News Roundup for October 16, 2024

October 16, 2024
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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.

J Street In the News

J Street Welcomes Biden Administration Letter on Gaza Humanitarian Crisis, J Street
Responding to the letter and supporting the administration’s approach, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said: “This is a critical and much-needed call to action by the Biden Administration, telling the Israeli government to meet its legal and moral obligations and to live up to assurances it has provided previously.”

Harris and Trump Exit Their Comfort Zones, Politico Playbook
The liberal advocacy group J Street has reportedly raised over $6 million for the Harris campaign. According to the organization, the JStreet PAC is now the “largest Jewish organizational source of funds in the country for the Harris campaign this cycle,” and has also raised over $8.5 million for more than 180 House and Senate candidates.

Top News and Analysis

US Warns Israel It May Withhold Arms Unless Gaza Aid Starts Flowing, The Washington Post
While the letter from Austin and Blinken, addressed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, does not explicitly reference a possible suspension of arms transfers, it represents an implicit warning that the United States could curtail or halt those shipments if Israel does not ensure that desperate Gazans can access food, medicine and other necessities.

Blinken Weighs Presenting Gaza Post-war Plan After November Election, Axios
Some in the State Department, including Blinken, think a hostage and ceasefire deal doesn’t seem possible before the end of the Biden administration, and therefore the Israeli-Emirati plan is a possible “Plan B” that could start drawing a path out of the war, U.S. officials say. But other officials inside the State Department say it is an ill-advised concept that only serves Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interests and is bound to be rejected by the Palestinians and fail.

Israel Threatens to Starve Out Northern Gaza, UN Aid Agencies Say, NPR
Israeli human rights groups Gisha, B’Tselem and others say Israel quietly adopted a starve-or-leave policy for northern Gaza — a policy that Israel may be backtracking from now with pressure from the US to increase aid to the area.

News

Arab and Muslim Leaders Risk Blowback for Endorsing Harris, NBC
“We’re struggling because the candidate hasn’t given us anything to work with, beyond, ‘I really care and I’m upset,’” said Jim Zogby, the founder of Arab American Institute and a longtime Democratic National Committee member who hosted a panel on Palestinian rights at the Democratic Convention.

Heartbreaking Story Behind Video of Young Man Burnt to Death After Israeli Strike, Sky News
The image of a person burning alive among tents in a hospital compound in Gaza has been widely shared online. The person in the flames was 19-year-old Shaban al Dalu. He was just days away from his 20th birthday.

Israel Kills at Least 50 in Gaza, Forces Encircle Northern Jabalia, Reuters
Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.

Head of Hamas Drone Operations in Northern Gaza Killed in Airstrike, Says IDF, The Times of Israel
The IDF says that an Israeli airstrike killed the head of Hamas’s drone operations in the northern Gaza Strip, naming him as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Al-Mabhouh was responsible for directing drone attacks on Israel and on Israeli troops in Gaza, the IDF says.

Israeli Strike Hits Municipal Building in South Lebanon, Mayor and Five Others Killed, Reuters
An Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Wednesday morning, Reuters witnesses said, hours after the U.S. said it opposed the scope of Israeli attacks in the city amid a rising death toll and fears of wider escalation involving Iran.

Austin Deploys Missile Battery, Personnel to Israel, US Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III over the weekend authorized the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile battery and its associated United States military crew to Israel, the Pentagon announced today.

UN Urges Probe Into Deadly Israeli Strike on North Lebanon, BBC
The UN’s humanitarian office has called for an investigation into an Israeli air strike that killed 23 people in northern Lebanon on Monday. Spokesman Jeremy Laurence said the strike, on the Christian-majority village of Aitou, raised “real concerns” with respect to international humanitarian law.

Israeli Court Orders Government to Explain System for Medical Evacuations From Gaza, The New York Times
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appears to be no comprehensive system in place to facilitate evacuations of sick Gazans who are not involved in the Hamas-Israel war to other countries for needed treatment.

Opinion and Analysis

Regional Conflict Has Sharpened Tehran’s Incentives to Develop Atomic Weapons, Foreign Affairs
Carol Choksy and Jamsheed Choksy write, “Iranian leaders remain wary of triggering a devastating conflict with Israel or the United States. But the more they see conventional weapons failing to dissuade Israel from attacking their proxies or from carrying out assassinations on Iranian soil, the more attractive fast-tracking development of nuclear weapons will become.”

It’s Time for America to Get Real With Iran and Israel, The New York Times
Thomas Friedman writes, “This crisis in the Middle East will not end until Israel clearly defines its eastern border and declares that everything beyond it is reserved for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, once Palestinians meet the legitimate security requirements Israel needs to accept a two-state solution.”

The Most Important Vote US Jews Will Ever Cast, The Times of Israel
Abraham H. Foxman, former National Director of the ADL, shares, “Jews are safest in a pluralistic society, where democratic institutions and civil rights protections are strong. The brand of authoritarian populism, laced with Christian nationalism and white supremacy that we have seen being normalized by the GOP scares me.”

Netanyahu’s Looming Iran Strike Could Make the US Election Go Ballistic, Haaretz
Ben Samuels writes, “The potential spillover of an Israeli strike on Iran – the embroilment of U.S. troops, and the potential shock on oil prices caused by a subsequent Iranian retaliation – could have a direct impact on voters in a way that Israel has never previously moved the needle.”

Iran’s Year of Living Dangerously, Foreign Affairs
Ali Vaez argues, “For Iran’s leaders, the sudden exposure of its vulnerabilities may be fueling an increased appetite for risk—risks that they may hope will compensate for mounting failures and prevent future ones. Yet a change to its nuclear doctrine is unlikely to resolve the Islamic Republic’s strategic dilemmas.”


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