 |
|
I hope you are doing well.
I’m writing as a J Street advocacy leader to share important updates from the region as well as J Street’s statements and resources from the past week. This week, the Trump Administration introduced a new framework aimed at extending the Gaza ceasefire; Israel severed power to Gaza’s last remaining electricity facility, raising ongoing concerns about the blockade on humanitarian aid; and Israel and Lebanon agreed to initiate new talks to address disputes over their border.
You can find more on each of these developments and others below, along with our most recent statements here.
Please feel free to reach out to your J Street Public Affairs Staff if you have 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
|
|
|
| EXPERT ANALYSIS |
|
J Street’s Gaza Policy Recommendations
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J Street U: Protesters Must Be Protected by the First Amendment
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
| STATEMENT |
|
J Street Statement on Trump Suspending $400 Million in Grants and Contracts to Columbia University
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
What we’re reading
|
U.S. gives Israel and Hamas new proposal to extend Gaza ceasefire
|
| White House envoy Steve Witkoff presented an updated U.S. proposal for extending the Gaza ceasefire deal by several weeks in return for additional hostage releases by Hamas and the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, four sources with direct knowledge tell Axios… The proposal is an effort by the Trump administration to buy more time for negotiations and prevent the resumption of the war during the holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, two sources said. The ceasefire expired on March 1, and while fighting has not resumed Israel has cut off humanitarian aid to Gaza to pressure Hamas to agree to a deal to release more hostages. 59 hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza. Israeli and U.S. officials believe 22 of them are still alive, including American Edan Alexander. |
| read more |
Report: Dermer, Netanyahu worked to prevent US-Hamas deal to free only American hostages
|
| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his confidant Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer worked to prevent the US from reaching a new hostage deal with Hamas that would only see the return of hostages with US citizenship, Yedioth Ahronoth reports, citing a senior US diplomatic and intelligence official. The report, by veteran correspondent Ronen Bergman, claims that Netanyahu’s office leaked the meeting between US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and senior Hamas officials in Doha in order to create daylight between Washington and Jerusalem, in hopes that would cause Hamas to harden its positions. In turn, says the official, Netanyahu could then blame Hamas for the failure to reach a deal. The reported effort by Boehler to directly arrange with Hamas an interim deal to release living US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander and the bodies of others was met with intense anger in Israel. |
| read more |
Israel and Lebanon Agree to Talks on Border, Long a Source of Tension
|
| Israel and Lebanon have agreed to start negotiations on disputes over the land border between them, officials said on Tuesday, offering a possible opportunity to resolve disagreements that have contributed to decades of tensions and conflict. In a statement, Morgan Ortagus, President Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy, said that the United States was bringing Israel and Lebanon together to discuss the demarcation of the border. She said discussions would also focus on the future of five Israeli military outposts in Lebanon and of Lebanese prisoners still held in Israel after a cease-fire deal last year largely halted more than a year of cross-border warfare…“If a deal on the border is done, Hezbollah’s alibi will be gone,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “It will pull the rug out from under them.” |
| read more |
Trump warns that arrest of Palestinian activist at Columbia will be ‘first of many’
|
| Khalil’s detention drew outrage from civil rights groups and free speech advocates, who accused the administration of using its immigration enforcement powers to squelch criticism of Israel. He is the first person known to be detained for deportation under Trump’s promised crackdown on student protests… Khalil, 30, had not been charged with any crime related to his activism, but Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to remain in the country by protests he claimed support Hamas, the Palestinian group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The U.S. has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. |
| read more |
Atop Mt. Hermon, Katz says Syrian leader will see indefinite IDF deployment
|
| “Every morning when [Syrian leader] al-Jolani (Ahmed al-Sharaa) opens his eyes at the presidential palace in Damascus, he will see the IDF watching him from the peak of the Hermon, and remember that we are here and in the entire security area of southern Syria, to protect the Golan and Galilee residents against any of his threats and those of his jihadist friends,” Katz said. “The IDF is prepared to stay in Syria for an unlimited amount of time. We will hold the security area in Hermon and make sure that all the security zone in southern Syria is demilitarized and clear of weapons and threats,” he said. |
| read more |
Opinion | Starvation Is Not a Negotiating Tactic
|
| “Israel has clamped Gaza back under near-total siege, barring desperately needed humanitarian aid and other goods from entering the hungry and bomb-decimated enclave. Food, medicine, tents, fuel — for the past week and a half, supplies have not been permitted into Gaza, where some two million Palestinians are trying to survive in the wreckage. And Mr. Netanyahu keeps tightening the screws: On Sunday, Israel cut off the last trickle of electricity into Gaza, forcing a key desalination plant that provides drinking water to slow operations… Israeli officials are essentially starving Gaza as a negotiation tactic. Rather than proceed on the agreed-upon schedule to the second phase of the cease-fire, Mr. Netanyahu is now demanding a seven-week extension of the preliminary stage…’Any amount of aid that is prevented from Gaza is a death sentence,’ said Majed Jaber, an emergency room doctor who spoke with me from Gaza.” |
| read more |
Analysis | Why 70 Percent of Israelis Want Netanyahu to Resign
|
| “The reason for this is simple: Netanyahu not only presided over the worst security failure in Israel’s history but has actively governed against the will of the country’s majority. He and his allies received just 48.4 percent of the vote in late 2022. Still, the Israeli leader did not seek to unite a polarized population by pivoting to the center. Instead he cobbled together a sectarian coalition with unpopular extremist constituencies: far-right messianic settlers and the ultra-Orthodox. Because the votes of both of these groups are necessary for the government to remain in power, they have been able to extort Netanyahu for ever-expanding giveaways and political gains. The result: On core issue after issue, Netanyahu has been the prime minister for the 30 percent.” |
| read more |
