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I hope you are doing well during this difficult time.
In case you’ve missed any of J Street’s statements or recent webinars, I encourage you to take a look at J Street’s crisis response page.
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions about any forthcoming legislation.
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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| WEBINAR |
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Bring Them Home: The Struggle to Protect & Free Hostages in Gaza
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| STATEMENT |
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J STREET WELCOMES SENATORS’ IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO BIDEN ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR, SUPPLEMENTAL MILITARY ASSISTANCE
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| WORD FROM J STREET PRESIDENT, JEREMY BEN AMI |
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ONE MONTH SINCE OCTOBER 7
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What we’re reading
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Blinken Lays Out Possible Endgame in Gaza Under Palestinian Authority
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| Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that Gaza should be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority once the war is over, offering a strong signal about what the United States sees as its preferred endgame in the fight between Israel and Hamas. The message, delivered during a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo, came as President Biden feels growing pressure to use his leverage to push for sustainable, long-term goals in the region and minimize civilian casualties… Mr. Biden wields key leverage as a world leader strongly allied with Israel, and his administration has sought to rally Arab nations and others behind a vision that looks beyond the fighting and the deep emotions that have divided the region for years… “We don’t have it all figured out right now,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Wednesday on CNN. “And I don’t know that it would be reasonable for us to think that we could, at this particular point, one month into the conflict. But we know that it has to be something different than what it was under Hamas.” |
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How U.S. pressure led Israel to set pauses in Gaza fighting
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| Under U.S. pressure, Israel agreed to begin “tactical localized humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in northern Gaza neighborhoods for four hours a day, Israeli and U.S. officials said Thursday. The decision is a shift in policy for Israel, which for weeks had largely resisted the Biden administration’s push for pauses in Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza for humanitarian reasons. Israeli officials initially saw the pauses as a pathway to a ceasefire that the Israeli public doesn’t want. When U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced the Israeli decision earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement playing down the move, portray it as something that wasn’t new. That seems to have been spin — a reflection of the political sensitivities Netanyahu is facing within his coalition and the Israeli public’s strong opposition to stop the fighting as long as Hamas and its allies are holding Israeli hostages… A White House official said Israel told the Biden administration it is “formalizing and expanding” the pauses to allow for safe passage, evacuations of injured or wounded, and for civilians to be able to replenish food, water, and medical supplies. “If Hamas takes advantage of these pauses to initiate combat activities or fire rockets, the IDF said they will take action in response,” the White House official said. |
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Israel Raises Alarms by Suggesting ‘Indefinite’ Role in Gaza
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| By saying that Israel will maintain security control over Gaza “for an indefinite period,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off alarm bells in Washington and questions at home. The Biden administration, trying to manage severe criticism among Arab and European allies about the death toll in Gaza — now at more than 10,000 Gazan officials say — was quick to push back. “We’re very clear on no reoccupation, just as we’re very clear on no displacement of the Palestinian population,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in Tokyo on Wednesday… But even if Israel dismantles Hamas in Gaza, who will govern Gaza after the war and how the territory will be policed are listed in Israeli planning as “tbd.” As in the West Bank, where Israeli troops are in charge of security in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Netanyahu seems to be imagining something similar for Gaza. At the same time, he and other senior Israeli officials say they have no intention of “reoccupying Gaza,” by which they seem to mean once again being responsible for civilian administration, too. |
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Israel Raises Alarms by Suggesting ‘Indefinite’ Role in Gaza
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| All my life, I’ve been a resident of the Susya village, a small Palestinian village. We’re in Area C in the West Bank, in the shadow of what is happening in Gaza. The settlers see this as an opportunity to take control and claim parts of Area C as their own through terrorism and violence. We know who these settlers are. They’re criminals, and they should be arrested. But at the moment, they have become the law. They administer the law. They are the army, and they do whatever they want. |
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U.S. Officials Fear American Guns Ordered by Israel Could Fuel West Bank Violence
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| An Israeli government request for 24,000 assault rifles from the United States is drawing scrutiny from American lawmakers and some State Department officials who fear the weapons might end up in the hands of settlers and civilian militias trying to force Palestinians from land in the West Bank, where violence has been surging, U.S. officials say. The three proposed tranches of semiautomatic and automatic rifles are valued at $34 million and are being ordered directly from American gunmakers, but they require State Department approval and congressional notification. Israel says the rifles would be used by the national police force, but has also indicated that they could be given to civilians, people familiar with the weapons orders told The New York Times… State Department officials who oversee weapons sales have discussed potential concerns with Israeli counterparts. “We received assurances from the Israelis that these will only go to I.N.P.-controlled units,” Jessica Lewis, the assistant secretary in the political-military affairs bureau, said in a statement to The Times, referring to the Israeli National Police… However, Israel’s minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who oversees the police, promised last month to provide guns to settlements. |
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Opinion | Israel Is Silencing Internal Critics
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| Freedom of political expression in Israel with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict, especially with regard to Israeli policy toward Palestinians, has always been precarious, especially for the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his earlier and current terms, has allowed and encouraged right-wing nationalist organizations to silence what remains of the Israeli left — mainly human rights groups, peace organizations and the Palestinian minority — and promote moves designed to harm them to the point of their near elimination. Such measures include passing legislation that imposes various sanctions on expressions designed to fight the occupation, such as calling for a boycott of settlement products, or to strengthen Palestinian identity, such as a commemoration of the nakba… But even this grave process of constantly reducing the space for political discussion of the Israeli occupation and treatment of Palestinians and the authoritarian suppression of criticism and dissent did not prepare civil society for what has been happening since Oct. 7. |
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Analysis | What Would Israel and Hamas Consider a ‘Win’ in Gaza?
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| By conventional definition and through applying the relevant metrics that measure power, there is no strategic proportionality whatsoever between Israel and Hamas. Israel is exponentially superior and stronger in every aspect and dimension. But strategy is a very broad and multifaceted construct in which, sometimes, the far more powerful can paradoxically find itself at a disadvantage. This asymmetry uniquely exists when a state is at war with a non-state entity, and it relates particularly to the concepts of time and objective… For Israel, a win invariably means comprehensively destroying Hamas militarily – or at least inflicting degrading, irretrievable military damage. A win would also entail politically debilitating Hamas and rendering the terror organization incapable of exerting power and governing in Gaza. Anything less than that would amount to a limited tactical achievement, not a strategic game-changer. For Hamas, a win means staying on its feet. The grand objective is to fuel and sustain a permanent state of conflict, constantly disrupt the status quo, and fight and murder to live another day. |
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Opinion | Why Israel should promote peace in the midst of war
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| As Israel wages war against Hamas, it must simultaneously propose a path toward peace. Clearly, it is difficult to talk about peace during wartime. Temperatures are running high, and an understandable sense of pain and outrage has overtaken even the soundest of minds. So much so that there are those who cannot see past seeking revenge. But a peace initiative is the only way Israel’s ultimate security can succeed. |
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