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I’m writing as a J Street advocacy leader to share a few significant developments from the region over the past week, including reactions from senior Israeli government officials to Trump’s recent cabinet appointments, demands from the Biden Administration to increase humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, and ongoing efforts to impose sanctions on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
As always, please feel free to reach out to J Street’s Public Affairs staff with 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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J Street Urges White House to Impose Sanctions on Extremist Israeli Ministers and Organizations
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J Street Deeply Frustrated by the Biden Administration’s Failure to Enforce US Law over Netanyahu’s Aid Obstruction
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J Street Vehemently Opposes Nomination of Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel
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J Street to Biden Administration: Time to Withhold Some US Weapons to Israel for Continuing to Block Humanitarian Assistance to Gaza
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J Street Calls on Congress to Join in Pressing for Biden Administration Action on Israel-Palestine in Remaining Months
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What we’re reading
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U.S. says no policy consequences for Israel despite lack of Gaza aid
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| The State Department confirmed Tuesday that Israel will face no policy consequences for the lack of aid reaching the hunger-ravaged Gaza Strip, following a warning last month from the Biden administration that it had 30 days to improve access or potentially lose some U.S. military assistance… Israel has largely failed to comply with the three main demands of the U.S. letter, according to aid groups and U.N. officials, which included surging humanitarian aid across the enclave, resuming access for commercial trucks and ending the isolation of the north. Humanitarian organizations say the policies have brought the Palestinian enclave to the brink of mass starvation. |
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Israeli Right, Pushing to Annex West Bank, Sees Allies in Trump’s Picks
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| President-elect Donald J. Trump’s emerging team in the Middle East appears poised to push U.S. foreign policy into even tighter accord with Israel’s far-right government, challenging the marriage of convenience Mr. Trump struck with Muslim voters and potentially straining relations between Israeli and American Jews to a breaking point… Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right minister in the Netanyahu cabinet, said on Monday that Mr. Trump’s election meant 2025 would be the year for Israel to begin annexing the West Bank. “I intend, with God’s help, to lead a government decision that says that the government of Israel will work with the new administration of President Trump and the international community to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” he said. |
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Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran, officials say
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| The Israeli attack on Iran in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, according to three U.S. officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official. The strike — which targeted a site previously reported to be inactive — significantly damaged Iran’s effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research, Israeli and U.S. officials said. One former Israeli official briefed on the strike said it destroyed sophisticated equipment used to design the plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device and are needed to detonate it. Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement last week that “Iran is not after nuclear weapons, period.” |
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Transition 2025: Donald Trump Builds His National Security Team
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| Trump is drawing heavily on sitting and former members of Congress for his picks. He named Florida Congressman Mike Waltz to be national security advisor, Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be ambassador to the United Nations, former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, and former Texas Congressman and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA. He also named Fox News media personality Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to be secretary of homeland security, and real-estate developer and Trump golfing buddy Steven Witkoff to be special envoy for the Middle East. |
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Opinion | The ultra-divisive Netanyahu and the consequences for an Israel fighting for survival
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| “People constantly ask me — almost all of them lovers of Israel living overseas, some of them politely, many of them not — why many Israelis so mistrust and, yes, loathe, our Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu….I think it’s important to explain, taking no pleasure in doing so, and at the risk of prompting more opprobrium and accusations of disloyalty. I should stress that domestic opposition and mistrust vastly predates October 7, 2023, and indeed has risen and fallen throughout Netanyahu’s three decades at the top of Israeli politics, most of which he has spent as the electorate’s chosen prime minister.” |
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Opinion | What ‘Lame Duck’ Biden Can Do to Stop the Gaza War
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| “If Biden wants to assert a coherent Democratic alternative, he needs to admit that bear hugs and bribery have not worked. What’s left is to constrain Israel’s capacity. A Democratic policy should anchor a cease-fire in Gaza to a long-term end of the occupation as a whole – this is not a punishment, but a service to Palestinians and Israelis alike. Parting policies that advance these aims – limiting Israel’s ability to continue its conquest, doubling down to reach a cease-fire or advancing a future of Palestinian independence – should be on the president’s lame duck agenda. The following ideas have been swirling around progressive policy circles for months.” |
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