 |
|
I hope you are doing well ahead of recess!
I’m writing to share important updates from the region, as well as J Street’s statements and resources 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 STRONGLY OPPOSES REPUBLICAN EFFORTS TO GUT PALESTINIAN AID
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
| WORD FROM J STREET PRESIDENT, JEREMY BEN AMI |
|
SCHUMER’S “UNPRECEDENTED” SPEECH
|
| Read more → |
|
|
|
|
|
What we’re reading
|
U.S. to review Israeli assurances it is not violating international law
|
 |
| The State Department has received Israel’s required written assurances, ahead of a Sunday deadline, that its use of U.S.-supplied defense equipment does not violate international humanitarian or U.S. human rights law, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. The department now has until early May to formally assess whether those assurances are “credible and reliable” and report to Congress under a national security memorandum issued by President Biden in February. If Israel’s pledges are found wanting, Biden has the option at any point of suspending any further U.S. arms transfers. The delivery Friday of the assurance letter signed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant comes as Israel and the Biden administration are locked in a contentious debate over Israel’s plan for a major military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Biden has warned that the operation risks a humanitarian catastrophe and called it a “mistake,” according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan. |
| read more |
U.S. Set to Bar UNRWA Funding Through March 2025 – a Potential Critical Blow for the UN Agency
|
 |
| The fate of the UN agency dedicated to Palestinian refugees may well have been revealed, after U.S. congressional leaders released the text of the final batch of spending bills that need to be passed this weekend to avoid a government shutdown. The bills, released overnight, include what amounts to a year-long ban on U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. This amounts to a devastating blow and a potential death knell for the organization that had been responsible for navigating Gaza’s humanitarian crisis prior to the international community’s halted funding in January, following Israeli allegations that at least 12 UNRWA staffers participated in the October 7 attack… Officials believe UNRWA has enough funds to currently operate through the next two months. Should it somehow manage to stay afloat for the next calendar year, it would take significant political capital to reinstate the funding – something Democrats have not indicated they are willing to spend. UNRWA’s future is even more uncertain since it remains unclear who will control the House of Congress and the White House at that time. |
| read more |
For 1st Time in 50 Years | Israel No Longer Considered Liberal Democracy; Global Index Cites Judicial Coup
|
 |
| As a result of the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul and repeated attacks by ministers on the country’s justice system, Israel has been downgraded from a “liberal democracy” to an “electoral democracy” by one of the world’s most important indices for assessing the nature of a country’s governmental system. For the last 50 years, Israel has been in the highest tier of the rankings, but as of this year’s downgrade, Israel is now on an equal status with countries like Poland and Brazil… The legislation that the report referred to, which was passed in July, sought to strip the court of the power to review the reasonableness of government decisions… The category of Electoral Democracy, to which Israel has now been added, means that the right to vote is preserved, but not the commitment to equality, minority rights, freedom of expression or the rule of law. |
| read more |
U.S. Gaza ceasefire resolution vetoed by China, Russia at UN Security Council
|
 |
| Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S. draft UN Security Council resolution that called for an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza along with “the release of all remaining hostages” held by Hamas. This was the fourth time since the war began in October that the Security Council failed to agree on a resolution calling for a ceasefire. This time, the dispute was over the U.S. insistence on linking the ceasefire call to a hostage deal and condemnation of Hamas, rather than the unconditional ceasefire resolution demanded by Russia and China… The diplomatic wrangling in New York takes place as negotiators from Israel, Hamas, Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. are still trying to hash out a hostage deal in Doha… Shortly before the UN Security Council convened, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken met in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. Blinken warned Netanyahu that Israel’s security and its place in the world are in peril due to Israel’s strategy in Gaza, and “you might not realize it until it’s too late”… The U.S. draft resolution also included strong language expressing concern about a possible Israeli ground offensive in Rafah. |
| read more |
19 Senate Dems urge Biden to publicize framework for establishing Palestinian state
|
 |
| More than a third of the US Senate’s Democrats called on President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday to take “bold” action toward establishing a Palestinian state, in the latest pushback against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter to Biden came days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish elected leader and a longtime advocate for Israel, sent shockwaves with a speech criticizing Netanyahu’s conduct in the Israel-Hamas war and urging new elections. Nineteen Democratic senators led by Tom Carper, a longtime ally of Biden from his home state of Delaware, wrote that the Middle East crisis had “reached an inflection point” that required US leadership beyond past “facilitation” of Israeli-Palestinian talks. “As such, we request the Biden administration promptly establish a bold, public framework outlining the steps necessary” to establish a Palestinian state over both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the senators wrote. They said an independent Palestinian state would be “non-militarized” — terminology embraced by former US president Bill Clinton in his peace push two decades ago — and would recognize Israel while renouncing Hamas, whose bloody October 7 onslaught in Israel triggered the massive military operation. |
| read more |
Incoming Palestinian prime minister lays out plans for reform but faces major obstacles
|
 |
| The incoming Palestinian prime minister said on Tuesday that he will appoint a technocratic government and establish an independent trust fund to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction. In a mission statement acquired by The Associated Press, Mohammad Mustafa laid out wide-ranging plans for the kind of revitalized Palestinian Authority called for by the United States as part of its postwar vision for resolving the conflict. But the PA has no power in Gaza, from which Hamas drove its forces in 2007, and only limited authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any return of the PA to Gaza and his government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood… But the PA has no power in Gaza, from which Hamas drove its forces in 2007, and only limited authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any return of the PA to Gaza and his government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood. |
| read more |
Analysis | Israel’s war on Hamas brings famine to Gaza
|
 |
| The warnings were being sounded for weeks. The United Nations, international relief organizations and some foreign governments voiced their fears over the ongoing humanitarian calamity in the Gaza Strip, where more than 2 million Palestinians are caught in the crosshairs of Israel’s punishing campaign against militant group Hamas. Food and other critical supplies remain scarce, while aid deliveries have been stymied by Israeli authorities that encircle Gaza’s borders. Those warnings reached a crescendo Monday with the release of new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global multi-stakeholder initiative working on food security and nutrition analysis. It found that 1.1 million people in Gaza — roughly half the beleaguered territory’s population — are expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation between now and July. Many of those at immediate risk live in Gaza’s devastated northern regions, which are cut off from the south by Israeli forces and receive only a paltry trickle of the already-meagre aid that’s entering Gaza. |
| read more |
Analysis | Israel’s Return to Al-Shifa Proves That Hamas Is Far From Surrendering in Northern Gaza
|
 |
| The Israeli army’s Monday raid on Al-Shifa Hospital west of Gaza City comes almost five and a half months after the start of the war against Hamas and almost four months after the previous Israeli operation there. It took only a few hours for the division that conducted the raid to cross the Gaza Strip and encircle Shifa, illustrating the low level of resistance that Hamas is currently capable of displaying in northern Gaza. At the same time, the decision to launch a raid there shows that Hamas is far from surrendering, even in areas where the Israel Defense Forces has declared that it has fully dismantled the organization’s military capabilities. Hamas has returned to operations in these areas, spurring Israel to conduct further raids. |
| read more |
Analysis | Biden Plans to Halt Rafah Operation and Remind Netanyahu: Israel Needs America
|
 |
| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to send a delegation to Washington to present to the American administration the IDF’s operational plan in Rafah reflects the true status of Israel-United States relations in the middle of the sixth month of the war. Netanyahu threatens, on a daily basis, an invasion near Rafah, promises the public a total victory over Hamas, and is proud of Israel’s independence to decide, despite tensions with President Joe Biden. But in practice, any idea that Israel will also defend itself with its own forces (with a little help from friends) has been under a big question mark since the terrorist attack of October 7. Biden has lately been challenging it from every side – the decision to airdrop aid into Gaza and build a floating pier, some slowness in the supply of U.S. arms to Israel and growing and increasingly public objections to a campaign in Rafah. |
| read more |
