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.
We Need a New Approach to Finding Common Ground on Our Fractured Campus, The Brown Daily Herald
Staff columnist Tasawwar Rahman writes, “We are in a difficult moment, but instead of shying away from hard conversations, we must face them head-on. That is the true meaning of an education. I am heartened by the work being done by J Street U Brown, In-Progress, and other student organizations to support these efforts.”
Israel Begins Ground Operation in Southern Lebanon, Axios
The White House believes it has reached understandings with Israel that the scope of the Israeli ground invasion will be limited to border areas in southern Lebanon.
U.S. Sends More Troops, Warplanes to Middle East as Bulwark Against Iran, The Washington Post
The Pentagon will deploy a few thousand additional U.S. troops and more fighter jets to the Middle East, defense officials said Monday, as part of the Biden administration’s scramble to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran’s proxies from exploding into a regionwide war.
US to Announce over $300 Million in Aid for Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank, Reuters
The funding, first reported by Reuters, will enable USAID’s partners to continue to provide humanitarian aid, including food assistance, healthcare, nutrition and other services, according to the statement. The funding will also support emergency shelter assistance to displaced Gazans ahead of winter, the statement said.
Lebanese Worry Nowhere Is Safe amid Widespread Israeli Bombing, NBC News
Fears grew across Lebanon on Monday after Israel launched a strike on a residential building in central Beirut, marking a fresh escalation in a devastating bombing campaign that local officials say has already killed more than 1,000 people.
Saudi Arabia Pledges to Send Funding for Palestinians, The New York Times
Saudi Arabia has agreed to deliver $60 million to the Palestinian Authority in six installments, with the first payment expected in the coming days, according to a senior Palestinian Authority official.
Turkey’s Erdogan Says UN Should Recommend Use of Force If Israel Not Stopped, Reuters
“The U.N. General Assembly should rapidly implement the authority to recommend the use of force, as it did with the 1950 Uniting for Peace resolution, if the Security Council can’t show the necessary will,” Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Iran Reluctant So Far to Retaliate Against Israel After Airstrike Kills Hezbollah Leader, AP
That reluctance continued into Monday, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told journalists that “the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian people are not after war” but rather “peace and stability in the region.”
Pro-Palestinian Group Urges Judge to Allow Oct. 7 Vigil at U-MD., The Washington Post
A pro-Palestinian student group on Monday urged a federal judge to compel the University of Maryland at College Park to allow it to move forward with an Oct. 7 interfaith vigil to mourn people killed in Gaza during the ongoing war.
His Mother Was Killed by Hamas. Her Death Transformed His Life., The New York Times
Emma Goldberg spent months interviewing Yonatan Zeigen, son of peace activist Vivian Silver who was murdered by Hamas. “Yonatan looked up at the sky through a crack in the ceiling. The second level of the house, where his children used to sleep when they visited for holidays, was entirely burned. Sunlight filtered through. ‘Another person could come here and say this is the reason to kill Palestinians,’ Yonatan said. ‘I stand here and say this is the reason to fight for peace. So this won’t happen again.’ He believed that the cycle of grief could twist into something new.”
Why America Is Looking Increasingly Powerless as Israel’s War Expands, CNN
Stephen Collinson writes, “The longer the war goes on, the greater the threat that conflicts intensifying across the region could all join into one perilous multi-front war and that a direct conflict could break out between the US and its arch enemy Iran. A regional war would have disastrous economic consequences and could further deflect from the US goal of mobilizing for its new superpower showdown with China.”
Can Israel Kill Its Way to Victory Over Hezbollah?, Foreign Policy
Dan Byman shares, “It is rare that such groups are defeated solely by the removal of a key leader, even one as formidable as Nasrallah. Over decades of counterterrorism, Israel has killed leaders of a wide range of Palestinian groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and many, many others. For the most part, these groups kept on fighting.”
Israelis and Palestinians United by Violence Hold Fast to Hopes for Peace, Times of Israel
Cathryn J. Prince shares, “Yonatan Zeigen and Arab Aramin sat side-by-side in a nondescript Manhattan hotel room, recounting the traumas that had brought them unexpectedly together.Zeigen, an Israeli, said he was on the phone with his mother, a renowned peace activist, when Hamas terrorists closed in and they said goodbye for the last time. Aramin, a Palestinian, remembered the day an Israeli border police officer fired a rubber bullet that struck and killed his little sister.”