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.
Seal the Deal Now, J Street
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami writes, “Not one more Israeli nor one more Palestinian civilian should suffer the pain these six hostages and their families endured this week. A ceasefire deal is the only way to bring the remaining hostages home alive, end this war and open the door to a broader, regional diplomatic initiative to achieve meaningful security, redevelopment and cooperation. It is a failure of duty not to close a deal and close it now.”
Hamas Executes Hostages, Israelis Protest Netanyahu [Audio], Pod Save the World
J Street Israel Executive Director shares, “The entire country got to know the hostages, and it was obvious that they could have been alive. The news came right after leaks from the war cabinet that the defense establishment thinks differently than the Prime Minister, and the only reason Netanyahu is not going for a deal is for his political survival. Many people who were not the usual suspects at demonstrations came out to protest. They were all united under the same message that Netanyahu is killing the hostages.”
US Charges Senior Hamas Leaders With Deaths of Americans in Israel, CBS News
“As of the date of this Complaint, at least 43 American citizens were among those murdered, and at least 10 American citizens were taken hostage or remain unaccounted for,” the criminal complaint filed Monday said. Prosecutors charged the six defendants for conduct leading up to and following the Oct. 7 attack, including terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions evasion. The defendants were identified as Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammad Al-Masri, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal, and Ali Baraka. Haniyeh, Al-Masri and Issa are deceased, and the remaining three are at large.
As US Readies Last Cease-Fire Push, Netanyahu Digs in on Border Demands, The Washington Post
The Washington Post spoke with nine current and former officials in countries involved in the talks, and they expressed mounting frustration over the lack of progress and deepening pessimism about the prospects for a deal. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and ongoing diplomacy. The chief sticking point, officials agree, is Netanyahu’s demand that Israeli troops be allowed to stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone running along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which Israel captured in May.
As Israel’s Rifts Widen, Netanyahu Remains Defiant, The New York Times
Patrick Kingsley writes, “Unlike in March 2023, when a general strike and mass protests prompted Mr. Netanyahu to suspend a contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary, this time his right-wing party maintained the public unity it has displayed throughout the war. Only Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, voted against a recent cabinet motion to restrict the circumstances in which Israel could agree to a cease-fire, and few, if any, other senior officials from his party, Likud, have broken ranks in public.”
UK Suspends 30 Arms Export Licences to Israel After Review, The Guardian
The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. The Foreign Office said a two-month internal review had raised concerns about the way Israel had conducted itself in the conflict in Gaza and that the decision specifically related to concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.
Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill 35 Palestinians but Pauses Allow Third Day of Polio Vaccinations, Reuters
Among those killed were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said. Nevertheless, the World Health Organization said that it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Tuesday, day three of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10.
Eden Yerushalmi, a Slain Israeli Hostage, Is Seen in Hamas Video, The New York Times
Rights groups and international law experts say that a hostage video is, by definition, made under duress, and that the statements in it are usually coerced. Israeli officials have called the videos a form of “psychological warfare,” and experts say their production can constitute a war crime.
Netanyahu Blew Up Cease-Fire Deal by Changing Terms, Israeli Outlet Says, USA Today
Ynet said the talks were dramatically altered when Netanyahu presented on July 27 the document with new conditions that included a military presence at the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza instead of the original phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the whole enclave.
GOP Group Targets Muslim Voters In Michigan With Ads Touting Harris’ Ties To Israel, HuffPost
A political action committee founded by Republicans is running digital ads in Michigan arguing Vice President Kamala Harris “stands with Israel” amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The ads also link to a video saying Harris put “supporters of a free Palestine” “in their place.”
As Columbia Resumes Classes, Student Activists Vow to Carry on With Protests Against Israel, AP
Columbia University resumed classes Tuesday with students sunbathing and eating ice cream on the lawn that was home to a pro-Palestinian encampment last spring. But there were also fresh demonstrations just off campus, and students and faculty say they’re planning for more as the new school year unfolds.
US: Israel Agreed to Withdraw From Parts of Philadelphi as Part of Hostage Deal, Times of Israel
The White House declared Tuesday that its latest, Israel-backed hostage deal proposal includes an IDF withdrawal from heavily populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel must indefinitely maintain a presence along the Egypt-Gaza border stretch.
How Netanyahu Is Trying to Save Himself, Elect Trump and Defeat Harris, The New York Times
Thomas Friedman writes, “I believe Netanyahu wants Trump to win and he wants to be able to tell Trump that he helped him win. Netanyahu knows that many in the rising generation of Democrats are hostile to Israel – or at least to the Israel he is creating. […] Netanyahu wins. Trump wins. Israel loses. Gaza will still be boiling, of course. Israeli troops will still be occupying it. Israel will be more of a pariah state than ever, with more and more talented Israelis leaving for jobs abroad, but Bibi will have another term – and that is all that counts. If Harris wins, Bibi knows he just needs to snap his fingers and the pro-Israel lobby in Washington – AIPAC – and Republicans in Congress will protect him from any blowback.”
Fifty Shades of Antisemitism: What Trump Says About US Jews, in Office and on the Campaign Trail, Haaretz
Allison Kaplan Sommer and Ben Samuels share, “During his first presidency, Trump’s most infamous outbursts regarding Jews were fueled largely by his adoption of antisemitic tropes favored by conspiracy theorists, antisemites, racist nationalists and/or white supremacists. Trump has long nurtured close relationships with extreme right-wing aides, world leaders and supporters who repeatedly invoked antisemitic tropes and stereotypes in their rallying cries against “globalism” and support for Christian nationalism.”
Extremist Settlers Rapidly Seizing West Bank Land, BBC
BBC reports, “Last October, Palestinian grandmother Ayesha Shtayyeh says a man pointed a gun at her head and told her to leave the place she had called home for 50 years. She told the BBC the armed threat was the culmination of an increasingly violent campaign of harassment and intimidation that began in 2021, after an illegal settler outpost was established close to her home in the occupied West Bank. The number of these outposts has risen rapidly in recent years, new BBC analysis shows. There are currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year – more than in any previous year.”
Grief and Fury in Israel, The New Yorker
Ruth Margalit shares, “Just this June, four other hostages were pronounced dead, including two over the age of eighty; their bodies are still being held in Gaza. I went to the vigils that followed those deaths. They were sizable, charged, and emotional—but nowhere near the outpouring of public fury unleashed this time around. Perhaps the difference was that the killing of the six hostages by Hamas appeared to many Israelis to have been preventable.”
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 Community Utterly Devastated by Murder of Six Israeli Hostages, J Street
“The cold-blooded depravity of Hamas is sickening. Our hearts break for the friends and families who are enduring unbearable grief, many of whom we’ve come to know as they have fought doggedly for a deal to secure their loved ones’ release. This is the absolute worst outcome,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said. “No further evidence is needed that a ceasefire deal is the only way to bring any remaining living hostages home alive. It is a complete delinquency of duty to fail to close the ceasefire deal now. No one should suffer the pain these six families are enduring today.”
Thousands Gather for Funeral of Israeli American Hostage Killed in Gaza, The New York Times
At a sprawling cemetery in Jerusalem on Monday, thousands of people thronged the parking lot to memorialize Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israeli American citizen and one of six hostages whose bodies were found in Gaza on Saturday, as family members and friends delivered emotional eulogies and sang Jewish hymns. Holding back tears, Hersh’s mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, expressed some relief that her son was no longer in danger. “Finally, my sweet boy,” she said. “Finally, finally, finally, you’re free.”
Biden Is Considering Presenting Final Gaza Deal Proposal Within Days, Axios
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday told families of U.S. hostages held in Gaza that President Biden is considering presenting Israel and Hamas a final proposal for a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal later this week, two sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told Axios. Biden is going to meet with his national security team on Monday morning to determine the strategy for the final push regarding the deal, a source familiar with the issue said.
Netanyahu Pushes Back Against New Pressure Over Gaza and Hostages: ‘No One Will Preach to Me’, AP
In his first public address since Sunday’s mass protests showed many Israelis’ furious response to the discovery of six more dead hostages, Netanyahu said he will continue to insist on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks — continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it.
‘We’re Not Stopping’: Tens of Thousands of Israelis Protest for Hostage Deal on Third Day of Rage, Haaretz
In Tel Aviv, thousands of protesters gathered near the Defense Ministry headquarters. A number of speakers made statements, including Danny Elgarat, the brother of the hostage Itzik Elgartat, who said, “We are not stopping this fight, and this square will always be full of people. … Bibi says that he who kills hostages doesn’t want a deal – Bibi? You don’t want a deal! You want to turn the Philadelphi corridor into a mass grave. We won’t let you do that!”
Biden Says Netanyahu Isn’t Doing Enough to Get a Hostage Deal, NBC News
Reporters asked Biden if he thought Netanyahu had done enough to secure an agreement, and Biden answered: “No.” The Biden administration has repeatedly accused Hamas of holding up a deal, but recently U.S. and foreign officials have said conditions introduced by Netanyahu also disrupted efforts.
Israeli Fire Kills Dozens in Gaza, Polio Vaccinations in Full Swing, Reuters
Palestinian and UN officials said more than 80,000 children had been vaccinated in central areas of Gaza on Sunday, the first day of the campaign. Seven Palestinians were killed in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza City, Palestinian officials said on Monday, while two air strikes killed six others in Bureij and Nuseirat, two of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps.
UK Suspends Some Arms Sales to Israel After Government Review, The Washington Post
The move marks a shift for the United Kingdom and came as part of the new Labour government’s review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law amid its war in Gaza. Lammy said the government had a “legal duty” to do the review.
Israel’s Labor Strike Over Hostages Is Called off After Court Order, NPR
A nationwide general strike shut down large parts of Israel on Monday, as calls for Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal escalated. Israel’s Labor Court ordered the strike to come to an end by Monday afternoon at 2:30 pm local time. The Histadrut union said it abided the decision and called off the strike.
3 Israeli Police Officers Killed as West Bank Violence Spirals, The New York Times
Gunmen killed three Israeli police officers on Sunday morning as they drove through the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the latest episode in the spiral of violence in the territory that includes attacks by Palestinian and Israeli extremists, as well as ongoing raids by the Israeli military in Palestinian cities.
Trump’s Israel Adviser Suggests Diverting $1 Billion From Palestinian Aid to Fund West Bank Annexation, The Forward
Israel will need financial assistance “to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman writes in a new book, scheduled for release on Tuesday.
Will Our Hostage Son Be Next?, The New York Times
Adi and Yael Alexander, parents of 20-year-old American hostage Edan Alexander, write, “It’s not just the fear of losing our son that now keeps us up at night. It’s the fact that his murder is becoming the more probable outcome, and we have no faith in Mr. Netanyahu’s will to change that. […] Mr. Prime Minister, we demand you uphold our shared Jewish values and prioritize the hostages, whose lives remain in your hands. Tikkun olam means ‘repair the world’ in Hebrew and is the core of what it means to be Jewish. We’re counting on you to help repair the world, bring the hostages home and end all the suffering that this war has caused once and for all.”
Hersh’s Family Deserves More Than Thoughts and Prayers From Biden, Harris and Trump, Haaretz
Ben Samuels shares, “U.S. lawmakers and officials undoubtedly want to showcase their pro-Israel bona fides while expressing their assuredly genuine outrage. But if they truly want to honor Hersh, Jon and Rachel, they must publicly call for the deal that would have ensured Hersh came home alive.”
A Cease-Fire Deal Now Would Be a Victory for Israel, Foreign Affairs
Graham Allison and Amos Yadlin write, “Netanyahu’s pursuit of ‘total victory’ would mean continuing the war in Gaza at the price of neglecting adversaries on other fronts that now pose a greater threat to Israel than Hamas does. Continuation of the current operations in Gaza will not lead to the destruction of Hamas but will drag Israel into a prolonged and costly anti-guerrilla war and simultaneous escalation in other arenas. Hostages will continue to die in Hamas tunnels; Israel’s economy will continue to deteriorate; its status in the world will continue falling to new lows; and the legal battle in international courts will intensify.”
Israel Understands Nothing but Force, but Diplomacy Has Always Worked Out Better, Haaretz
Raviv Drucker argues, “The past 11 months should have made even the stiff-necked people dwelling in Zion understand that there are limits to our power. We have bombed, killed, crushed, flattened, arrested and otherwise used our full force, augmented by an American airlift. Yet despite this, our security situation is worse than ever before. Netanyahu likes to say that every area from which we have withdrawn has become a den of terrorists. It would be more accurate to say that every territory from which we have withdrawn unilaterally has become a venue for terrorism, whereas every diplomatic agreement has stood the test of time.”