J Street is extremely alarmed by the steep rise in tensions in the Middle East over the last several hours and days. Israel and the wider region appear to be rapidly hurtling down the path to all-out war. Last week’s Hezbollah attack in northern Israel that killed 12 children and young adults, yesterday’s bombing in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command and today’s assassination in Tehran of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh have further destabilized already shaky ground.

“It is of the utmost urgency that the Biden Administration and all parties with influence move at lightning speed to de-escalate the situation. We need to walk the region back from the brink while focusing on achieving an agreement related to Gaza that releases the hostages, ceases hostilities and surges aid. We must resist the hawkish voices calling for escalatory actions that will do nothing to advance security for Israelis, Palestinians or millions of other civilians across the region,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.

Haniyeh was a key negotiator in the ceasefire talks, and his assassination in Tehran is likely to add a further obstacle to the already difficult negotiations. Ending the Hamas-Israel war through a bilateral, negotiated agreement is the solution to shifting the trajectory of events away from escalation and toward peace and security throughout the region.

“While we shed no tears for these Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, whose stated goals were the destruction of Israel and death of its civilians, these assassinations – and that of Haniyeh in particular – are likely to further inflame an already explosive situation. The only way to defuse the situation is to hammer out a ceasefire agreement now, before it’s too late,” added Ben-Ami.