This Week: Netanyahu Launches Gaza City Ground Invasion ⚠️ | Raising the Alarm Over Rampant West Bank Violence 🚨 | The New York Times on Trump, Netanyahu and an Israel Without Restraint 💰| We Must Reject Political Violence ☮️ | Are Campuses Antisemitic? 🎙️| Has Israel Become a Pariah State? 🇮🇱 | This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.
⚠️ Netanyahu Launches Gaza City Ground Invasion, Deepens Israel’s International Isolation: On Tuesday, the Israeli government launched a full ground invasion into Gaza City – which has put hundreds of thousands in grave danger and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee. Over 100,000 reservists have been called up for what may be a months-long operation.
- Defense Minister Katz proclaimed that ‘Gaza is burning’ – continuing a string of appalling comments. We share the alarm of hostage families who fear this will place their loved ones in mortal danger.
- Finance Minister Smotrich described Gaza as a "real estate bonanza," saying that a “business plan is on President Trump's desk.” Joking to a live audience, he said "we've done the demolition phase... now we need to build.”
- Prime Minister Netanyahu boasted that Israel will become “Super Sparta” – a hyper-militaristic, self-reliant society, isolated from the rest of the world. “This is not a vision for Israel’s future that its supporters in our community can recognize,” we wrote in response. “It’s a plan only to deepen Israel’s path to pariah status and accelerate its moral and political decline.” When Israeli stocks immediately dipped after his speech, Netanyahu was forced to clarify he had “full confidence” in Israel’s economy.
- Our Response: “It has become inescapably clear that for the extremists at the helm of the Netanyahu government, the goal is not the release of hostages nor the defeat of Hamas, but the destruction of Gaza and indefinite occupation of the Strip [...] The US must stop fueling this destruction, prohibit our weapons from use in Gaza and press urgently for negotiations that can free the hostages and bring this nightmare to an end. Read and share the full statement>>
🚨 Raising the Alarm Over Rampant West Bank Violence: On Thursday, we held a briefing on the situation in the West Bank, where the rate of settlement construction, home demolitions and rampant settler terrorism is worse than we’ve ever seen.
- We were joined by Eid Hathaleen, a peace activist from Umm al-Khair whose cousin was murdered by a violent settler in July, and Yehuda Shaul, a former IDF soldier and leading Israeli anti-occupation policy expert. Watch and share >>
- This week, J Street leaders were on Capitol Hill calling attention to the spiral in the West Bank and demanding action – including by rallying support for the West Bank Violence Prevention Act. Sign our petition, share with your friends and call your senators here >>
💰 The New York Times on Trump, Netanyahu and an Israel Without Restraint:
- Trump’s Laissez-Faire Stance Gives Netanyahu Free Pass for Gaza Escalation [🎁 Gift Link]
“At the start of the Trump Administration there was real hope that he would pick up on the cease-fire that he and Biden negotiated together and use his leverage to end the war in Gaza,” J Street Policy Chief Ilan Goldenberg tells the New York Times. “Sadly that has not happened. Instead, at every step of the way he’s given Netanyahu a blank check.”
- Netanyahu and an Israel Without Restraint [🎁 Gift Link]
With the assault on Gaza City, Netanyahu has piled defiance on defiance and thumbed his nose at the international community and the moral consensus, writes Roger Cohen. “He’s lost it,” Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States told Cohen. “There are no more red lines.”
- In the West Bank, Trump Is Not Standing in Israel’s Way [🎁 Gift Link]
Dr. Phillip Gordon, former national security adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, calls for greater international pressure to stop West Bank annexation. “The government of Mr. Netanyahu should know that it can have flourishing relations with the rest of the world, or total control of the West Bank – but not both.”
☮️ We Must Reject Political Violence: Jeremy Ben-Ami reflects on the uptick of political violence in his latest Substack piece. “We must refuse to join the loudest fringes in the gutter. We must insist on civility, on moderation, on the possibility of community even in the face of division. We must remember to always acknowledge the humanity of those on the other side of our debates. The survival of our democracy depends on it.” Read more>>
🎙️ Are Campuses Antisemitic? In the latest Word on the Street Live, Jeremy spoke with three college students from the University of Michigan, Harvard University and Princeton University. They discussed the debate over campus antisemitism, rollbacks of DEI programs and student efforts to protect free speech. Watch the full Word on the Street Live>>
🇮🇱 Has Israel Become a Pariah State? Israeli chess players withdrawing from a tournament in Spain because they couldn’t compete under their flag; the Netherlands threatening to boycott Eurovision if Israel participates (five countries have now announced they won’t participate if Israel does); a Belgian festival boycotting the Munich Philharmonic over its incoming Israeli conductor; an international cycling team abbreviating its name to avoid the word “Israel” and the protests it triggers. Europe – Israel’s largest trading partner – is starting to consider official economic measures.
- “The government’s response – usually a tweet or statement from the foreign minister accusing longtime partners of aiding Hamas, falling for propaganda, or being antisemitic – is tone-deaf. Punitive measures like threatening to close consulates in Jerusalem or suspend diplomatic ties are even worse,” J Street’s Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg writes. Read more >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads/Listens:
- Israel's Qatar Attack Was a Costly Failure
Barak Ravid writes in Axios, “A week after Israel’s missile strikes in Qatar, it’s clear not only that the assassination attempt against Hamas leaders failed, but that it backfired. The strike increased the feeling inside the Trump administration and around the world that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reckless and has become a destabilizing force in the region.”
- Tony Blair’s US-Backed Proposal for Ending the Gaza War and Replacing Hamas
Jacob Magid writes for the Times of Israel, “US President Donald Trump has authorized Tony Blair to rally regional and international stakeholders around the former UK prime minister’s proposal to establish a postwar transitional body to govern the Gaza Strip until it can be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, four sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.”
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