J Street Distressed by Continued Reports of Shootings and Fatalities Near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Sites, J Street
J Street Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg said, “While the details of these tragic events are not yet clear, what is clear is that Trump and Netanyahu’s aid plan is entirely insufficient and risks triggering a famine that would not only have horrific results for the Palestinian people but also for Israel’s moral character. This plan continues to put desperate Palestinian families and young Israeli soldiers in impossible positions with predictably catastrophic results.”
Israeli-Backed Aid Sites in Gaza Close Temporarily After Deadly Shootings, The New York Times
“The group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said that its four centers would be shut until Thursday to work on ‘organization and efficiency’ to better prepare for the huge numbers of Palestinians who have traveled to the sites since operations began more than a week ago. The foundation added that Israeli troops were doing their own preparations along access roads leading to the distribution centers, without specifying what that entailed. The Israeli military warned Palestinians not to approach the sites or the adjacent roads, saying that they were now considered ‘combat zones.’”
Most People Across 24 Surveyed Countries Have Negative Views of Israel and Netanyahu, Pew Research Center
“International views of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are much more negative than positive, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 24 countries conducted this spring. Israelis, for their part, tend to say their country is not respected internationally: 58% say Israel is not too or not at all respected around the world, while 39% think it is.”
US Consulting Firm Quits Gaza Humanitarian Aid Effort Amid Criticism, The Washington Post
“On Friday, a leading US management consulting firm (Boston Consulting Group) hired last fall to help design the program and run its business operations withdrew its team operating on the ground in Tel Aviv. […] Three people closely connected to both the GHF and BCG said it would be difficult for the foundation to continue to function without the consultants who helped create it.”
Iran’s Khamenei Rejects US Nuclear Deal Proposal, Vows to Keep Enriching Uranium, The Times of Israel
“The supreme leader insisted Iran would not abandon its uranium enrichment program, saying that without enrichment its nuclear program was ‘useless,’ and asking of the US: ‘Who are you to tell us whether we should have a nuclear program or not?’”
Former Israeli PM Olmert Explains Why He Believes His Country is Committing War Crimes [Video Interview], PBS News
Responding to a question about what war crimes he is accusing the current Israeli government of committing, Olmert says, “Running a war which is widely perceived to be illegitimate and unacceptable and nothing that is compatible to the national security interests of the State of Israel, endangering the lives of so many Israeli hostages, is a crime, because in such action people are killed, Israeli soldiers, hostages, and Palestinian, non-involved Palestinians in Gaza.”
Evangelical Leader Close to Trump, Netanyahu Named New Director of Gaza Aid Fund, Haaretz
“Rev. Johnnie Moore, a prominent pro-Israel evangelical and close ally of Trump, has served as a key link between the evangelical community and Prime Minister Netanyahu. He is also pushing back on claims that Israel is disproportionately harming Christians in Gaza.”
Israel Strikes Syria After Projectiles Fired, Holds Sharaa Responsible, Reuters
“Damascus said Israeli strikes caused ‘heavy human and material losses,’ reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party and stressing the need to end the presence of armed groups and establish state control in the south.”
Trump and Netanyahu Were Marching in Lockstep – Until They Weren’t, Foreign Policy
Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser write, “Netanyahu seemed to grasp that he could neither manipulate nor resist Trump without cost the way he had handled Biden. First, while Trump may have styled himself as the most pro-Israeli president in history, he had scant investment in the idea, security, and people of Israel that had emotionally gripped Biden and had stayed his hand when it came to applying pressure. Trump was not anti-Israel, but instead pro-Trump, looking for wins instead of headaches from Netanyahu. Second, Trump had control of the Republican Party, leaving Netanyahu, who famously had tried to oppose then-President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran by allying and aligning himself with Republicans, scant room to maneuver in Washington.”
A Grim Poll Showed Most Jewish Israelis Support Expelling Gazans. It’s Brutal – and It’s True, Haaretz
Dahlia Scheindlin writes, “The poll is a messenger, not a provocateur; the findings are an emergency wake-up call that things can still get much worse. A population subject to years of anti-Palestinian incitement felt that Hamas’ attack on October 7 proved the worst and justifies everything Israel has done since – another over-80 percent finding among Jews in the joint Israeli-Palestinian survey from July 2024, mirrored on the Palestinian side. Rapacious, corrupt leaders capitalized on Israeli suffering instead of seeking to contain the rage.”
At Capital Jewish Museum, It’s the Contradictions that Fuel Survival, The Washington Post
Marc Fisher writes, “People like the shooter cannot bear such nuance; to them, it somehow makes sense to take out one’s wrath toward Israel against a Jewish American institution – one that barely mentions Israel. The museum, like all good encounters with history, cherishes clashes between past and present, but the shooter can only see the binary: Us and them. You are not one of us, he says. You are the other, to be excluded, removed, rejected. The museum refuses such simplicity: Progress, it says, requires diving into the mystery. Exploring and embracing the opposing argument is what fuels survival.”