J Street Government Affairs News Digest | September 2, 2022

 

Government Affairs News Digest

I’m writing to share J Street’s weekly Hill-facing news digest. At the top, you’ll find two vital resources on possible restoration of the Iran nuclear deal, which was abrogated by former President Donald Trump to disastrous effect. The digest also includes the latest information on diplomatic efforts to restore the deal, as well as an op-ed by former Israeli deputy national security adviser Chuck Freilich on why Israel should “ignore Bibi’s bluster” and back Biden on restoring the nuclear deal with Iran. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the digest to read it.

On Israel-Palestine, the digest leads off with a piece from the Washington Post about the rising Palestinian death toll as Israel steps up raids in the West Bank. The Post reports that the total of 85 Palestinians killed in the West Bank in the first eight months of this year already makes 2022 the deadliest year for the occupied territory since 2016. The deadly raids follow a spate of attacks by Palestinians militants from the West Bank that killed 17 Israelis.

As always, you can find our Congressional briefing book, background information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recordings of previous briefings and more at J Street’s Congressional Resource Page.

Let me know if you have any questions or would like further information.

All the best,
Debra


Debra Shushan, PhD
Director of Policy, J Street
mobile: (757) 746-0366 | [email protected] | @DrShushan

This week on j street

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MEMO

TOP LINE FACTS ABOUT THE IRAN DEAL

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MEMO

DECONSTRUCTING AIPAC’S TALKING POINTS ON RESTORING THE IRAN DEAL

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What we’re reading

Israelis shot and wounded after entering West Bank city

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Several Israelis were wounded overnight after they entered the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus and came under fire, the Israeli military said Tuesday. The Israelis appeared to have headed on their own to a flashpoint shrine in the city, where visits are usually coordinated with the military under tight security precautions. After they came under fire, troops entered the city, which is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces, to evacuate the Israelis, the military said. Israelis are prohibited from entering the Palestinian-controlled areas, although some still do. The military later said forces were exchanging fire with armed Palestinians in the city. It was not immediately clear if the events were connected.
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Palestinian toll mounts as Israel steps up West Bank raids

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The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported 85 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem since the start of the year. With four months to go this year, that already is the highest number since 2016, the tail-end of a previous wave of violence, when 91 Palestinians were killed, according to yearly data compiled by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The ministry’s tally includes attackers and known militants, but also the veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and a 58-year-old man who was shot in the head outside a bakery earlier this month. The Israeli military says both might have been hit by Palestinian gunfire but has not provided evidence to substantiate its claims. The dead include 17 teens under the age of 18, as well as six women, according to the ministry. Israel says that teenagers and women are often involved in violence, while critics accuse the army of using excessive force in many cases.
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Palestinian prisoners held by Israel set to go on mass hunger strike

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Palestinians consider prisoners held by Israel one of their top issues. There are some 4,500 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian officials. About 700 of them are held without charge under what is known as administrative detention. Israel says the measure is necessary for its security, but civil liberty groups say the practice is a violation of human rights. The head of the Palestinian Authority’s prisoners’ committee said a further 1,000 detainees would join the hunger strike if the prisoners’ demands were not met…Palestinian prisoners have periodically staged or threatened hunger strikes as a tactic to pressure Israeli authorities to improve their conditions. They say conditions have got worse since six Palestinians were recaptured after tunnelling out of a high-security jail last September and going on the run for nearly two weeks.
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UN rights chief accuses Israel of ‘trying to hide’ by blocking monitors’ access

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Outgoing UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet blasted Israel on Tuesday for failing to issue or renew visas for her staff to monitor the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it raised questions as to what Israel was “trying to hide” and vowed that her office would continue to report on the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. “In 2020, the 15 international staff of my office in Palestine — which has been operating in the country for 26 years — had no choice but to leave,” Bachelet said in a statement. “Subsequent requests for visas and visa renewals have gone unanswered for two years. During this time, I have tried to find a solution to this situation, but Israel continues to refuse to engage.” She said that as a member state, Israel had to cooperate with the UN in good faith and allow its officials to carry out their duties… [she] said Israel’s treatment of her staff was part of a “wider and worrying trend to block human rights access” to the Palestinian territories.
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Israeli court sentences director of Gaza charity to 12 years in prison

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An Israeli court has sentenced the Gaza director of an international charity to 12 years in prison on allegations of funnelling aid money to Hamas, the end of a high-profile case mired in controversy and largely held in secret. Disregarding UN concerns over a lack of evidence in the six-year case, the district court in the southern city of Beersheba said Mohammad el Halabi, who had been Gaza’s director for World Vision International, would have to serve six years in prison taking into account the deduction of the amount he was held during the trial. Palestinians, rights groups and aid workers allege the lengthy trial, much of it held behind closed doors, is part of a broad Israeli effort to undermine vital relief and civil society groups in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip… Human Rights Watch condemned the sentencing, saying Halabi had been held for six years based on “secret evidence which multiple investigations rejected, making a mockery of due process”… World Vision, in a statement, said the trial and sentencing would harm efforts to give humanitarian aid to Palestinians. “The arrest, six-year trial, unjust verdict and this sentence are emblematic of actions that hinder humanitarian work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It adds to the chilling impact on World Vision and other aid or development groups working to assist Palestinians.”
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Jewish Israeli voters have moved significantly rightward in recent years, data shows

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Israel’s right-wing Jewish voter base has grown from 46 percent before the April 2019 election to 62% now, ahead of November’s vote, according to an analysis of self-reported political affiliation by the Israel Democracy Institute. The growth has been mostly at the expense of the political center, although the left has also taken a dip. From 2019 to 2022, with four elections having taken place and a fifth scheduled, the size of the political center dropped by nine percentage points and the number of left-identifying citizens by six points, to 24% and 11%, respectively… Despite having a growing right-wing ideological majority among Jewish citizens, Israeli politics have yet to stabilize around a solid four-year government. The right-religious bloc led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is polling most strongly, but the November 1 Knesset race is still predicted to end up indecisive.
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Jews now a 47% minority in Israel and the territories, demographer says

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Israel’s right-wing Jewish voter base has grown from 46 percent before the April 2019 election to 62% now, ahead of November’s vote, according to an analysis of self-reported political affiliation by the Israel Democracy Institute. The growth has been mostly at the expense of the political center, although the left has also taken a dip. From 2019 to 2022, with four elections having taken place and a fifth scheduled, the size of the political center dropped by nine percentage points and the number of left-identifying citizens by six points, to 24% and 11%, respectively… Despite having a growing right-wing ideological majority among Jewish citizens, Israeli politics have yet to stabilize around a solid four-year government. The right-religious bloc led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is polling most strongly, but the November 1 Knesset race is still predicted to end up indecisive.
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Inside the U.S. response to Iran on the draft nuclear deal

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The U.S. told Iran through EU mediators that linking the UN investigation of Iran’s undeclared nuclear activity to the reimplementation of the 2015 nuclear deal could delay lifting U.S. sanctions, according to a U.S. official and a think tank expert briefed on the issue.The issue of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigations is one of the two remaining stumbling blocks in returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement. Tehran demands the IAEA probes that focus on uranium particles UN investigators found at several Iranian sites be closed ahead of “reimplementation day” — 120 days after a new nuclear deal is signed. The four-month period between signing the deal and reimplementation day will give time to reach an agreement between the IAEA and Iran on the open investigations. But it is unlikely Iran will agree to give the IAEA the clarifications it seeks. This could eventually lead to a suspension in the implementation of the deal. U.S. officials hope the fact that Iran gets most of its sanctions relief only after reimplementation day will give the Iranians an incentive to continue implementing the agreement even if the IAEA investigations are not closed.
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ANALYSIS: Ignore Bibi’s Bluster: Israel Must Back Biden on Iran Deal

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A renewed nuclear deal appears closer than ever – and fortunately so. U.S. President Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, at the urging of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, has proven no less than catastrophic… In 2018 Iran was about one year away from having sufficient fissile material for a first bomb. Today, it has sufficient fissile material for two initial bombs within days and for a small arsenal of five bombs within six months… The Netanyahu-Bennett-Lapid approach has turned Israel from a worried ally, with justified concerns, into something of a “nudnik,” or nuisance, and unnecessarily demonstrated the limits of its influence. No matter how many times Israel’s leaders reiterate, in parallel, that they held good talks in the U.S. and administration officials understood their positions, there are limits even to the patience of those ever-polite American counterparts. A “longer and stronger” deal would certainly have been better, but that is not what is on the table today. The choice is not between the old deal and a putative better one, but between the old deal and none at all, meaning no realistic means of slowing Iran’s steady march towards an operational nuclear capability.
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