I’m writing to share a few key updates and J Street statements from the past week. I hope you find these helpful.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out on settler violence in the West Bank, hailing comments by Israeli President Herzog and senior commanders in the IDF who condemned the violence, following an alarming arson attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian facility and farmland. Reporting indicated diverging positions between the US and Israel over whether to grant safe passage to roughly 200 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels in Rafah, a potential sticking point for the Trump administration’s broader post-war plan for Gaza. The Israeli Embassy circulated a letter to Congress defending the nine-month military detention of a Palestinian American teen as lawmakers pressed for answers. Israel also began seeking a 20-year military aid agreement with the US that includes “America First” provisions aimed at winning White House support. Meanwhile, President Trump formally urged Israel’s president to pardon Prime Minister Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption case. Regionally, concerns intensified over Iran’s advancing nuclear program amid the absence of inspections or negotiations.

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 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

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Rubio says ‘there’s some concern’ West Bank violence could undermine Gaza ceasefire

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said “there’s some concern” about events in the West Bank undermining efforts to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza, in his first remarks on the latest spate of settler violence. “Certainly there’s some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza,” Rubio told reporters, before clarifying that he hopes the violence doesn’t undermine the ceasefire and does not expect it to, either. Rubio hailed the condemnations that were issued by President Isaac Herzog and senior commanders in the IDF against the settler violence, a day after dozens of Israelis launched a large-scale arson attack on Palestinians in the West Bank, targeting factories and farmland between the major cities of Nablus and Tulkarem.

The fate of dozens of trapped Hamas fighters is hindering Trump’s Gaza plan

A dispute over the fate of as many as 200 Hamas fighters trapped inside tunnels in an Israeli-controlled area of Gaza is complicating the Trump administration’s efforts for peace, with the United States pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give the militants safe passage. The disagreement over the fighters, who became stranded behind Israeli lines in Rafah after a ceasefire was announced last month, has underscored the broader potential pitfalls of the deal — including the thorny issue of disarming Hamas and growing Israeli frustration over what some officials see as U.S. interference in the country’s national security.

Israeli embassy writes to US senators defending detention of Palestinian American teen

The Israeli embassy in Washington has been circulating a letter on Capitol Hill defending its nine-month detention of a 16-year-old US citizen in military prison as pressure mounts from senators and civil society groups who have called for his release. The document, obtained by the Guardian, describes Israel’s allegations against Mohammed Ibrahim and the medical treatment he has allegedly received in prison. It does not mention his dramatic weight loss or the fact that his family has had virtually no contact with him since his arrest in February. Ibrahim, a dual Palestinian American teenager from Florida, has been charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles. It is unclear how many congressional offices the letter had reached, but comes after 27 Democratic lawmakers last month wrote to Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and to the US ambassador to Israel expressing “grave concern” over Ibrahim’s treatment.

Israel seeks 20-year military aid deal with U.S. with “America First” tweaks

Israel is seeking a new 20-year security agreement with the U.S. — doubling the usual term and adding “America First” provisions to win the Trump administration’s support, Israeli and U.S. officials tell Axios… While the past agreement promised Israel around $4 billion per year in military aid, and Israel is likely to seek at least that much going forward, passing such a deal will now be more complicated because of growing frustrations with Israel, including within Trump’s MAGA base… The current 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in 2016 under Barack Obama, expires in 2028. Israel wants to conclude the new deal over the next year.

Trump urges Israel to pardon Netanyahu in corruption case, sparking concerns over US influence

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent a letter to Israel’s president asking him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a long-running corruption trial that has bitterly divided the country. It was the latest attempt by Trump to intervene in the case on behalf of Netanyahu, raising questions about undue American influence over internal Israeli affairs. Trump also called for a pardon for Netanyahu during a speech to Israel’s parliament last month, when he made a brief visit to promote his ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza. In Wednesday’s letter to President Isaac Herzog, Trump called the corruption case “political, unjustified prosecution.”

The Dangerous Stalemate Over Iran’s Nuclear Program

The 2015 deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment expired last month. Tough sanctions on Iran have been restored. Negotiations on its nuclear program appear to be dead, at least for now. And Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, enough to make 11 nuclear weapons, is either buried under rubble, as Iran claims, or has been spirited away to a safe place, as Israeli officials believe. Iran also appears to be continuing to work on a new enrichment site known as Pickaxe Mountain. It has refused to give international inspectors access to that site or any other suspected nuclear sites other than those already declared. The result is a dangerous stalemate — with no negotiations, no certainty over Iran’s stockpile, no independent oversight. And many in the Gulf believe that makes another Israeli attack on Iran almost inevitable, given Israeli officials’ long-held view that Iran’s nuclear program is an existential threat.

What Reconstructing Gaza Really Means

“Cranes and cement, together with time and money, can clear away physical rubble. But the moral and emotional debris will linger: fear, hatred, dehumanization. Reconciliation will have to advance in parallel with reconstruction. And for that, what’s required is what I like to think of as the four D’s. First, for obvious reasons, demilitarization. But removing weapons alone does not remove the will to use them. Gaza will also need to deradicalize, which means healing minds poisoned by decades of hatred and fear; to democratize, which entails restoring legitimate and accountable institutions; and to develop a functioning economy that can replace despair with dignity.”

The Gaza plan needs fleshing out quickly, writes a former Israeli security chief

For this vision to become an achievable plan, the goal must be clear: creating a two-state reality. Unfortunately, it is hiding in Mr Trump’s 19th point, which vaguely alludes to “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”. A big obstacle to achieving this goal is the Israeli government’s refusal to discuss the “day after” in Gaza. This has created a vicious circle, in which the strategic vacuum empowers the very forces the plan seeks to dismantle: Hamas. Without a coherent political framework for what comes next, this ambitious journey risks collapsing before it begins. Another obstacle to progress has been the absence of a legitimate Palestinian voice. This is not an oversight. It is the deliberate policy of Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, who has sought to avoid substantive negotiations by weakening the Palestinian Authority (PA) and strengthening the more radical Hamas.

Opinion | It’s Not a ‘Hasbara Failure’ to Seek Justice for Palestinian Detainees Sexually Abused by IDF Soldiers

“Acknowledging and seeking justice in the face of rape and sexual torture of Palestinians in military bases and temporary prison camps is not a hasbara failure. It is the only way to create an environment where the stark level of dehumanization of Palestinians can be truly reckoned with, and where all survivors of sexual abuse – Israeli and Palestinian alike – can seek justice and repair.”

Opinion | There Is No Cease-Fire in the West Bank

“The United Nations reported that this October — peak olive harvest season in the West Bank — there were the highest number of settler attacks in the area since it began documenting them in 2006. Over 260 attacks were recorded, an average of eight per day. This is a serious acceleration of violence, but it is not new or isolated. Since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers; one in every five dead was a child. In the same period, over 3,000 Palestinians say they have been displaced from their homes and lands largely because of Israeli settler violence.”