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 Gravely Concerned by Intensifying Israel-Hezbollah War, Urges Immediate De-escalation, J Street
The United States must recognize that, sadly, the Netanyahu government appears uninterested in reaching the diplomatic resolution that is needed. American policy needs to both exert appropriate pressure on Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah, and address Israeli obstructionism, pushing the country’s leaders to see that the surest route to security limits the use of force to the minimum necessary while maximizing diplomacy to resolve underlying conflicts.
Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them., ProPublica
The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”
Hezbollah Fires Missile at Tel Aviv After Heavy Israeli Strikes on Lebanon, NPR
The Israeli military said it intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon from which the projectile was launched.
Hezbollah Asked Iran to Attack Israel, Israeli and Western Officials Say, Axios
A direct Iranian attack against Israel would dramatically destabilize the region even further and likely draw the U.S. into more active fighting. Two Israeli officials said Iranian officials told their Hezbollah counterparts that “the timing isn’t right” for launching an attack against Israel because the Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is currently in New York for the UN General Assembly.
Human Rights Groups: Israel’s Far-right Channel 14 Has Called for Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza More Than 50 Times, Haaretz
In a letter to Israel’s Attorney General, three Israeli organizations compiled a list of calls for genocide in Gaza made on the right-wing Channel 14 alongside more than 150 statements calling for war crimes against Palestinians, including indiscriminate killing, mass expulsion and starvation.
Palestinian Medics Say 22 Killed in Gaza as Israel Fights on Two Fronts, Reuters
Palestinian health officials said the 22 people were killed in several Israeli airstrikes in central and southern Gaza Strip. In one of the strikes, six Palestinians were killed, including three women, in a house in Nuseirat, one of the territory’s eight historic refugee camps, they said.
Antisemitic Incidents Jumped 63% in 2023, According to FBI Data, JTA
Jews were targeted in 1,832 hate crimes last year, far more than any other religious group and a steep increase over 2022, according to FBI data released on Monday. The number of anti-Jewish hate crimes last year, when Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked a spike in antisemitism worldwide, represented a 63% increase over 2022, when there were 1,122 incidents reported.
Amid Israel-Hezbollah Strikes, Lebanon Says Only US Can Stop Fighting, Reuters
Israel’s military said the airstrike on the Lebanese capital killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, who it said was the commander of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket force. Two security sources in Lebanon described him as a leading figure in the Iran-backed group’s rocket division.
Biden Struggles to Contain Conflict as Israel and Hezbollah on the Brink, BBC
The White House denies that it is pursuing a diplomatic effort doomed to defeat – and that President Biden, with four months left in office, has given up hope of achieving a breakthrough. “No, he absolutely hasn’t given up,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said of Biden’s attempts to reach a deal that would end the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu Will Address the UN as Israel, Bogged Down by One War, Barrels Toward Another, AP
The Israeli leader “actually believes that his U.N. speeches have transformative effects on history. They do not,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York. Netanyahu’s visit, Pinkas added, comes as Israel is now globally perceived as being “on the precipice of a condemned pariah state” with its leader seen as a “rogue war-monger.”
Israel’s Attacks on Hezbollah Achieved Short-Term Aims, Officials Say, but End Goal Is Unclear, The New York Times
The decision to escalate was met with strong opposition from some senior officials, according to three current and former officials who spoke to The Times. They worried that such actions, the officials said, could lead to all-out war with face-to-face fighting and questioned how they would pave the way for the return of Israelis to the north.
The U.S. Must Sanction Israel’s Messianic Ministers – and American Jews Should Welcome It, Haaretz
Eric H. Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, argues, “The time has come for the American government to sanction Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir over their actions in the West Bank. And American Jews should not resist such a step by the Biden administration. While the Jewish establishment is unlikely to be supportive, it should be. It should see such sanctions as a necessary step to save Israel from internal chaos and to help restore its international legitimacy.”
The Hezbollah Pager Explosions Are More Dangerous Than You Think, Foreign Policy
Howard W. French writes, “As Gaza has begun to show—and as another war with Lebanon, if it comes, will likely reaffirm—this approach amounts to scorching the earth in neighboring lands in the deluded hope that Israel can kill enough of the ‘bad guys,’ irrespective of collateral damage, to achieve peace. The first obvious flaw to this approach is that each military operation risks generating new enemies, perpetuating enmity between Israel and its neighbors.”
Anatomy of a Smear Campaign Against Rashida Tlaib, Zeteo
Prem Thakker writes, “Tlaib’s original remarks criticizing Nessel focused on the prosecution of pro-Palestine protestors, critiques shared by advocacy groups, including the Michigan chapter of the ACLU. Most of the charges are against students, including Jewish students, who refused to vacate a campus encampment after police ordered them to leave as they demanded the school divest from ‘weapons manufacturers and war profiteers complicit in the genocide in Palestine.’”
Toward Reconciliation, Harvard Magazine
Max J. Krupnick shares, “Hearing Israeli stories of loss was the first time Alsheikh believed grieving Israeli and Palestinian parents shared the same pain. ‘We share the same tears, even if we had different circumstances, but we’re still human, and there’s nothing worse than losing a child,’ she said. “No one could understand that pain unless someone was in the same situation.”