One Month After Election Day, Here’s What We Know About How Jews Voted, JTA
“A survey conducted by GBAO strategies for J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby, found that this year, Harris beat Trump among Jews 71% to 26%, a 45-point margin. That’s 11 points less than the Democratic margin in 2020, when Jews chose Joe Biden by 56 points over Trump, 77% to 21%.”
Jon Ossoff Lays the Groundwork for 2026 Reelection Campaign, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“More than 100 Jewish Georgians penned a letter that said Ossoff has ‘repeatedly stood by Israel in its right to defend itself’ and said the vote to restrict arms sales helped advance ‘regional stability, security and peace.’ ‘We’re so lucky to have him as a senator. He knows the issues upside down and backward and forward,’ said Joe Sterling, a member of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street who signed the letter. ‘I want my senator to work across the aisle to develop policies like these – someone who can compromise.’”
Israel Gave Hamas Updated Proposal for Gaza Deal As Trump Pushes for Resolution, Axios
The updated proposal also includes the release of all surviving women held by Hamas, all living men over the age of 50 who are held captive and hostages in serious medical condition. In the past, Israel demanded that 33 living hostages in these categories be released, but Israel is now prepared to release a smaller number, officials said. One reason for that is the assessment that some of the hostages in these categories are no longer alive.
Deadly Israeli Strike Hits Gaza Humanitarian Zone, The New York Times
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, reported that at least 20 people were killed and several others wounded in the strike on a coastal area in southern Gaza known as Al-Mawasi, where thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The death toll could not be independently verified.
Amnesty Says Israel Committing Acts of Genocide in Gaza. Here’s What To Know, The Washington Post
The declaration by one of the world’s most prominent rights organizations is likely to intensify a debate that has raged for months over how to characterize Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left much of Gaza in ruins.
Israel and Hamas Mull Egyptian Hostage Deal Proposal as Qatar Returns as Mediator, Haaretz
Hamas has confirmed that “intensive efforts” are underway for a temporary truce in Gaza, with the assistance of Turkey, Qatar and the U.S. However, a Hamas source told Haaretz that no real progress has been made yet.
Israel Says Body of Hostage Itay Svirsky Recovered From Gaza, BBC
The Israeli military says the body of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been recovered in a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service. A statement said Itay Svirsky, 38, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, was “murdered in captivity by his captors.”
Israel’s Military Says Hostages Were Likely Killed by Hamas as Airstrike Hit, The New York Times
Six Israeli hostages whose bodies were found in Gaza over the summer were probably shot dead by their Hamas captors in February, around the same time that an Israeli airstrike hit near the underground tunnel where they were being held, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.
Hamas Threatens To ‘Neutralize’ Hostages if Israel Launches Rescue Operation, Reuters
Hamas said it had information that Israel intended to carry out a hostage rescue operation similar to one conducted in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp in June and threatened to “neutralize” the captives if any such action took place, according to an internal statement seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Israeli Settlers Attack Two Palestinian Towns and Their Own Military in West Bank, Reuters
Israeli settlers attacked two Palestinian towns early on Wednesday, setting fire to property and hurling stones, after police looked to dismantle an illegal settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said.
History Will Judge Biden Harshly on Gaza, The Washington Post
Senator Chris Van Hollen shares, “President Biden has a limited amount of time to take action. But even at this late hour, it is critical that he do so — even at the risk that President-elect Trump will reverse course. The United States must send a strong signal to the people of Israel, to Palestinians and to the world that we will not stand idly by as the extremist Netanyahu government dismantles the possibility of peace in the Middle East and ignores the root causes of conflict: the need for security and self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Netanyahu and Trump’s ‘Creeping Authoritarianism’: ‘It Always Begins and Ends with Women’ [Audio], Haaretz
A Haaretz podcast with Dahlia Lithwick and Yofi Tirosh discusses how, “In both Israel and the United States, women’s rights and their autonomy are under attack from the surging power of far-right religious political forces in the current Netanyahu government and future Trump White House. In Israel, the ‘creeping theocracy’ is out in the open and the debate is in the public square, while in the U.S. there is less of an understanding that ‘disassembling American constitutional democracy is part of a theological effort.’”
Gazans Face Extreme Hunger As ‘Real Famine’ Spreads From North to South, +972
Ruwaida Kamal Amer shares, “On Nov. 16, a 109-truck aid convoy passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, transporting food into southern Gaza – only for 98 of the trucks to be violently looted by armed men inside the Strip, injuring the drivers and causing extensive damage. The incident, although unusual in its scale, exemplified how the breakdown of security inside Gaza has deepened the food crisis: of the meager amount of aid that enters the Gaza, up to 30 percent is looted and stolen, mostly by organized criminal gangs.”
Why There’s No Excuse for Israelis Not Knowing What’s Happening in Gaza, Haaretz
Dahlia Scheindlin writes, “(In)famously, Israeli mainstream media has left a gaping hole where it should be covering the horrors of the war inside Gaza. Some even think that if Israelis saw more such horrors each night, they might not have tolerated the fighting for so long. But the media gatekeepers have made this choice voluntarily, not due to government coercion. Moreover, after more than a year (and long before), it no longer matters what’s on television; Israelis have no excuse for not knowing.”