Joint Statement on Combating Hate And Protecting the First Amendment, J Street
The Muslim Public Affairs Council and J Street write, “We recognize that the core teachings of our respective faiths encourage us and our people to fight for justice and defend human dignity. Our organizations are committed to defending and empowering those whose voices are being threatened — whether through censorship, legal intimidation or other forms of repression.”
Israel Keeps Up Gaza Bombardment As Ceasefire Talks Intensify, Reuters
Sources close to the mediation efforts said Hamas had pushed for a one-package deal but Israel wanted a phased one. Talks are focused on a first-phase release of hostages, dead or alive, as well as a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Israeli Army Sources: Security Cabinet Has Ordered Increased Security Coordination With the Palestinian Authority, Haaretz
The decision came after defense officials presented their position on the matter and proposed a number of possible options to assist the PA’s security forces, which have been conducting operations in recent weeks in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad forces. The Palestinian Authority has been acting resolutely against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters over the past several weeks, army and Shin Bet sources said.
After Assad’s Fall, a New Middle East ‘Order’ Is Taking Shape, The Washington Post
Ishaan Tharoor writes, “Analysts have already declared geopolitical winners and losers: Iran and Russia, Assad’s longtime backers, are licking their wounds; Turkey and Arab monarchies that supported the Syrian rebels to varying extents are in the ascendance. Israel, which carried out a ruthless bombing campaign on Syrian military targets and moved ground forces across the disputed Golan Heights into Syrian territory clearly feels emboldened, too.”
Israeli Strike on a Gaza School Kills 17 People Sheltering There, AP
Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, a Health Ministry official said, killing at least 17 people including five children in one of the schools. Rescue workers said at 30 people were also wounded across both locations.
Israel Launches Airstrikes Against Houthis in Yemen as Netanyahu Issues Warning, The New York Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military struck Houthi targets in Yemen early Thursday in response to the militia’s attacks on Israel, and appeared to suggest that Israel might take further action in its campaign to weaken Iran-backed groups.
Israeli Minister Criticises Pope’s Call To Study Whether Gaza Offensive ‘Genocide’, Reuters
An Israeli government minister criticised Pope Francis on Friday for suggesting the international community should study whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Israeli Settlers Set West Bank Mosque on Fire, Spray Paint Anti-Arab Statements, Haaretz
Following the incident, residents of Beit Furik clashed with Israeli army forces in the town, while settlers clashed with Border Police forces near the West Bank settlement of Itamar, wounding two officers after throwing stones at their car.
UN Seeks World Court Opinion on Israel’s Palestinian Aid Obligations, Reuters
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups including the UN.
Escape from Gaza, The New York Times
Photographer Paolo Pellegrin and writer Nicholas Casey compiled imagery from the Israel-Hamas war, from overflowing operating rooms in makeshift hospitals to the waves of people getting on planes from Gaza to Egypt. They show collapsing buildings and wounded children alongside their gruesome stories from the war.
Can Trump Succeed on Mideast Peace Where Others Failed?, The Jerusalem Post
Jonatan Shimshoni writes, “Providentially, unfolding events and the attitudes of important regional leaders have indicated the way to achieve the necessary security and stability while protecting the United States’ interests: Enhance the Trump-led Abraham Accords to create a robust regional alliance of peace-oriented states, expanded to include Saudi-Arabia, integrating Jordan and Egypt as well. Such an alliance would isolate the greatest threat to regional stability – Iran – while weakening Chinese and Russian encroachment in the region.”
Is Israel Really Building an Empire Across the Middle East?, Haaretz
Dahlia Scheindlin shares, “But frankly, it’s getting harder to push back against the ’empire’ claim. After months of limited, if deadly, escalations with Hezbollah, Israel escalated to full-scale war in September; the pager explosions and killing Hassan Nasrallah were a prelude to a full-scale air and ground invasion, designed to remove the military threat of Hezbollah forever.”
Israel’s Netanyahu Eyes Iran After Triumphs Over Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Reuters
Samia Nakhoul writes, “The veteran Israeli leader is set to cement his strategic goals: tightening his military control over Gaza, thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions and capitalising on the dismantling of Tehran’s allies – Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the removal of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.”
Editor’s Notes: No More Status-Quo, We Need a Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, The Jerusalem Post
the Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein writes “The Arab League’s 2002 peace initiative took it a step further, offering Israel full normalization with the Arab world in exchange for returning to those contentious borders. Within Israel, movements like Peace Now and what remains of the political Left once championed this vision, though their influence has waned in recent years. Across the ocean, organizations like J Street and Americans for Peace Now still carry the torch, insisting that freezing settlement expansion is essential to any real dialogue.”