News Roundup for April 27, 2022

April 27, 2022
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J Street works to promote an open, honest and rigorous conversation about Israel. The opinions reflected in articles posted in the News Roundup do not necessarily reflect J Street’s positions, and their posting does not constitute an endorsement from J Street.

Top News and Analysis

Palestinian Killed in Israeli Arrest Raid in West Bank, AP
Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and killed an 18-year-old Palestinian man and wounded three others during clashes near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The ministry said that the man died from a gunshot wound to the head. Three others, including a 16-year-old boy, were wounded by gunfire, it said in a statement. An earlier report by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the slain man was 21 years old.

Five Syrian Soldiers Among Nine People Killed in Israeli Air Strike, Monitor Says, CBS
Five Syrian soldiers were among nine people killed in an Israeli air strike near Damascus in the deadliest such raid this year, a war monitor said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an ammunition depot and several positions linked to Iran’s military presence in Syria were among the targets.

News

Israel Attending US-Led Summit on Sending More Arms to Ukraine, The Times of Israel
Israel is reportedly among 40 countries attending a meeting of Western countries to discuss supplying more weaponry to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s invasion of the country. Israel’s apparent attendance at the meeting Tuesday, hosted by the US at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, reflects an ongoing shift as Jerusalem appears to discard its policy of only supplying humanitarian aid to the embattled country in order to keep ties with Moscow intact.

U.S. Bans Troops From Visiting Israel, Middle East, Haaretz
American soldiers were barred from traveling to Israel and the wider Middle East last September under a new policy meant to stem the spread of COVID-19, says the U.S. Army. The United States Central Command issued its new regulation on September 8, 2021, a week after Israel was transferred to the command’s official area of responsibility.

European Officials: Stop Dawdling and Pass the JCPOA Already, Responsible Statecraft
More than 40 former top European officials, including former foreign and defense ministers from more than half a dozen countries, have called for the United States and Iran to quickly conclude their year-long negotiations to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Top Court Asks Israel to Explain How It Plans to Stop Settler Land Grab, Haaretz
The High Court of Justice ordered the state on Monday to explain how it plans to prevent settler incursions onto a Palestinian enclave within an Israeli settlement. On Sunday, Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank gave the residents of the Nokdim settlement 15 days to explain why their actions on the Palestinian land, such as planting trees and paving a bicycle path, should not be considered squatting. If they do not submit a response by that deadline, the state can uproot all the trees.

Opinion and Analysis

Why Every Democracy Should Fear Israeli Spyware, Haaretz
Thanasis Koukakis writes, “Democratic states should not conduct cyber warfare against their own citizens without due process and due cause. But thanks to advanced Israeli spyware like Pegasus and Predator that’s exactly what’s going on, and it happened to me.”

Dreaming of a World of Compassion: Two-Way Street for Yom Hashoah, J Street
Rabbi Fredi Cooper recounts a conversation between two individuals in the Jewish Community Centre in Kyiv. She writes, “Shoah” literally means catastrophe, and massive destruction by fire. As I watch the daily images of horror in today’s war in Ukraine, I am taken back to my visit to Ukraine in 2013. I traveled with a group of rabbis to understand the needs of the Jewish community there. I invite you to listen to a conversation between two individuals in the Jewish Community Centre in Kyiv. We hear a grandmother, whose family left her behind in Kyiv, and an unrelated teenager learning from the older woman…”