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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. An overwhelming number of House and Senate members pushed back against the ongoing humanitarian blockade in Gaza. Netanyahu’s government signaled plans to expand military operations in Gaza if no ceasefire is reached before former President Trump’s expected visit. World Central Kitchen shuttered soup kitchens across Gaza due to depleted supplies as humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate. Meanwhile, the Trump administration moved to downgrade its Palestinian Affairs office in Jerusalem, signaling a further retreat from diplomatic engagement.
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
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Lily Adelstein
She/Her
Deputy Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 202-699-2701
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page
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This week on j street
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| STATEMENT |
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J Street Welcomes Call From Almost 100 House Democrats to End Humanitarian Blockade
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| J STREET CONVERSATIONS |
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What to Expect from Trump’s Middle East Trip
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| Listen → |
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| EXPERT ANALYSIS |
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Dismantling USAID: Consequences for the West Bank and Gaza
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| STATEMENT |
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J Street Responds to Recent Anti-War Protests on Campuses
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| STATEMENT |
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J Street Strongly Condemns Houthi Missile Attack on Ben Gurion Airport
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What we’re reading
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US confirms plan for private firms to deliver Gaza aid despite UN alarm
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| The US has confirmed that a new system for providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza through private companies is being prepared, as Israel’s blockade continues for a third month. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said “distribution centres” protected by security contractors would provide food and other supplies to over a million people initially, as part of an effort to prevent Hamas stealing aid. He denied Israel would take part in aid delivery or distribution, but said its forces would secure the centres’ perimeters. It comes as details emerged about the controversial plan, which UN agencies have reiterated they will not co-operate with because it appears to “weaponize” aid. |
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Hostage families: Government going against will of the people by ‘choosing territories over hostages’
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| The families of hostages say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is disregarding the people by “choosing territories over hostages…” “The plan approved by the cabinet deserves the name ‘Smotrich-Netanyahu Plan’ for giving up on the hostage and its abandonment of national and security resilience,” the forum says in a statement, referring to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Throughout the fighting, Smotrich and others on the far-right have urged using the war as an opportunity to reestablish Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. |
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Israel Downs Drone as Houthis Vow to Continue Tit-for-Tat Strikes
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| Israel said it had shot down a drone that was approaching from the east on Wednesday, as Houthi officials in Yemen vowed to continue attacking the country a day after President Trump said the United States would stop bombing the Iran-backed group. The Israeli military said in a statement that the drone was intercepted by the air force and sirens blared as it approached. It was not immediately clear who launched the drone. But the Houthi militia group reiterated that it would continue to attack Israel, both to avenge attacks in Yemen and because of the war in Gaza. |
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U.S. to Downgrade Palestinian Affairs Office in Jerusalem, Officials Say
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| In recent years, an office within the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem had a direct line of communication with Washington. That was meant to signal that the United States saw Palestinian issues as important, and considered the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip to be separate from Israel. Now, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has decided to shut down this direct channel, according to U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The decision will effectively end the special status of the Office of Palestinian Affairs at the embassy, which had been sending cables to Washington without being required to get them approved first by embassy leaders. |
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Syrian president says his government is holding indirect talks with Israel
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| Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said that his government is holding indirect talks with Israel to bring an end to Israeli attacks on Syria. “There are indirect negotiations (with Israel) via mediators to calm and contain the situation so matters don’t reach a point where both sides lose control,” Al-Sharaa said at a news conference in Paris. “We are trying to speak to all the countries that are in contact with the Israeli side to pressure them to stop interfering in Syrian affairs.” |
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Analysis | The Huge, Under-the-Radar Shift Happening in the West Bank
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| The streets looked like Gaza. Homes reduced to rubble, walls pockmarked by bullet holes, roads ripped apart by bulldozers. Neighborhood after neighborhood was deserted. But this was not Gaza, a territory devastated by the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas, where tens of thousands have been killed and hunger stalks the population. It was the occupied West Bank, another Palestinian territory where the Israeli military has been tightening control in the most sweeping crackdown on militancy there in a generation. The contours of the new offensive were unfolding during a recent visit by New York Times reporters to the city of Jenin, among the once densely populated neighborhoods that have been cleared out since an operation began in January. In one of those areas, more than 10,000 people lived until recently. Now, it is empty — its roads blocked by mounds of dirt and flanked by piles of rubble. |
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Opinion | Israel’s Forever War
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| “If U.S. history is any judge, Israel is better off at this point cutting the best deal it can to end the war. Fighting these types of prolonged insurgencies with dwindling domestic support is unworkable in democracies – even if you achieve some tactical success… For Israel, agreeing to end the war means a deal that gets all of the hostages out, which for the majority of the Israeli public, is the most important victory of all.” |
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