I hope you are doing well during this difficult time. As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, J Street will continue to send updates and resources, as well as briefing invitations and recommendations for Congressional action.

We will also 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 any questions.

Best,
Hannah

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

This week on j street

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J STREET SUPPORTS URGENT CALLS FOR HUMANITARIAN PAUSES IN ISRAEL-HAMAS FIGHTING

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Israel’s Response to Hamas: Strategies and Dilemmas

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WORD FROM J STREET PRESIDENT, JEREMY BEN AMI

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J STREET WELCOMES LETTER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN FROM 131 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

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J STREET DEEPLY CONCERNED OVER ANTI-DEMOCRATIC CRACKDOWNS IN ISRAEL

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J STREET URGES ALL POSSIBLE ACTION TO PROTECT, RELEASE HOSTAGES IN GAZA

Israel Intensifies Strikes on Gaza as Its Allies Call for More Palestinian Aid

Israel’s military struck hundreds of targets in Gaza on Monday, in one of the biggest barrages yet of its war with Hamas and as a trickle of aid arrived for desperate Palestinians in the strip, where the lack of clean water, medicine and other critical supplies is fueling a dire humanitarian crisis. American officials have urged Israel to delay its widely anticipated ground invasion of Gaza, to allow more time for aid and for negotiations to release the more than 200 people being held hostage by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza… The Israelis and Egypt have begun allowing some aid into Gaza, after weeks of tortuous diplomatic negotiations. On Monday, the third convoy of aid arrived in Gaza in as many days. But the trucks, numbering only a few dozen total, carried far too little to help the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians seeking critical supplies… As negotiations to help the hostages have borne some fruit in recent days, Israel’s allies have also urged it to allow far more aid into Gaza, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe. On Sunday, President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a “continued flow” of aid for Palestinians, according to the White House. On Monday, prominent European leaders called for urgent action to help them.

President Biden is signaling for the first time what his plan would be for the day after the war in Gaza — a new generation of peace talks in the Middle East on a “two-state solution” in which Israel would co-exist with a Palestinian state. So far he’s focused largely on trying to avoid conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank — and securing a big peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, there’s no going back to the “status quo” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as it stood on Oct. 6, Biden said Wednesday during a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Hamas can’t continue to terrorize Israeli citizens …. When this crisis is over there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution,” Biden said. “It means a concentrated effort to put us on a path towards peace”… Biden said Wednesday that although he doesn’t have proof, his “instinct” tells him Hamas attacked Israel to bust up the Israel-Saudi deal, which would include other Arab nations. “We need to work toward greater integration (in the region) for Israel — while insisting that the aspirations of the Palestinian people will be part of this future as well,” Biden said.https://www.axios.com/2023/10/26/biden-post-war-plan-two-state-solution-israel-palestinians

At least 39 Americans were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, and hundreds more U.S. citizens are trapped in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive. Beyond those Americans living in or visiting areas that have already been impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, thousands more U.S. citizens across the region could be affected if the conflict widens. The State Department issued an advisory last week, warning Americans abroad to “exercise increased caution” due to potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations and violent actions against U.S. citizens. U.S. government operations abroad have already been impacted. There have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and there have been increased attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. Many of the U.S. citizens in Israel, the Palestinian territories and neighboring countries hold U.S. passports but live primarily in those places. However, there were Americans on shorter-term visits caught up in both the Hamas attack and the mass displacement in Gaza.

The Israeli military has notified the families of 222 people who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 during Hamas’s attack, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military’s chief spokesman, said on Monday. The hostage count has risen as the army has collected more intelligence and accounted for the many foreign citizens who were kidnapped, Mr. Hagari said. Hamas released two captives, an American-Israeli mother and daughter, on Friday night, and on Monday it released two Israeli women, raising hopes about the effectiveness of hostage negotiations… Ten Americans are still unaccounted for in the wake of the attack, and some of them are being held by Hamas, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. President Biden has vowed to make every effort to reunite them with their families… The hostages were seized from homes in towns along Israel’s border with Gaza that were overrun by Palestinian gunmen on Oct. 7, as well as from military bases and an enormous outdoor dance party. The Israeli authorities have not yet publicly provided specific details about the identities of the hostages. They include civilians, soldiers, people with disabilities, children, grandparents and even a 9-month-old baby. Some are peace activists, part of collectives near the Gaza border whose members tend to be left of center and supportive of peace initiatives and Palestinian rights.

Israel’s sweeping security measures in the West Bank are an extension of its war against Hamas in Gaza, an attempt to eliminate the militant group and permanently shift the balance of power in a conflict that has raged for decades. More than 1,400 people have been arrested and more than 90 have been killed in the West Bank over the last two weeks, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has said its “counterterrorism” operations will prevent Hamas from being able to launch another attack like its brutal assault on Oct. 7, when gunmen killed over 1,400 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 hostages. But many Palestinians and some analysts warn the measures could have the opposite effect. Hamas’s presence is limited in the West Bank, where the rival Fatah movement holds power, but many of its aims are shared by a new generation of militant groups that have taken up arms here over the last year. The fighters are young, loosely organized and opportunistic. The West Bank didn’t immediately erupt into violence after Israel declared war against Hamas, said Tahani Mustafa, the senior analyst on Palestinian affairs at the International Crisis Group. But she said militant activity has increased in response to the recent Israeli crackdown. “Israel has always tried to preemptively use full force to try and prevent any kind of pushback,” she said. But “if the stated objective is to prevent armed resistance, then it’s very counterproductive, because if anything it often has the adverse effect of radicalizing young boys.”

Fears mounted Sunday that the Israel-Gaza war could swell into a wider conflict amid rising cross-border attacks on Israel’s north from Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and expanding Israeli airstrikes across the region. Syria’s state news agency said Israel struck the Damascus and Aleppo international airports in early-morning attacks, damaging runways. In the West Bank, a rare Israeli airstrike hit a mosque, which the military said had been used as a command center for Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. The potential for escalation remained particularly high along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the Israeli military continued to evacuate towns on Sunday in the face of “more and more attacks” from Hezbollah, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces… During a visit to soldiers in northern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah that it would be making “the mistake of its life” if it chose to enter the conflict. “We will cripple it with unimaginable force,” he continued, saying the result would be “devastating” for Lebanon.

The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on two sites in eastern Syria associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and “affiliated groups” following attacks on U.S. personnel there and in neighboring Iraq, the Pentagon said late Thursday night… Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the “narrowly-tailored strikes” were a response to a series of nearly 20 assaults beginning Oct. 17, which he said had resulted in minor injuries to 21 U.S. service members. An American contractor died after suffering cardiac arrest during one incident, what officials have said was a false alarm of incoming attack at a U.S. base in Iraq. “The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop,” Austin said in a statement. “If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people”… The airstrikes announced late Thursday follow a warning by President Biden, who has faced increasing pressure to retaliate for the attacks on American personnel, to Iran’s supreme leader that the United States would act if further provoked.

After the 9/11 attacks, the United States faced a momentous choice: should it engage in a narrowly targeted counterterrorism campaign, one designed to bring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice, or attempt to fight terrorism and remake the Middle East through much more expansive wars of regime change? The US made the latter choice — and blundered into one of the greatest foreign policy disasters in the country’s 250-year history. I fear that Israel is on the verge of making the same mistake. In the wake of the worst terrorist attack in its history — one that President Joe Biden described as being “like 15 9/11s,” given the scale of the death toll versus Israel’s smaller size — it is poised to launch a ground invasion with the stated objective of “toppling Hamas and destroying its military capabilities”… But at the same time, Israel cannot simply do nothing. Governments have an obligation to protect their citizens. With Israelis still sifting through evidence of torture, and captives languishing in Hamas custody, nearly everyone in Israel agrees that the country must fight to create an environment where a repeat of this attack becomes unthinkable. Given the demonstrated nature of the Hamas threat, military force has to be part of that equation.

J STREET GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS NEWS DIGEST | October 27, 2023

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