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I hope you are doing well.
I’m writing to you as a J Street advocacy leader to share important updates from the region as well as J Street’s statements and resources from this past week. I also want to highlight a recent report published by the Commanders of Israel’s Security, an Israeli group comprised of hundreds of former Israeli security officials, including former heads of the IDF and Mossad. You can find the report here. As a reminder, you can always find our most recent statements on J Street crisis response page, and I invite you to reach out to your J Street Public Affairs staff with any questions.
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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This week on j street
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J STREET U BOARD: WE CONDEMN SCENES OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND ANTISEMITISM ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
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J STREET WELCOMES INDEPENDENT UNRWA REPORT, CALLS FOR WHITE HOUSE ACTION
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What we’re reading
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Families of Hostages Threaten to ‘Lay Siege’ to Israeli Leaders if Deal Falls Through
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| The scale of Monday night’s protest was surprising and supplied further evidence that tensions are rising among the families of the hostages as negotiations over a possible hostage deal progress. As the moment of decision approaches, prominent protest activists believe we have reached a fateful moment and warn that if Israel causes a deal to fall through, thousands will take to the streets and won’t leave until the hostages return home. “Prepare for the call, with the hope that we won’t have to make it,” read a message on one of the WhatsApp groups of the protest groups. At the same time, according to a leading activist, there are no concrete plans for how to continue if the deal falls through, and the activists are still discussing options with the families, who set the tone. |
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Israel will invade Gaza’s Rafah ‘with or without’ a hostage deal, Netanyahu says
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| Israel will invade Rafah “with or without a deal” to release the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday. “The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal — in order to achieve the total victory,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement released by his office. |
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With Gaza aid flows rising, U.S. to push Israel to speed distribution
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| The United States will press Israel to ensure humanitarian aid is effectively distributed within Gaza, Secretary of State Blinken said Tuesday, forecasting upcoming talks as the Biden administration seeks to turn tentative increases in aid shipments into more widespread improvements for desperate civilians. U.N. humanitarian officials briefed Blinken in the Jordanian capital about their efforts to improve conditions in Gaza, where hunger, disease and suffering are rampant following six-plus months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants. |
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U.S. pushes for Gaza cease-fire, seeing narrow window for a deal before Israel launches Rafah assault
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| As Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, on Monday, there were urgent calls for a deal between Israel and Hamas that would head off an assault on Rafah, where more than 1 million people are sheltering… In a significant softening of Israel’s position, senior administration officials and Arab diplomats said Israel has for the first time indicated it would accept a sustained cease-fire lasting more than six weeks, as the U.S. has been proposing. And two senior officials, as well as an Arab diplomat, said everything rests on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who all sides believe to be underground in the terrorist organization’s network of tunnels. |
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UK imposes sanctions for alleged violence against Palestinians on Lehava and Hilltop Youth, 4 settler leaders
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| The UK announces new sanctions on extremist groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron announces the sanctions package, which follows a previous round of sanctions in February on four Israelis believed to have carried out violent attacks on Palestinians. “Extremist settlers are undermining security and stability and threatening prospects for peace,” Cameron says in a statement. |
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Scoop: Senators meet with ICC over concerns about possible Israel arrest warrants
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| A bipartisan group of senators held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with senior officials at the International Criminal Court to express their concern about possible arrest warrants being issued for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza, according to three sources who were in the meeting or briefed about it. Why it matters: Israeli officials have grown increasingly worried over the last two weeks that the ICC is preparing to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. |
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For Jewish students, protests stir fear, anger, hope and questions
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| The protests outside her window at Columbia University were loud, and Dahlia Soussan lay awake all night, tossing in her dorm room bed, a little bit scared. As a Jewish student, some of the chants felt threatening, like she was being targeted because she supports the existence of the state of Israel. But the next day, when more than 100 protesters were arrested, that was upsetting, too. She didn’t want students taken to jail or suspended from college. She, too, wants the bombing in Gaza to stop. |
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Israel and Saudi Arabia Are Trading Places
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| Saudi Arabia and Israel are America’s two most important Middle East allies, and the Biden administration is deeply involved with both today, trying to forge a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and help Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Iran. But the Biden team has run into an unprecedented situation with these two longtime partners that is creating a huge opportunity and a huge danger for America. It derives from the contrast in their internal politics. To put it bluntly, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has put his country’s worst religious extremists in jail, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put his country’s worst religious extremists in his cabinet. |
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After violent night at UCLA, classes cancelled, UC president launches investigation into response
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| A camp representative said the counterdemonstrators repeatedly pushed over barricades that mark the boundaries of the encampment, and some campers said they were hit by a substance they thought was pepper spray. As counterprotesters attempted to pull down the wood boards surrounding the encampment, at least one person could be heard yelling, “Second nakba!” referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Daily Bruin News Editor Catherine Hamilton said she was sprayed with some type of irritant and repeatedly punched in the chest and upper abdomen as she was reporting on the unrest. Another student journalist was pushed to the ground by counterprotesters and was beaten and kicked for nearly a minute, she said. Hamilton was treated at a hospital and released. |
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