won’t be any living ones. A cessation of hostilities must be conditioned on the release of all the hostages, every last one of them, the soldiers and the bodies of all those who have been held by Hamas for years. All of them.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | January 5, 2024

This week on j street

What we’re reading

Israel’s Supreme Court just overturned Netanyahu’s pre-war power grab

US breathes small sigh of relief as Israel withdraws some troops from Gaza

Israeli defense minister outlines new phase in Gaza war

[CONTENT WARNING] ‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7

Half of Gazans Are at Risk of Starving, U.N. Warns

Smotrich doubles down on resettlement of Gazans, rejecting US criticism

The Biden administration once again bypasses Congress on an emergency weapons sale to Israel

Amid Gaza war, regional escalation draws U.S. deeper into Middle East crisis

Former Israeli Prime Minister: Israel Must Cease Hostilities and Bring the Hostages Home