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.
After weeks of stalled negotiations, diplomats are back at the table working to hammer out a deal to free the hostages and end a war that has dragged on far too long. Register here to tune into our conversation at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific to hear from Dr. Shira Efron and former Egyptian diplomat Ambassador Hesham Youssef about what’s at stake >>
US Sanctions Israeli Nonprofit That Supports West Bank Settlers in Latest Round of Penalties, JTA
J Street, the liberal Israel lobby, praised the sanctions as sending “a message to the Netanyahu government and its extremist ministers.” The statement by the group’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, added, “It recognizes the active role some Israeli officials and security services are playing in supporting, encouraging and enabling settler violence. We cannot give them a free pass as they threaten Palestinian families, undermine Israel’s security, and violate our core Jewish values of peace, justice and equality.”
J Street Welcomes ‘Significant’ Sanctions on Hashomer Yosh and Civilian Settlement Security Official, J Street
“There are members of Netanyahu’s own cabinet who are actively supporting these groups and even urging financial institutions to ignore US sanctions,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said. “I would hope the administration is actively considering applying the sanctions to those extremist government ministers as well.”
US Sanctions Group That Supports Illegal West Bank Outposts, Axios
The organization “Hashomer Yosh” has been funded and supported in recent years by the Israeli government. Senior members of the NGO are affiliated with the parties of ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich. Hashomer Yosh has received political and material support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment, and from individual ultranationalist lawmakers in the governing coalition.
Rescued Israeli Pleads for Hostage Deal with Hamas, BBC
Surrounded by reporters and members of his Bedouin community, Mr Elkadi pleaded for all the hostages to be released. “It does not matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy. I hope, I pray for an end to this,” he said, revealing that he had the same message during Tuesday’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told Bibi Netanyahu yesterday, ‘Work to bring an end to this.’”
Israel Agrees to Brief Pause in Gaza for Polio Vaccinations, US Official Says, The Washington Post
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel had not agreed to “pauses in the fighting in order to administer polio vaccines,” but rather “the allocation of certain places in the Gaza Strip” for unstated purposes, an arrangement it said had been approved by the security cabinet. The wording appeared designed to avoid indicating it had approved a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the absence of a cease-fire deal opposed by some members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
World Food Programme Halts Movement in Gaza After Repeated Gunfire Strikes Aid Vehicle, CNN
“Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving toward an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint,” the statement by the agency read.
An Israeli Freed From Gaza Returns to a Bedouin Village Targeted for Demolition, AP
Since November, about 70% of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to raze their homes because they were built without permits in a “protected forest” not zoned for housing, according to a lawyer representing them.
‘This Is a War’: FM Urges Gaza-Style Temporary Evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank, The Times of Israel
“We need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” Israel’s senior diplomat tweeted, calling the operation “a war in every sense.”
Israeli Military Says It Failed to Protect Civilians in Settler Attack on Palestinians, Reuters
“This is a very serious terror incident in which Israelis set out to deliberately harm the residents of the town of Jit,” Avi Bluth, the head of the army’s Central Command, said. “We failed by not succeeding in arriving earlier to protect them.”
Top Hamas Official Urges Resumption of Suicide Terror Attacks Against Israel, The Times of Israel
In a video address to a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Mashaal says: “We want to return to [suicide] operations. This is a situation that can only be addressed by open conflict. They are fighting us with open conflict, and we are confronting them with open conflict.”
Lapid: Netanyahu Was ‘Bored, Indifferent’ to pre-Oct. 7 Warnings During Joint Briefing, Haaretz
Lapid testified before a civilian inquiry panel, established after the government rejected forming a formal commission, that Netanyahu’s top military aide said terrorist groups perceived weakness in Israel due to social unrest from the judicial overhaul.
If the Democratic Convention Had Allowed a Palestinian Perspective, Here’s What I Would Have Said, The Boston Globe
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib shares, “Since the horror of Oct. 7 and the latest war in Gaza began, pro-‘resistance’ sentiments have become mainstream within significant elements of the Palestinian American community and in Western liberal discourse. But these simplistic positions are detached from what many Palestinians in Gaza and even parts of the West Bank think and say. Gaza has a unique subculture and even microcultures within its narrow strip of land. And large segments of Palestinians in Gaza are turning against Hamas for destroying their lives and serving them up on a silver platter to the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.”
America Has More Latitude With Israel Than It Thinks, Foreign Affairs
Daniel Silverman, Anna Pechenkina, Austin Knuppe, and Yehonatan Abramson write, “In May, we conducted a unique survey of Israeli public opinion about the war to better understand how Israelis react to statements of unconditional support by the U.S. government compared with U.S. pressure to change strategy in Gaza. The results showed that the belief that the United States lacks leverage is wrong: the United States likely can pressure Israelis to move toward peaceful compromise and an end to the war in Gaza without generating significant backlash.”
‘If You Try to Defend Yourself, You’re Dead’: A West Bank Village’s Night of Terror, +972
Oren Ziv reports, “On Tuesday morning, the streets of Wadi Rahal were littered with stones and bullet casings — evidence of an attack the night before. According to the Palestinian residents of the village, which is located south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, about a dozen Israeli settlers had driven in, some of them armed. They threw stones at cars and houses, and when residents came out to defend themselves, the attackers opened fire.”
October 7: The Tragedy of the ‘Debate’, Liberties
Assaf Sharon writes, “In the nuance-free battlegrounds of the campuses, however, facts are a nuisance and coherence is not a concern. The tale of white colonialist settlers wielding power and privilege to displace indigenous non-whites is too good to be false. And if the facts don’t fit the tale, so much the worse for the facts. The effort to squeeze the Palestinian issue into the colonialist mold is driven less by the desire to understand than by the urge to condemn. And there is much to condemn in Israel’s conduct, above all its unrelenting oppression and dispossession of the rightless Palestinians whom it has occupied since 1967.”
Know someone who may be interested in receiving this newsletter? Did a friend forward you this email and you want to subscribe? Sign up for the J Street News Roundup here.