I hope you are doing well during this difficult time. As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, we will continue to update the J Street crisis response page with our latest statements and resources.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions about any forthcoming legislation.

Best,
Hannah

—
Hannah Morris
She/Her
Director of Government Affairs, J Street
Cell: 832-606-1817
J Street’s Congressional Resource Page

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STATEMENT

J STREET OPPOSES INADEQUATE, POLITICIZED GOP SUPPLEMENTAL BILL – URGES PASSAGE OF FULL SUPPLEMENTAL AID PACKAGE, INCLUDING SECURITY AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

WORD FROM J STREET PRESIDENT, JEREMY BEN AMI

PRESIDENT BIDEN: PROVIDE US LIGHT IN THIS DARKNESS

ISSUE BRIEF

US POLICY FOLLOWING HAMAS’ ASSAULT AGAINST ISRAEL AND REGARDING THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

U.S. to Press Israel for ‘Pauses’ in War Against Hamas

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will urge the Israeli government to agree to a series of brief cessations of military operations in Gaza to allow for hostages to be released safely and for humanitarian aid to be distributed, White House officials said on Thursday. The message comes as President Biden revealed on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had previously agreed to halt shelling briefly on Oct. 20 to allow for the release of two Americans, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17. The push for what American officials call “humanitarian pauses” is one of several subjects Mr. Blinken will raise with Mr. Netanyahu and other officials when he arrives in Israel on Friday for another round of diplomacy amid fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, the group that controls Gaza. Speaking to reporters before boarding a plane on his way to the Middle East, Mr. Blinken said part of his mission would be to help ensure that civilians in Gaza were protected as Israel wages its war… White House officials said the request for pauses was far different from an overall cease-fire, which the Biden administration believes would benefit Hamas by allowing it to recover from Israel’s intense bombardment.

Palestinians with foreign passports and ambulances carrying wounded people began to leave Gaza through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt on Wednesday. It’s the first time anyone has been allowed to leave Gaza since the war began more than three weeks ago… There are more than 500 Americans and hundreds of other foreign nationals in Gaza, including UN workers, members of non-governmental organizations and journalists, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. The U.S. had blamed Hamas for keeping the crossing closed, while others, including Egypt, said the Palestinian side had been non-operational due to Israeli airstrikes in the area. Even as foreign nationals are allowed to enter Egypt via the Rafah Crossing, it appears the vast majority of Palestinians will not be able to leave Gaza, a densely-populated enclave home to more than 2.2 million people. Both Egypt and Jordan have said they are not willing to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

At least 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in battles in northern Gaza since Tuesday as its forces press deeper into the enclave, attacking dozens of targets affiliated with its Hamas rulers, the Israeli military said. The 15 deaths, mostly of infantry soldiers, were the first casualties inside Gaza publicly confirmed by Israel’s military since it launched a ground invasion on Friday, as fighting appeared to intensify and its forces pushed closer to Gaza City, the biggest city in the territory… In Israel, a small country in which military conscription is a mandatory rite of passage for many Jewish citizens, the soldiers’ names and faces were plastered on the home pages of most news websites. Others were read out live on Israeli television when the military announced their deaths on Wednesday… Senior Israeli officials have said the goal of the military operation is to dismantle Hamas, although it is far from clear what would happen if they were to succeed. Officials have told the Israeli public to expect a long, bloody campaign against the Palestinian armed group. “This is a difficult campaign, it requires combat in Gaza,” Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, before news of the soldiers’ deaths was announced. “There is no combat without a painful price.”

An Israeli airstrike that hit Gaza’s largest refugee camp Tuesday killed dozens of Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities in the Strip. The Israeli military confirmed that Israel carried out the strike on the Jabalia camp. It claimed the attack killed a senior Hamas commander and injured other members of the group. It also said the strike severely damaged Hamas’ underground infrastructure… The Gaza Health Ministry said hundreds of people who were killed or wounded in the attack had been taken to the Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza. “More than 50 people have been killed,” Atef al-Kahlout, director of the Indonesian Hospital, told Al Jazeera… U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a call with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, later Tuesday stressed the need to prioritize civilian safety in the military operations on Gaza, the Pentagon said. Israel has stepped up its aerial bombardment of Gaza since launching an expanded ground offensive last week as part of its operation that Israeli officials say is aimed at “destroying” Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack. More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed since the latest fighting began, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The predicament of the hostages underscores the extraordinary dilemma facing Israel as it seeks to achieve its military goal of destroying Hamas while attempting to free the men, women and children held in locations likely scattered around Gaza… Mr. Golan [Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff in the Israel Defense Forces], like other analysts and former military officials, believes that diplomacy will play an important role in securing the release of the hostages. Already four hostages have been released as the United States and Qatar try to broker complicated deals. But considerable hurdles remain… Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, said that Hamas was not negotiating seriously. The terrorist group was just trying to buy time and delay the ground assault… Israel’s expanding ground operations have complicated efforts to release the hostages, but U.S. officials say the more limited incursions, at least initially, align with advice Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III conveyed to his Israeli counterparts in recent days to mitigate risks to the hostages and civilians in the enclave. As a result, U.S. officials said Israel was taking the hostages’ safety more into account than it was in the initial invasion planning, while acknowledging they still remain in serious danger.

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jack Lew to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel at a critical moment in U.S.-Israeli relations, despite vocal opposition to President Biden’s nominee by Republican senators over his defense of the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement. Lew’s nomination was approved 53-43, largely along party lines. The United States has been without a confirmed ambassador for Israel since this summer, when Thomas Nides departed from the role. Lew was nominated by Biden in September. One month after the nomination, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, and Israel subsequently declared war. Lew’s nomination has been on a fast track since then… Before serving as treasury secretary during Obama’s second term, Lew served as Obama’s chief of staff. He also previously served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama and Clinton administrations. An Orthodox Jew, Lew has long-standing connections to the American Jewish community. He also has long backed a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

On Oct. 20, President Biden requested funding from Congress that is vital to America’s national security. Congress’s swift support will allow us to continue aiding Ukraine as it defends its democracy, its land and its people against Russia’s war of aggression. It will strengthen our hand in an intensifying strategic competition with China. And it will ensure we can help Israel defend itself, while aiding Palestinian civilians caught in a cross-fire of Hamas’s making. Taken together, this investment will show the United States’ unwavering resolve in standing with our allies and partners, standing up to autocrats and terrorists, and standing for an international order that safeguards America’s interests and values. Some in Congress are making the case to fund only parts of the president’s request, including proposals to cut out all humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. That would be a grave mistake. It will deepen the suffering of more than 2 million Palestinian civilians — including women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations — who have nothing to do with Hamas’s deplorable attacks. It will undercut Israel’s security and regional stability. And it will worsen problems and risks that will end up costing American taxpayers many magnitudes more over time.

After October 7, Israel became a different country. Since that day, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, brutally murdered over 1,400 people, and took more than 220 as hostages, it has been clear that Hamas cannot be allowed to remain in charge of Gaza… Israel’s war is not a war of choice against the Palestinians but an inevitable campaign to free ourselves, as well as the people of the Gaza Strip, from the cruel grip of Hamas. Israel’s military campaign must succeed. But organizing and sustaining it will require establishing political objectives for its aftermath. And a victory over Hamas alone will be insufficient to heal the horrific wounds Israel has suffered in this act of terror. The country that Israel becomes in ten years will depend on the political choices it makes now, not only the military decisions: its security and prosperity will turn on whether it creates a new political horizon for its region and makes serious advances toward an eventual two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. As it works to defeat Hamas militarily, Israel must also work to define its long-term strategy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unfit to direct any part of this process—neither the war to defeat Hamas nor efforts to secure a more lasting peace.

At a time when the Israel Defense Forces are expanding their ground operations in the Gaza Strip, repelling Hezbollah attacks in the north and intercepting missiles fired at Eilat by the Houthis, it turns out that there are Israelis who seek to add another front to the war. Security personnel following developments in the West Bank describe a deliberate effort by settlers to take control of territory, expel Palestinians (including from the Susya area in the South Hebron Hills), and terrorize them by means of uprooting hundreds of olive trees, torching and vandalizing property, beatings and shootings. At a time when Israel’s allies in the world are mobilizing in its favor, the United States is deploying aircraft carriers and sending arms in an effort to prevent an all-out conflagration and deter hostile elements in the region, led by Iran, from attacking Israel; when the entire Western world is trying to behave responsibly to avert deterioration into a regional war – within Israel there are extremist elements acting in a way that is liable to lead to escalation. The government does not stop them and even lavishes hundreds of millions of shekels on them… If the government does not come to its senses immediately and respond decisively to the actions of the settlers in the territories, it will be adding another catastrophe to its record of failures.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | November 3, 2023

This week on j street

What we’re reading

U.S. to Press Israel for ‘Pauses’ in War Against Hamas

Foreigners, wounded Palestinians allowed to leave Gaza for first time since war began

Israel Confirms Deaths of 15 Soldiers in Ground Invasion of Gaza

Israel Confirms Deaths of 15 Soldiers in Ground Invasion of Gaza

Analysis | Israel Faces Hostage Dilemma in Gaza

Former Obama official Jack Lew confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Israel

Opinion | Antony Blinken: Defending Israel is essential. So is aiding civilians in Gaza.

Opinion | Why Netanyahu Must Go

Editorial | Preventing War in the West Bank