For more than two years, Jewish communities around the country —  despite deep rifts over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza — demonstrated a historic united effort to bring home the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. In cities coast to coast, Jewish individuals and groups across different denominations, political affiliations and ages gathered together for rallies, fundraisers and walks, voicing a singular message: “Bring Them Home Now.”  

The efforts culminated last month with the release of the remaining living hostages and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. But heads of leading Jewish organizations say the work is not done and there are several new consensus issues for American Jews, with many echoing that tackling the increase in antisemitism remains a central and unifying concern.  

“Helping to rebuild Israel, continuing to secure our communities and leaning into a surge in Jewish life” that sparked new energy in the community in the wake of Oct. 7 are the next issues Jewish federations nationwide are addressing, Eric Fingerhut, CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, told Jewish Insider. 

“We all understand that there are serious and long-term issues related to the war in Israel, both related to trauma and mental health issues that have arisen, all of the rebuilding that is needed and support to those who fought and bereaved families,” said Fingerhut. 

“The toxic combination of rising security threats and antisemitism remain a top priority. We still have work to do to make sure our communities are fully secure,” he continued. An October JFNA and Anti-Defamation League survey found that more than half of all Jewish Americans experienced at least one form of antisemitism in the past year; 14% have developed exit plans to flee the U.S. if the situation worsens. 

Additionally, Fingerhut said the “significant rise and interest in Jewish life” that was fueled  by Oct. 7, which JFNA termed “The Surge,” is here to stay. An April survey conducted by JFNA found that while the increased engagement that was documented in the months following the attacks has ebbed over the past year, it remains relatively high, with roughly a third of the respondents — 31% — saying that they are engaging more with the Jewish community than they did in the past, compared to 42% who said so last year.

“There are great opportunities to increase the number of people engaged in Jewish life and education, [including] restarting travel to Israel fully,” Fingerhut told JI.

Even while some donors and Jewish professionals are increasingly facing burnout, Fingerhut said “the level of engagement is very high.”

“We’ve seen growth across the Jewish federations system,” he continued. “Campaigns are up in every community and there’s a high level of cooperation between all of the Jewish organizations working more closely together now than ever. I expect you’ll see lots of consensus and working together to address these issues.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, wrote in an eJewishPhilanthropy op-ed last month that “the existential crisis that the Jewish Diaspora has experienced over these last 24 months is not going away.”

“We will make no apologies for focusing ferociously on the safety of the Jewish community at a time when that safety is at risk,” wrote Greenblatt. “We will not shrink from the task of ensuring that America remains a place where Jewish people can live, work, worship and thrive openly and proudly. For those that perpetrate antisemitism, spread anti-Zionism, discriminate against Jews, or attack our community in any way, we will use every tool at our disposal to stop you. We will push back in boardrooms, expose the issues in classrooms, and prosecute our case in courtrooms.” 

Similarly, the American Jewish Committee told JI that consensus work will involve “the continued fight against antisemitism.”

“It is imperative that the community calls out antisemitism in all its forms — whether it comes from the far left or far right. AJC will continue working with leaders around the world and across the political spectrum, from local governments to heads of state, to recognize and confront this threat. We are also engaging with businesses and civil society in a multi-pronged approach that counters antisemitism from all angles. The surge of antisemitism that we are currently witnessing requires our community to band together. We cannot and will not succeed if we are not united in this fight,” the group said in a statement. 

AJC, which launched a Center for a New Middle East in 2024, said it also plans to continue focusing on issues in the Middle East, including advocating for the release of the three deceased Israelis still held in Gaza. 

“Expanding the Abraham Accords and the growing circle of peace remains a top priority for us,” the AJC added, noting that “in a post-war Middle East, the substance of the work changes, but our engagement with leaders throughout the region will continue to be a vital part of our work.”

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told JI that “the vast majority of American Jews have deep concerns about rising antisemitism and broader threats to our democracy — including the false choice between Jewish safety and democracy offered by extreme voices on both ends of the political spectrum.”

“Our institutions and leaders can all rally behind the recognition that there is no Jewish safety when our democratic norms and the rule of law are threatened, just as there is no democracy without real Jewish safety,” said Spitalnick. 

Aya Shechter, chief programming officer of the Israeli-American Council, echoed an “intense focus” on combating antisemitism, in a statement to JI, adding that the group plans to also “strengthen civic engagement and cultivate Jewish identity.”

After an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas to initiate the first stage of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal in mid-October, the IDF retreated to an “initial withdrawal line,” leaving Israeli forces in control of 58% of the enclave as Israel and mediators push Hamas to release the remaining deceased hostages and comply with the rest of the agreement, including disarmament and relinquishing power. 

The line divides Gaza in two: an “East,” controlled by the IDF and serving as a buffer zone to Israel, and a “West,” run by Hamas and host to the concentrated Palestinian population.

In interviews with Jewish Insider, experts painted a picture of two Gazas, explaining that the area Israel holds can be used strategically to root out Hamas and maintain leverage if hostilities resume. But challenges lie ahead in rebuilding the enclave and moving Palestinians back into the eastern region.

“There are virtually no Palestinians living in the eastern part of Gaza beyond the yellow line. The eastern part does not see the movement and the maneuvers of Hamas. That’s still confined to the western part,” Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza native and resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told JI. “Actual civilians of Gaza are all entirely under Hamas’ control in the west.”

Alkhatib said Israel has kept Palestinians from returning to the east over security and operational concerns, but also as leverage.

“How do you ensure that you don’t have Hamas members embedding themselves into the civilians, as they have done time and again? How do you ensure that Gazans coming into the east aren’t hindering clearance operations of tunnels or unexploded munitions?” Alkhatib asked. “I also think that the return of Palestinians to beyond the ‘yellow zone’ is leverage that Israel is holding onto until phase one is thoroughly and fully complete.”

Vice President JD Vance, in Israel last week, said during his trip that Palestinians should be able to move into a “Hamas-free zone” in southern Gaza “in the next couple months.” But experts warned that the timeline will be difficult given the conditions on the ground.

David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Israel has developed technology to recognize Hamas fighters and could use it to allow non-combatants access to the area under Israeli control. But even if Israel can vet who enters, eastern Gaza has endured destruction comparable to the west, and serious concerns await displaced civilians.

“The ubiquitous tunnel system that Hamas has dug in Gaza, which no doubt traverses the yellow line that serves as the ceasefire line, limits Israel’s ability to provide a safe zone in the eastern portion of Gaza,” May told JI.

Palestinians who move into the Hamas-free zone and those working on rebuilding would also face the issue of land ownership, Alkhatib noted.

“Who owns these lands, and where do people have their homes? Every plot of land in Gaza is accounted for,” he said. “You can’t just rebuild Gaza without taking into consideration that you’re doing so over pieces of land and properties that belonged to people.”

“There could be a process in which that happens, regardless of any claims to the land,” Alkhatib continued. “Basically there could be a fund established that allows for the compensation of rightful owners. But beyond that, eastern Gaza could be developed to create a compelling example that others in Gaza want to be part of.”

Despite these challenges, experts say finding ways to take in Palestinians to east Gaza could isolate Hamas in the west — a strategy Israel could use to undermine the terrorist group’s authority and bring in international support for rebuilding.

“East Gaza under IDF control would become a Hamas-free zone where the world comes together to support the emergence of thriving new political, social and economic institutions where the lives of average Gazans would flourish,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. 

“Hamas-controlled west Gaza, by contrast, would be condemned to repression, stagnation and sustained misery. Over time, the east would become a huge magnet for the vast majority of Gaza’s population who would vote with their feet to live within a ‘free Gaza,’ fatally isolating and undermining Hamas rule and legitimacy,” Hannah continued.

May said this contrast can show Gazans “an alternative to life under Hamas’ corruption and oppression” and make donors more likely to contribute to rebuilding projects knowing aid won’t be intercepted by Hamas.

“If there is running water, sewer, electricity, internet, fixed roads and infrastructure, if there is something that resembles jobs and economic opportunity, and you create vetted methods for accepting incoming civilians into that area, then absolutely there could be a way in such that slowly drains the population out of west Gaza,” said Alkhatib.

However, Hannah argued that keeping half the enclave as a buffer zone could also serve Israel’s interests if fighting resumes.

“Right now, Israel controls an extensive buffer zone containing very few hostile Gazans standing between its border communities and Hamas-controlled west Gaza,” said Hannah. “How eager should [Israel] be to attract over a million or more Gazans to pick up and move much closer to Israel’s borders?”

May said Israel may have plenty of time to decide on how to proceed should Hamas continue to be uncooperative with the implementation of the rest of the first phase of the agreement. 

“There is still a lot up in the air,” said May. “As ceasefire lines in the Middle East have a tendency to become permanent borders, Israel needs to plan for the possibility of the yellow line becoming a long-term territorial marker.” 

The return of the final, living hostages to Israel last week has reopened discussion of putting the Palestinian perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel on trial.

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin threw his support behind legislation to allow for the formation of a special tribunal to prosecute Hamas terrorists who are part of the Nukhba, the terrorist group’s special forces unit, on charges of genocide, which carries the death penalty.

The bill is meant to “ensure that the legal process will be run efficiently and to ensure that justice will be done and seen,” Levin said in a joint statement with the bill’s sponsors, Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party and Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker Yuli Malinovsky. The group plans to bring the legislation to a first vote as soon as possible and usher it through the process “at the greatest speed, with a shared aim to bring the Nukhba terrorists to justice soon.”

Levin, Rothman and Malinovsky said that the office of the Israeli state attorney, the country’s chief prosecutor, has drafted indictments against Nukhba terrorists.

They noted that during the two years since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, the State Attorney’s Office, police and Shin Bet have interrogated the Nukhba terrorists and collected evidence “of an unprecedented scope,” including thousands of hours of video of the atrocities and of testimony. 

During that time, the Law, Constitution and Justice Committee held a series of meetings to examine possible ways to put the Nukhba terrorists on trial and ensure they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“We met with the Justice Ministry once every few months,” Rothman told Jewish Insider. “Levin finally supports [the bill]. Every obstacle was standing in our way, and [Levin] didn’t make an effort to remove them. Now, there’s nothing preventing it from moving forward.”

The move toward putting Oct. 7 perpetrators on trial comes soon after the return of the living hostages, as well as weeks after a heated debate in the Knesset over instituting the death penalty for terrorists. The legislation’s explanatory portion says it is meant to “nip terrorism in the bud and create a heavy deterrent.” 

The death penalty has only been carried out once in Israel’s history — following the conviction of senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann for crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity.

The bill, which applies to terrorists broadly, not only those who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, was proposed by members of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and brought before the Knesset National Security Committee, chaired by Tzvika Foghel, also of Otzma. The Prime Minister’s Office asked Ben-Gvir to postpone the vote. 

Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for the hostages, said in the committee meeting that Ben-Gvir’s effort was potentially harmful to the ongoing discussions to secure the release of the remaining hostages. Representatives from hostage families have also pleaded with the lawmakers to stop the proceedings, concerned that the moves could endanger their loved ones.

On Monday, Ben-Gvir made an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that either the death penalty bill passes a first Knesset vote in the next three weeks, or his party will no longer vote with the coalition. 

“When terrorists remain alive, the terrorists outside are motivated to carry out kidnappings in order to free their Nazi brothers in future deals,” Ben-Gvir said. “If they murder a Jew, they do not stay alive.”

Rothman argued that his bill is significantly different from Ben-Gvir’s, and pointed out that he held a committee meeting the same week as the one that courted controversy, and neither Netanyahu nor Hirsch asked him to hold off.

“It’s a question of whether you want real results. [Otzma lawmakers] don’t understand what they’re dealing with. The law they want to pass [is so broad], I think it would end up giving a Jewish Israeli the death penalty first,” he remarked.

While Rothman said that having all of the living hostages home will help the Oct. 7 trials to move forward, when he asked senior defense figures over the last two years whether there was a risk to the hostages’ lives from his actions, “they said no. They said when there’s a conviction or maybe even an indictment, possibly, but just building the framework is not a risk.”

As such, Rothman said that though it may seem like a long time has passed, “the time hasn’t been a waste. A lot of material was collected and we oversaw the legislative and political decisions that needed to be made.”

Rothman and Malinovsky’s bill would establish a special tribunal for those who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, with the proceedings made public. The legislation sets different rules for presenting evidence to protect the privacy of victims and their families, and to streamline the process of prosecuting large numbers of defendants. It also allows for non-Israeli judges to be appointed. In addition, it would establish a committee of representatives of Israel’s justice minister, defense minister and foreign minister to determine government policy as to whether to prosecute the Nukhba terrorists on genocide charges, which carry the death penalty, taking national security into consideration.

In a Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee meeting on Wednesday, the first since Levin publicly supported the bill, Malinovsky said that she and Rothman “understand that it was difficult to gather evidence … and I know that law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office overturned every stone to find evidence. [Regular] criminal justice proceedings do not have a response for the events of Oct. 7, therefore MK Rothman and I wrote this bill to regulate the jailing and prosecution of the terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.” 

Malinovsky said that there is difficulty tying specific terrorists to specific murders, and genocide is a collective crime, by which they can be charged as a group. In cases in which there is no evidence tying a terrorist to genocide, they can be tried in a military court as illegal fighters who committed acts of terror against Israel, a crime that carries a life sentence. 

Much of the bill is focused on clear criteria for genocide charges.

“At first, the Justice Ministry said that genocide charges won’t work,” Rothman recalled earlier this week, “but today, I think they understand that they need to go there.”

The special tribunal is meant to prevent the Oct. 7 trials from getting caught up in the Israeli justice system’s significant backlog.

“It’s a lot of heavy cases that will block up the whole justice system” if the trials are in regular courts, Rothman explained. 

In addition, he said, “I don’t want a situation where a judge is with the Nukhba in the morning and in the afternoon is dealing with an Israel who stole a car. We could end up lowering the standards of defendants’ rights in all of Israel. When we authorized preventing meetings [of terrorists] with lawyers, [judges] used it for all kinds of other cases, just because they can. We’re not going to allow that.”

Rothman said that the question of appointing foreign judges to the tribunal remains open, because it may be too complex. However, he said, “bringing a major jurist from the U.S. or somewhere else can give the trials an international imprimatur.”

Malinovsky said at the committee meeting that the Oct. 7 attacks “are like nothing else in the world, and I invite anyone who has knowledge to speak. We need creative solutions, outside of the box, and therefore we need a change of attitude, especially in the Justice Ministry.” 

Vice President JD Vance landed in Israel on Tuesday with the charge to lead efforts to stabilize the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and assist in the implementation of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s peace deal.

Following the release of the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, there was little indication that Hamas would abide by the other elements of Trump’s 20-point plan, which calls on the terrorist group to disarm and cede governance to a technocratic group of Palestinian leaders. In the last week, Hamas began executing Palestinians, clashing with rival groups and reasserting itself as the security and governing force in the Gaza Strip.

Over the weekend, Hamas terrorists shot an anti-tank missile at IDF machinery and killed two soldiers and Israel retaliated with airstrikes in Rafah, further jeopardizing the status of the ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefly halted the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, but reversed course following pressure from the Trump administration.

The vice president will now step into the conflict, visiting Israel at an important juncture as the Trump administration looks to avoid another breakdown into renewed hostilities and ensure full compliance with the deal.

“Hamas is going to fire on Israel. Israel’s going to have to respond, of course. There are going to be moments where you have people within Gaza that you’re [not] quite sure what they’re actually doing. But we think it has the best chance for sustainable peace,” Vance told reporters on Sunday, referring to the peace proposal.

The decision to dispatch Vance to Israel is a sign of the Trump administration’s continued engagement in the Middle East after securing the hostage-release deal, according to experts.

“We are in a moment of really intense American engagement and influence that have got us to a stage one that no analyst a month ago would have told you was possible, and so there is a moment of opportunity here,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. “In order to be sustained, it’s a ceasefire and peace process that is going to require intense and continuous U.S. engagement at the most senior levels.” 

While Vance’s foreign policy experience was limited during his time in the Senate, the vice president has remained deeply engaged on issues regarding Israel during the second Trump administration. Hannah said this continued high level involvement will be key to sustaining any peace deal.

David May, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said deploying Vance shows the significance of this issue to the Trump administration.

“This is a huge legacy item for President Trump, and so trying to make sure that the ceasefire holds is a highly important item for him. They had to send someone of a high profile, and sending the vice president shows that you are serious,” said May.

May said it would be a “huge accomplishment” if Vance is able to keep the ceasefire from collapsing — and secure progress toward other elements of Trump’s peace plan. 

“This is now an opportunity for Vance to build on his portfolio and show his vice presidential experience,” said May. “There’s very often vice presidents that sit in the background and don’t do much and don’t have much to show for it. This is an opportunity for him to get in the foreground.”

The key, May says, will be for Vance to leverage the U.S. relationship with Israel and convince Netanyahu’s government to show restraint in responding to Hamas’ provocations.

“In order for the ceasefire not to collapse, the exchanges of fire have to stop. It’s very difficult to get Hamas to stop firing, but if you can get the Israelis to stop responding, or at least to respond less forcefully, then maybe that can lower the temperature a little bit and allow for some of the benefits of the ceasefire to start kicking in,” said May. 

But beyond keeping the pause in hostilities afloat, the administration still faces a significant challenge in completely disarming Hamas and removing them from Gaza, a hurdle May says could require further confrontation with the terrorist group. 

“I don’t think any power besides maybe the United States or Israel can be trusted and would have the commitment to actually disarming Hamas,” said May. “Unless Hamas is able, or willing, to resume its previous role as being a more religious and cultural and social organization without the same political power or weapons, I don’t foresee a way of implementing the ceasefire without maybe another round of fighting with Israel actually taking out Hamas.”

Vance is slated to stay in Israel until Thursday, according to reports. The vice president will join White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom played vital roles in securing the first phase of the deal, who are already in Israel and met on Monday with Netanyahu.  

Last Friday, we laid out how American Jewry is facing a fork in the road in the aftermath of the Gaza war and release of hostages, and that the coming months will be crucial in assessing whether Jews will experience a renewed period of normalcy or whether the rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism will continue unabated. 

There are a number of upcoming key elections that will test the power of the mainstream against extremist forces. Here are the developments we’ll be watching most closely.

Will Zohran Mamdani win a majority of the New York City vote, and how will he govern if elected as mayor? Right now, without any surge in funding and organization among anti-Mamdani forces in Gotham, it’s looking very likely that the far-left candidate will prevail. But polls still show him consistently under 50%, without gaining any real momentum since winning the Democratic primary. And half of the six most recent public polls in the race (as tracked by RealClearPolitics) show the anti-Mamdani candidates collectively winning more of the vote than the front-runner. This race doesn’t at all look like a mandate for the far left.

If Mamdani wins, the next big question is whether he’ll govern more pragmatically than his past record would suggest. Will he try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City, as he has consistently said he would do on the campaign trail? Will he threaten the tax-exempt status of Jewish groups because they support Israel? Will he reappoint Jessica Tisch, the effective NYPD chief, as a signal of his willingness to moderate?

He’s been wooing business leaders and working to spin reporters that he’s not as ideological as his political career suggests, but that may be more wishful thinking than anything based on a careful scrutiny of his comments and record.

Will Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) or Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) receive a serious primary challenge? Massie and Greene are the two members of the small but loud faction of the anti-Israel and increasingly antisemitic crowd among House Republicans. Not coincidentally, they also are the two Republicans that are most antagonistic towards President Donald Trump — from calling for a release of the government files on Jeffrey Epstein to, in Greene’s case, agreeing with some Democratic health care demands during the government shutdown. 

Massie looks more politically vulnerable, with Trump and his allies actively recruiting a challenger to run against him and releasing internal polling showing he can be defeated. Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Kentucky Senate last year, looks like Trump’s favored candidate. But no one has yet announced a challenge, with the filing deadline less than three months away (Jan. 9). 

Greene looks safer, but her increasing Trump criticism could change that dynamic. The filing deadline in Georgia isn’t until March 2026.

How credible a threat will Graham Platner pose to Gov. Janet Mills in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary? Under normal political circumstances, an established two-term governor would hold a commanding advantage over an oyster farmer without any elective experience in a race for the Senate. That’s especially true given that the challenger has a long paper trail of comments calling himself a communist and embracing a laundry list of radical views.

Yet Platner has parlayed his rough-and-tumble biography and anti-establishment authenticity into media buzz, and raised an impressive $4 million for the race since announcing his candidacy over the summer. 

Mills, who is 77 and the favorite of Democratic Party leaders, starts out as the favorite to win the nomination. Platner has lately been facing scrutiny over his lengthy string of social media posts where he identified as a communist, called all police “bastards” and said rural Americans are racist and stupid, among other incendiary comments. He also downplayed concerns of sexual assault in the military in online forums.

Normally, those types of views and comments would be political career-enders. But in this anti-establishment, populist moment, it’s hard to be confident in assuming the traditional rules of politics apply. After all, Mamdani has weathered scrutiny of his own radical affiliations without suffering outsized political consequences.

In addition to holding down-the-line progressive views on the economy, Platner is also uniquely hostile to Israel, even to the point of releasing a digital attack ad against the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC. Shortly after launching his campaign for the Senate, Platner labeled Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide. 

Mills, as governor, doesn’t have much of a foreign policy record but has spoken out against Israel boycott measures embraced by municipal leaders in Portland. But as the candidate representing more-mainstream Maine Democrats, it’s likely she will adopt a more-moderate posture when it comes to Middle East policy.

Will Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares be rewarded for his work against antisemitism? For a while, it looked like there would be a sizable blue wave in this November’s Virginia statewide elections, with Trump unpopular in the state and the DOGE-fueled government layoffs juicing up Democratic engagement.

That leaves Miyares, the state’s Republican attorney general who has targeted terrorist funding from anti-Israel groups in the state and called on Virginia’s universities to aggressively confront antisemitism, in a precarious political position. 

But a shocking scandal involving his Democratic opponent, former state legislator Jay Jones, has upended the race and given Miyares a good chance to win reelection. The revelation of text messages from Jones wishing violence against one of his GOP colleagues has drawn bipartisan outrage, and led some Democrats to distance themselves from him. Public polling has been sparse, but recent surveys have shown Miyares pulling ahead in the race after trailing throughout the year.

One nonpartisan Jewish leader in Virginia told Jewish Insider that Miyares was one of the most effective and engaged elected officials in countering antisemitism, and the race was emerging as a key bellwether of whether Jewish voters would reward GOP officials for their allyship.

One example of Miyares’ bipartisanship: the Virginia attorney general played a key role in working to remove the anti-Israel protest encampment outside former Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s Northern Virginia home after progressive local government officials declined to do so.  

Can Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) prove anti-Israel activists on social media are more bark than bite? The other big Democratic Senate showdown is taking place in Michigan, the state with a sizable Jewish constituency but also the largest share of Arab voters in the country.  

Stevens starts out as the front-runner, thanks to her record of winning tough elections, successful fundraising and backing from many national Democratic leaders. She has also been a stalwart supporter of Israel, easily toppling an anti-Israel Democratic challenger in a closely watched 2022 Democratic primary against another sitting member of Congress. She’s a favorite of the politically engaged Jewish Democratic community, many of whom have championed her candidacy.

But with the political winds on Israel in the Democratic Party shifting, Stevens will be facing her fiercest test against two challengers running campaigns that are decidedly more hostile towards Israel. Abdul el-Sayed, an acolyte of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has long been an opponent of the Jewish state, and is likely to win over many Arab-American voters with anti-Israel views. 

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow began her campaign sounding more in the pro-Israel camp, but has grown steadily more hostile as Democratic voters have turned more critical of the Jewish state. This month, she said she considered Israel’s war in Gaza to be a genocide.

Stevens is still widely viewed as a favorite, and led the pack in fundraising in the just-completed third fundraising quarter. She also benefits from the possibility that McMorrow and el-Sayed split the progressive, anti-Israel vote, leaving more-mainstream Democratic voters in her camp.

But if anti-Israel sentiment becomes a litmus test for more Democratic primary voters, Stevens could face headwinds down the road. This primary, taking place next August, is as clear a test as there is of the size and depth of hostility towards Israel in the Democratic Party.

Will socialist, anti-Israel candidates prevail outside of New York City? While Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America-aligned mayoral campaign has gotten outsized attention, socialist candidates in the mold of Mamdani are running for mayor of other big cities across the country. 

In Minneapolis, the city’s liberal Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey (who is Jewish), is facing a DSA-backed challenge from Omar Fateh. Fateh, a state senator, is a BDS supporter and hired senior staffers who defended the Oct. 7 terror attacks, and have called for the dismantlement of Israel. This race is expected to be close, according to in-state analysts.

The other notable contest is in Seattle, where Mayor Bruce Harrell finished in second place in an August primary to a self-declared socialist challenger, Katie Wilson. The two candidates are facing off in the general election, where Harrell is now seen as an underdog. Wilson has spoken out less about Israel and the war in Gaza than many of her socialist counterparts, but many Jewish leaders in Seattle are concerned about her overall record.

Two clashing narratives have emerged about Israel’s strike on a meeting of senior Hamas terrorists in Doha, Qatar, in September, following the release of a preview of an interview with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program that aired on Sunday evening.

Both narratives posit that the strike hastened the arrival of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to free the hostages and end the war. Figures close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack pushed an anxious Qatar, Hamas’ patron and host of its senior officials, to do more to get the terrorist organization across the finish line. 

Trump’s negotiators, however, presented a scenario in which the president, unhappy about the strike, pressured Israel to end the war.  

Of the Israeli strike on Doha, Witkoff said that he and Kushner, who in recent months has also played a key role in the administration’s Middle East efforts, “felt a little bit betrayed.”

Kushner added, “I think [Trump] felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things he thought were not in their long-term interest.”

Witkoff said that Qatar, which served as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel for much of the negotiations, said that, following the strike, “we had lost the confidence of the Qataris, so Hamas went underground. It was very difficult to get to them … and it became very, very evident as to how important, how critical [Qatar’s] role was.” 

Jerusalem, however, had a different version of the events, as told by Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s closest confidante, in an Israel Hayom column by journalist Amit Segal.

Israelis involved in the negotiations viewed Qatar as a “spoiler,” such as when they talked Hamas out of accepting a deal proposed by Egypt earlier in the year, according to Segal. 

Dermer, Segal wrote, “links the strike to the agreement … The Qataris, it turns out, were convinced that by agreeing to host the negotiations, they had obtained immunity from Israeli strikes on their soil. From their perspective, the strike was a blatant, offensive breach of the commitment. … The Americans’ genius was to convert that negative energy into fuel to propel negotiations to their goal. ‘You want Israel to stop? Then let’s end the war.'”

Netanyahu’s office and the White House closely coordinated throughout subsequent talks to end the war, Segal reported. Then came an agreement backed by several Arab states calling for Hamas to disarm and without the immediate involvement of the Palestinian Authority.

Reactions in Israel to the “60 minutes” preview fell on predictable lines. Netanyahu’s critics said that the U.S. officials’ comments demonstrated that the prime minister did not want to enter the agreement, but instead was pushed into it by Trump.

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid argued that Witkoff and Kushner’s comments made clear that “after the failed attack on Doha, Trump thought that Netanyahu lost control and forced an agreement on Netanyahu that he didn’t want. … An American administration has never described an Israeli government like this.” 

Ha’aretz journalist Amir Tibon, who lived in one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, posted on X: “Witkoff and Kushner say in their own voices: Trump understood that Netanyahu was not on the right track and acted aggressively against him to reach a ceasefire and free the hostages.”

Nava Rozolyo, a prominent figure in the protests against Netanyahu years before the Gaza war began, wrote: “Thank you … for forcing Hamas and Netanyahu to reach an agreement on the return of all hostages and ending the war. Thank you for saving us from our own government and for saving lives.” 

On the Israeli right, many took issue with Witkoff and Kushner’s retelling of events.

Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs President Dan Diker posted on X that “the Israelis ‘getting out of control’ is what helped bring the hostage deal to the table, scaring the Qataris out of their minds.”  

Some highlighted Kushner and Witkoff’s business dealings in Qatar. Kushner’s investment company, Affinity Partners, manages billions of dollars in investments from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Witkoff’s son sought Qatari investments in commercial real estate projects earlier this year, and in 2023, Qatar bought the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan from Witkoff and his partners. 

Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron and an informal advisor to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who opposes the ceasefire deal, posted on X in response to the video: “Two American Jews, with no blood on the line in Israel (their wife and kids don’t drive on the roads with Jihadis), but lots of money on the line and business with Qatar, wag their finger at the Jewish State as they cut an awful deal that is certain to bring war.”

Other moments in the interview courted further controversy in Israel, such as when Witkoff described an Israeli cabinet meeting that he attended, in which Ben-Gvir talked about “all the death and all the carnage” from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and was “emotional.” In response, Witkoff described his son Andrew’s death from an overdose and told the Israeli cabinet minister to “let it go, you just can’t play the victim all the time.” 

Witkoff also brought up his son’s death in the interview in relation to his meeting with Hamas lead negotiator Khalil al-Haya, whose son was killed in the Doha strike.

“We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son, and I told him that I had lost my son and we are both members of a really bad club, parents who had buried children,” he said. 

Kushner said of Witkoff and the senior Hamas terrorist: “When Steve and him talked about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”

Kushner also said that he sought to relay a message to Israel’s leadership that “now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better.”

“How are you doing with that message?” Leslie Stahl asked.

Kushner smiled and replied: “We’re just getting started.”

This report was updated on Oct. 20, 2025, after the CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired in full.

Following the joy in Israel over the return of the remaining living hostages on Monday and President Donald Trump’s declaration that “the long and painful nightmare is finally over” came the letdown: Hamas, as of Thursday, had returned only nine out of 28 bodies of the deceased hostages and started to execute rivals and reestablish itself in the areas of Gaza from which the IDF withdrew. 

While Trump has repeatedly said the war in Gaza is over, when asked by CBS News if that’s the case, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel “agreed to give peace a chance,” and later in the interview said it still needs to “finish the war as speedily as possible.”

The future of Gaza remains unclear, despite Israel agreeing to Trump’s 20-point plan for the region. Hamas only agreed to the immediate steps in the plan: stopping the war, freeing the hostages in exchange for 1,950 prisoners, including those who killed Israelis in terrorist attacks, and Israel withdrawing to a specified line within Gaza. 

Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that the plan’s second phase, which entails Hamas’ disarmament and demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, “begins right NOW!!!” Yet, an Israeli official confirmed to Jewish Insider a report that, with Hamas withholding most of the remaining hostages’ bodies, negotiations to continue to the next phase of the plan are on hold.

Disarming Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza are meant to take place “under the supervision of independent monitors,” but those monitors have yet to be selected and sent to the region. The Peace Board announced — and led — by Trump, with the involvement of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair that is meant to oversee Gaza’s administration by Palestinian technocrats has not yet been formed, nor has the temporary International Stabilization Force meant to train Palestinian police and be part of the “long-term internal security solution” for Gaza and Israel. 

Meanwhile, Hamas has entered the vacuum and, in recent days, has tried to consolidate its power by killing members of clans that it accused of collaborating with Israel. 

On Tuesday, Trump called the clans “gangs that were very bad,” adding that Hamas’ attacks “didn’t bother me much” and that the terror group had his “permission” to proceed; Trump compared Gazan opponents of Hamas to gang members from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally.

At the same time, Trump said that Hamas must disarm, threatening U.S. involvement if the group does not lay down its weapons. “They will disarm or we will disarm them,” Trump said. “If they don’t disarm, it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently, but they will disarm.” 

Netanyahu told CBS News that he “hope[s] we can do this peacefully. We’re certainly ready to do so.”

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast co-hosted by Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov this week that although Trump’s plan “has 20 articles, it is not very well-detailed. Actually, it is a framework … [Trump] isn’t very interested in the details. He is very focused on the final outcome, on the vision. He leaves the details for the professionals.”

“If President Trump will lose his focus, determination, decisiveness with regard to the further phases of his own plan — and I mean disarming Hamas, demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and so on — [Israel] might find [itself] in a stalemate. This, I would say, is the main challenge of the State of Israel — keep President Trump focused,” Michael warned.

Ofer Guterman, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI that Hamas reestablishing itself within the “yellow line” to which the IDF withdrew is “unpleasant but expected,” because “up until now, Israel refused to deal with all the systems we wanted to put in place instead of Hamas.”

“The technocratic administration, international forces, Palestinian police, etc. – these are just headlines with nothing behind them. We need to start building them. Some will only be relevant in weeks or maybe months,” Guterman argued.

Guterman also pointed out that, while the second phase of the deal may go into effect in the coming weeks, it will likely last for years.

“We need to remember that we are still in phase one,” he said. “Not all the hostages are back, and that influences the decision-making in Israel. … Our first, central goal is to bring back most, if not all, or the hostages’ bodies that remain there.” 

Former Israeli National Security Advisor Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror said that Hamas is likely to return most of the bodies to the best of its capability.

“Hamas understands that, without [returning the bodies], it will clearly not be fulfilling its obligation to the Americans and Qatar and other countries, and may find itself in a war in which it doesn’t have its main card, the hostages,” Amidror said in a Jerusalem Press Club briefing.

Michael warned that while countries such as Qatar and Turkey that support the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas “were clever enough to understand … what is important for President Trump is to release the live hostages and declare the end of the war, and when it comes to the other phases, President Trump will be much more tolerant and they will be able to convince him that they need more time and Israel has to make further concessions.” 

“Hamas does not intend to dismantle itself … [or] give up its influence and position, not only in the Gaza Strip, but the entire Palestinian arena,” Michael said. “The Qataris and the Turks are interested in keeping Hamas as a relevant player in the Gaza Strip, first of all, as a platform for increasing its influence on the entire Palestinian Authority.”

The priority in Gaza must be removing Hamas’ control over any part of the enclave, including humanitarian or civilian services, Amidror argued.

“The people of Gaza are suffering from the strong hand of Hamas,” he said. “Today, Hamas is killing many Gazans. … We have to find a way to disarm Hamas for them and for Israel.” 

Amidror also said that it is “clear that nothing can be done in Gaza, not to rebuild, not to bring in forces that will implement civilian change, if Hamas is still so strong. Hamas cannot attack Israel anymore, but it is the strongest force in Gaza, and in that situation, no one will rebuild Gaza.”

As long as Hamas does not disarm, Guterman said, “Israel must prevent the rehabilitation of the areas of Gaza controlled by Hamas.”

Michael pointed out that Trump’s plan allows Israel and partner countries to proceed with establishing a technocratic administration and International Stability Force in Gaza before Hamas is disarmed.

“If Israel will agree to do that in the southern part, the area between Khan Younis and Rafah, I think there is a high probability for the success of security personnel and the Palestinian Authority,” Michael said. “They will enter the region empty of Hamas, with the presence of the government of technocrats, and everything will be fully coordinated with the IDF. … Begin the reconstruction process there, and continue the war in the north against Hamas, until Hamas is dismantled.” 

In such a scenario, Michael posited that residents of Gaza will try to move south to the areas being rebuilt to try to make a better life than in the areas controlled by Hamas.

“Then Hamas will lose its strength, which [comes from] the population, and it will be much easier for the IDF to besiege the areas that Hamas is present in, to dismantle Hamas,” he said.

Guterman thought that Israel implementing the plan in only part of Gaza was the likely scenario, but that progress would halt there and there would be “two Gazas.”

“Hamas will be within the yellow line, trying to grow more powerful as we try to fight it, and Gaza will have a security corridor in over 50% of the territory, making it easier to defend the [Israeli] towns near the border and create a better base for actions against Hamas,” he said.

For there to be an alternative administration in the IDF-controlled areas of Gaza that would undermine Hamas’ legitimacy, run by countries in the region, Israel’s “concession will have to be … committing to a viable path to a two-state solution,” Guterman argued.

It was the day that Israelis have waited for after more than two years — or two years exactly by the Hebrew calendar. Thousands had already assembled by dawn at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square — where some had slept overnight —  for the release of the last remaining hostages known to be alive. Shortly after 8 a.m., the first seven hostages — Omri Miran, Matan Angrest, Ziv Berman, Gali Berman, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel and Eitan Mor — were released to Red Cross custody.

“Habayta,” meaning “home,” the unofficial anthem of the hostage families, played over a montage of photos of the 47 men and one woman who have spent the last 738 days in captivity — a scene that has repeated itself in the square every Saturday night for two years.

Israeli networks split coverage between the live festivities across the country, in-studio reporting and interviews with hostage families and former hostages. Former hostage Emily Damari called into Israel’s Channel 12 upon the release of her neighbors and friends, twins Zvi and Gali Berman, and said the Shehecheyanu prayer giving thanks — a prayer also recited by the thousands thronging in and around Hostages Square. The crowd erupted in joy at the sight of the two brothers being reunited. 

By just before midday, the 20 living hostages — also including Avinatan Or, Bar Kupershtein, Ariel and David Cunio, Eitan Horn, Elkana Bohbot, Evyatar David, Maksym Harkin, Matan Zangauker, Nimrod Cohen, Rom Braslavski, Segev Kalfon and Yosef-Chaim Ohana —  were on Israeli soil.

The first images of the men trickled out over the course of the morning: Miran, flanked by his wife and father, wearing a shirt with artwork by his two young daughters; the Berman twins in Maccabi Tel Aviv jerseys; Ohel, pale but smiling and standing on his own, with sunglasses to protect his damaged eyes.

In contrast to previous hostage release, as dictated by the agreement, there were no propaganda ceremonies staged by Hamas as they handed over the captive Israelis. Instead, Hamas made video calls to the hostages’ relatives, who spoke to their loved ones as they stood beside their masked and uniformed captors.

Amid the hostage releases, President Donald Trump descended from Air Force One to the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday morning, where he was greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — who spoke at Saturday night’s hostage rally in Tel Aviv. Read our coverage of their speeches at the rally here.

Signing the Knesset’s guestbook after his arrival, Trump wrote, “This is my great honor — a great and beautiful day, a new beginning.”

With the release of the last living hostages, and later today the remains of  four of the 28 deceased hostages, Israel will begin the process of releasing close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in accordance with the first phase of the deal. After that, attention will turn to negotiations surrounding the deal’s second phase. 

After addressing the Knesset, Trump will travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a signing ceremony that will also include Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Trump’s speech was delayed due to a call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who extended an invitation to Netanyahu to join the ceremony. Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that the prime minister thanked Trump for the invitation, but won’t be able to participate due to the close timing with the beginning of the Simchat Torah holiday this evening.

It was a day of celebration after two years of pain, longing, fear, anxiety. It was the first time in two years that Israelis were able to wholeheartedly greet each other with ‘Chag Sameach‘  — a greeting that took on a double meaning on the eve of Simchat Torah, which begins this evening. 

But the day will take a heavier turn this afternoon when the remains of just four of the deceased hostages are expected to be returned to Israel, bringing a combination of pain and closure to their loved ones who will finally be able to give them a proper burial. Meanwhile, the 24 other hostage families — who were shocked to learn this afternoon of the low number of bodies that will be released — will be left waiting for the remains of their loved ones to be located and returned home. The Hostages Families Forum called the development a “blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas,” and called on the Israeli government and the mediators to “take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice.” 

President Donald Trump gave a victory speech in the Knesset as the final 20 living hostages returned to Israel from Gaza on Monday, in accordance with the first phase of his plan to end the war.

Israeli television stations showed a live screen, with Air Force One landing at Ben Gurion Airport on one side, and IDF vehicles carrying freed hostages Eitan Mor, Gali and Ziv Berman, Matan Angrest, Omri Miran, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel to their families on the other.

As Trump arrived at the Knesset, the Red Cross collected the other 13 living hostages: Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, Ariel Cunio, David Cunio, Evyatar David, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kupershtein, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

Trump was given a hero’s welcome in the Knesset, where he was met with an honor guard and current and former lawmakers gave him a lengthy standing ovation. 

“The hostages are back – it feels so good to say it!” Trump said.

In a speech that was over an hour long, the president declared that “today, the guns are calm, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally in peace, that will hopefully live  — God-willing —  in peace for all eternity.”

Trump said this marks “the historic dawn of a new Middle East,” and “an age of harmony for Israel and all the nations in the region.”

The president touted his success as a peacemaker, but added: “We’re not going to go into war, but if we do, we will win that war … I think Bibi [Netanyahu], as you mentioned, before, peace through strength, that’s what it’s all about.”

“Hamas will be disarmed and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape or form,” he vowed. “Israel, with our help, has won all they can, has won by force of arms. Now it’s time to transform that win … into peace and prosperity for the whole region. Time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

Trump said that “as we celebrate today, let us remember how this nightmare of depravity all began,” describing the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. “Nobody could believe what they were witnessing. The USA grieved alongside you. … The people of America join you in those two everlasting vows: Never forget and never again.”

Trump expressed his appreciation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called “a man of exceptional courage and patriotism.” 

“He is not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great,” Trump added.

Trump said that Netanyahu had “the courage to say, ‘That’s it, we won, and we’re going to rebuild and make Israel stronger and greater than it has ever been before.’”

The Palestinians, Trump added, need to “concentrate on building their people up instead of trying to tear Israel down.” 

“Israel, America and all the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, greater and more prosperous than ever before,” Trump said, concluding his speech. “I love Israel. I’m with you all the way. You will be bigger, stronger and more loving than ever before. God bless you, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the Middle East.”

“You, President Donald J. Trump,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said, “are a colossus who will be enshrined in the pantheon of history. The people of Israel will remember you. We are a nation that remembers … The world needs more Trumps.”

Netanyahu said that “this a momentous day, a day of great joy as the remaining hostages come home … At the beginning of the war, I promised to bring all the hostages home. Today, with the indispensable help … of President Trump and his team and with the incredible sacrifice and courage of the soldiers of Israel, we are fulfilling that promise.”

Trump and Netanyahu met with former hostages, the families of hostages, IDF soldiers wounded in action and victims of the Oct. 7 attacks at the Knesset.

Trump is expected to head to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh later Monday, for a ceremony marking the end of the war in Gaza. Trump secured Netanyahu’s invitation while at the Knesset, calling Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi before his speech, but Netanyahu declined, citing the Simchat Torah holiday.

Other expected attendees at the ceremony include Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of nearly three dozen countries.

Despite the celebrations on Monday and suggestions that the war was over, Hamas has been attempting to reestablish itself in the parts of Gaza from which the IDF withdrew, executing and battling its Palestinian opponents.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF will continue to work to disarm Hamas and destroy its tunnels along with an international team overseen by the U.S. 

Trump’s plan to end the war also includes replacing Hamas with a transitional government made up of Palestinians under the supervision of a “Peace Board” that he will lead and is expected to include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as deradicalization of the population of Gaza.

Hamas is expected to transfer four of the 28 bodies of hostages that remain in Gaza later Monday, according to the Hostages Families Forum, which described the low number as a “blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas.” Hamas has said it has been unable to locate all of them.

Close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were expected to be released later Monday, including 250 terrorists, many of whom were serving life sentences, and 1,700 arrested after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

Among those being released are Hilmi Abdul Karim, who bombed a bus in Jerusalem, killing 11, Mouad Badr Abdallah Da’is, who murdered mother of six Dafna Meir, and others.

Days before the remaining living hostages are expected to be released from more than two years of captivity in Gaza, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump addressed a receptive crowd of hundreds of thousands on Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.

Witkoff and Kushner had been in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, earlier in the week for high-level talks that secured an agreement, which went into effect on Friday, to end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. They arrived in Israel on Thursday ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to the country on Monday, the day that most living hostages are expected to be released.

“To the hostages themselves,” Witkoff said, “our brothers and sisters, you are coming home.” The White House special envoy praised Trump, who, Witkoff said, “once again proved that bold leadership and moral clarity can reshape history and change the world.” 

“We all owe a debt of deep gratitude to President Trump,” the White House special envoy continued, to cheers and chants thanking Trump, Witkoff and Kushner. Numerous mentions of Trump’s name throughout the evening drew cheers and applause from the crowd.

Witkoff paused his speech and appeared flustered after his mentions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew widespread jeers from the crowd. “I was in the trenches with the prime minister,” Witkoff said as he tried to mollify the crowd. “Believe me, he was a very important part here.” Netanyahu and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Witkoff added, “have both sacrificed so much for this country and devoted their lives to the service of Israel.” 

Witkoff noted the “tireless dedication of leaders who would not rest until the world saw what could be achieved,” naming the president, Kushner and Arab leaders including Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Calling Oct. 7, 2023, a “shattering day,” Kushner said the attacks “shocked me to my core in a way I’ll never be the same. Since then, my heart has not been complete.”

Kushner, who has in recent months been increasingly involved in the White House’s efforts to reach a comprehensive deal to end the Israel-Hamas war, described the “tremendous burden that I felt to see these hostages come home, to see their families get the closure they deserve and to end this nightmare — and also to see the suffering end for the people in Gaza, who, for most of them, were experiencing this through no fault of their own, other than being born into a situation that was horrific.” 

In brief remarks, Ivanka Trump said that “the return of each hostage is not only a moment of homecoming and relief, it’s a triumph of faith, of courage and of our shared humanity.”

Addressing the hostage families, Trump said, “The president wanted me to share, as he has with so many of you personally, that he sees you, he hears you, he stands with you — always. Always.”

A video that played as Kushner, Witkoff and Trump exited the stage praised the U.S. president as “Israel’s great friend.”

Ruby Chen, the father of slain Israeli American hostage Itay Chen, who spoke following Trump, said that Israel Police estimated that 400,000 people were in attendance at Saturday’s rally, a weekly solidarity event since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

The newly brokered ceasefire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas was met on Thursday with a notable lack of enthusiasm from the most outspoken Democratic detractors of Israel in Congress — even as they have vocally advocated for ending the war in Gaza. 

While the deal drew accolades across the political spectrum, from left-wing Israel detractors such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to MAGA stalwarts, some of the most high-profile members of the far-left Squad and other ideologically aligned lawmakers remained silent well after the first phase of the agreement was finalized Wednesday or offered only grudging praise for the long-awaited development that could lead to an end to the war.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Summer Lee (D-PA) and Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the House Progressive Caucus, did not respond to requests for comment from Jewish Insider and had not weighed in publicly on the deal as of Thursday night, despite widespread reaction to the agreement on Capitol Hill.

In statements to social media, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) briefly voiced hope that the deal would hold but reiterated their accusation that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and called for increased accountability in the conflict, without referring to Hamas’ involvement.

Like Omar, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made no mention of the hostages in his own response to the deal, which also expressed hope that the agreement would, “as soon as possible,” help end “this horrific war.”

The relatively muted comments — or lack thereof — underscore how anti-Israel lawmakers are reluctant to praise a major diplomatic breakthrough brokered by President Donald Trump — even as it aligns with their interests in ultimately ending the two-year war in Gaza.

They also highlight how the broader pro-Palestinian movement, whose extreme rhetoric has increasingly signaled support for Hamas as a “resistance” group righteously opposing occupation, has grown captive to a narrow and uncompromising conception of the war that attributes blame for the conflict exclusively to Israel while largely dismissing the suffering of the hostages.

In a statement addressing the agreement, for example, Abdul El-Sayed, a prominent critic of Israel who is now running for Senate in Michigan, said that “the impending return of Palestinian and Israeli hostages to their families offers a glimmer of hope in a dark time,” equating Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were serving life sentences for terrorism, now set to be released as part of a hostage-for-prisoners exchange with Hamas.

El-Sayed also devoted most of his lengthy message to denouncing “genocide in Gaza,” saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and all who enabled these atrocities must be held accountable under international law.” El-Sayed’s statement did not name Hamas.

Earlier this week, El-Sayed had drawn widespread backlash over a fundraising email his campaign sent on the two-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that blamed Israel for the war in Gaza but also did not mention the terrorist group or the massacre that had initially sparked the war in Gaza. 

As the new agreement is set to be implemented in the coming days, it will be worth closely observing if the Squad’s rhetoric on the situation in Gaza evolves — and whether even the most hostile critics of Israel can muster even a little enthusiasm for a deal that could fulfill a goal they have pushed since the start of the war.

Democratic lawmakers who have been stridently critical of Israel and its operations in Gaza offered tepid support for the ceasefire and hostage-release deal, the first phase of which was signed on Thursday, while reiterating their criticisms of Israel and the U.S.’ support for the Jewish state. Few offered any words of support for the Israeli hostages who have been held by Hamas for over two years. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has led a series of efforts to block arms transfers to Israel, didn’t explicitly praise the deal negotiated by President Donald Trump, but said he hopes the deal would lead to the end of a “horrific war.” He made no mention of the Israeli hostages set to be released, but asserted one-tenth of the Gazan population was killed or injured during the war. 

“As of today something like 10% of the Palestinian people in Gaza have been killed or wounded, mostly women, children and the elderly. The United States has put tens of billions of dollars into an effort which has led to mass destruction,” Sanders told Jewish Insider. “So I hope — and I’m sure everybody else does — that this horrific war can end as soon as possible.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said on X that the ceasefire is a “hopeful step” but quickly pivoted to expressing unvarnished opposition to Israel. She also made no mention of the Israeli hostages expected to be freed from their Hamas captors.

“For the sake of humanity, let’s hope this will be a lasting and permanent ceasefire,” Omar said. “While this is a hopeful step, we must demand accountability for every war crime committed during this genocide and continue to call for an end to the occupation.”

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), the lead sponsor of legislation that aims to place strict conditions on critical arms sales to Israel, said on X she plans to continue to pursue that legislation.

“Immediately after October 7, I called for a ceasefire and for a path that honors our shared humanity. It is unfortunate that it took this long. However, I am hopeful that today’s ceasefire agreement will bring the hostages and prisoners home and end the bombing and starvation of the Palestinian people,” Ramirez said. “We must save Palestinian lives and pursue an end to U.S. complicity in Israel’s war crimes, atrocities, and genocide.  I will continue to work to Block the Bombs, as we pursue a future of self-determination for the Palestinian people and a just and lasting peace for all residents of the region.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), tamping down on enthusiasm for the deal, reposted an X post suggesting that Israel may violate the deal.

“There is certainly some hope that the Gaza deal will hold but it’s important to remember that the last ceasefire agreement collapsed in March before ever reaching phase 2 when Israel reimposed a blockade on Gaza and bombings on the strip resumed,” the post, from an NBC News correspondent, reads.

Other prominent critics, particularly on the far-left, have remained unusually mum about the deal.

Squad members Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) did not respond to requests for comment and did not comment publicly.

Some other lawmakers who have been vocally critical of Israel’s operations in Gaza offered more fulsome praise for the deal.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said in a statement that the deal is “the first hopeful moment in a long time,” noting both the release of hostages and the surge of aid into Gaza. He credited U.S. pressure on Israel, however, rather than the reported increased pressure from Qatar, Turkey and Egypt on Hamas, for the breakthrough.

“Pressure from the U.S. and others has always been necessary to reach this moment — something that could have been achieved much earlier and prevented the staggering loss of civilian life, starvation, and devastation in Gaza,” Van Hollen said. “U.S. leadership will be essential to enforce this plan and convert this moment into real progress toward lasting peace — which can only be achieved by sidelining the extremists on all sides and committing to security, dignity, human rights, and justice for all.” 

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who led an effort calling for the U.S. to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, also praised the deal and led with the return of the Israeli hostages in his comments.

“It’s obviously very welcome news. Finally, the hostages are going to come home. The bombing hopefully is going to stop. Israel is going to withdraw,” Khanna said on Fox Business. “Everything I have read seems that this is a welcome development. And I’m really glad that after two years of a war, this seems to be finally coming to a resolution.”

“Now, we need to work for 2 states & ensure the bombing does not resume later in the year,” he added on X.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) told JI, “For the sake of humanity, I pray this holds. It is so far past time to end this genocide, free the hostages, and surge food, water, and baby formula to starving families in Gaza.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) declined to comment, saying she had not reviewed the deal.

It’s a “morning of historic and momentous news,” as Israeli President Isaac Herzog put it on Thursday, when Israelis woke up to learn that a deal had been reached to free the remaining hostages in the coming days and halt the fighting in Gaza.

The sides are expected to officially sign the deal in Egypt today, and Israel’s Cabinet is set to vote at 11 a.m. ET on the exchange of the 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, for close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The IDF said it began preparing to withdraw from parts of Gaza as part of the deal.

Hamas is expected to release the Israeli hostages first. Only when Israel is satisfied that the terrorist group has freed everyone it can find — including the remains of about 28 Israelis who were killed — will Palestinian prisoners be released. The swap comes with caveats: Hamas says it is unable to locate some of the bodies, and about 250 of the Palestinian prisoners set to be released are serving life sentences for terrorist offenses, though Israel insisted that high-profile detainees — such as Second Intifada mastermind Marwan Barghouti — will not be part of the deal. 

The deal is expected to pass easily in the Cabinet, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party holding the majority of the seats. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who expressed opposition earlier this week to President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, was unusually quiet on Thursday morning, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would not vote in favor.

Trump said in an interview with Fox News that all of the hostages “will be coming back on Monday. … As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed.” 

Israeli media reports have said that Hamas could begin freeing hostages as early as Saturday, without the mass propaganda events that marred previous hostage releases.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter made clear that only the first phase of the deal had been agreed on, and the end of the war can only come after it is implemented.

“We hope it leads to a complete cessation of hostilities and a rebuilding of Gaza for the sake of the Gazans and for the sake of Israel, but it’s the first stage, and we’ve got to see the first stage implemented completely,” Leiter told CNN. 

Trump is expected to fly to Israel over the weekend to celebrate the release of the hostages and address the Knesset, following an invitation from Netanyahu. The Hostages Families Forum invited Trump to meet with families and give an address in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square during his trip. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s former Middle East advisor, Jared Kushner, are expected to arrive in Israel later Thursday.

“We can finally breathe again, embrace those we feared we would never hold, and bring to dignified burial those we have lost. … We simply need the opportunity to look you in the eye and express what words alone cannot fully convey: that you gave us back our families, and with them, our hope,” the hostage families’ group wrote to Trump.

A delegation of released hostages and hostages’ relatives were in Washington, meeting with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, when the deal was announced. With the president on Lutnick’s speakerphone, members of the group thanked the president for his efforts. 

The Tikvah Forum, made up of more hawkish hostage families, said that the news “gives us hope. We are full of hope that … we will merit to embrace our loved ones soon. Thank you to everyone who acted to bring them all back, especially our brave soldiers.” 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, echoing a recent call from hostage families who nominated the president for the award.

Earlier in the week, senior figures from several of the countries involved in the talks headed to Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh to close the deal, including Witkoff, Kushner, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Turkish Intelligence Minister Ibrahim Kalin.

Negotiators hammered out the details of the first phase of Trump’s 20-step deal — the hostage release — along with Israel’s initial lines of withdrawal. According to the plan Trump announced last month, Israel would only withdraw from Gaza City in the first stage, but subsequent Israeli media reports indicate that Jerusalem agreed to a withdrawal from parts of Khan Younis, as well.

The talks in Egypt began after Hamas stated last week that it was willing to exchange the hostages for Palestinian prisoners. The terrorist group rejected other components of the Trump plan, such as laying down its arms and the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza, yet Trump said he views Hamas as “ready for a lasting peace.”

Netanyahu said in a subsequent statement that this was a new concession from Hamas in that they agreed to free the hostages “while the IDF remains deep within the [Gaza] Strip.” The Trump plan would also have the IDF remain in a buffer zone along Gaza’s perimeter, including the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt.

Other issues under negotiation include who will be part of the temporary technocratic administration governing Gaza and the “Peace Board” led by Trump, with former British prime minister Tony Blair taking part, as well as, potentially, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that Israel and Hamas had agreed to “the first Phase of our Peace Plan” that he outlined last week.

“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Axios reported that all the hostages will be released 72 hours after the Israeli cabinet approves the deal, likely by Monday. Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons and 1,700 Palestinian prisoners detained since Oct. 7 in exchange.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the announcement was a “great day for Israel” and that he would convene the government tomorrow “to approve the agreement and bring all our beloved hostages home.”

“I thank the heroic soldiers of the IDF and the entire security apparatus, whose bravery and sacrifice brought us to this day. I thank, from the bottom of my heart, President Trump and his team for their mobilization for the sacred task of releasing our hostages,” Netanyahu said. “God willing, we will continue together in order to achieve all our aims and expand the peace with our neighbours.”

The Israeli government said that Trump and Netanyahu had spoken and had a “very emotional and warm conversation” and “the Prime Minister thanked President Trump for all his efforts and for his global leadership, and President Trump congratulated the Prime Minister for his determined leadership and the actions he led.”

Netanyahu invited Trump — who has not yet visited Israel in his second term in office — to address the Knesset. Axios reported that Trump is planning to visit Israel “in the coming days.”

Further negotiations will be necessary to continue into further phases of the deal, which Trump had originally presented as an all-or-nothing ultimatum to Hamas. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Jewish groups celebrated the announcement, even as many warned that continued vigilance is necessary to ensure Hamas abides by the terms of the deal.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Trump “just did what career diplomats never could — he brought the world closer than it’s ever been to peace in Gaza. This deal only works if Hamas follows through. We don’t trust terrorists, we trust results.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said that the deal is a “victory” for the hostage families and “step toward healing for Israelis, Palestinians, people throughout the Middle East, and for the world.”

“I am grateful for the efforts that have brought us here, and urge the Trump Administration to continue its leadership in these negotiations,” Rosen continued. “We must continue to ensure Israel’s security, surge humanitarian aid to ease the suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, and pursue steps toward a lasting peace that finally brings this conflict to an end.”

In a statement, AIPAC said that the deal is “an extraordinary moment for America, Israel and the world” that had been brought about by “the enduring partnership” between the U.S. and Israel. It described the deal as a “just conclusion to the terrible war Hamas started” which “creates tremendous opportunity to forge a better future” for the region.

“AIPAC applauds President Trump and his negotiating team for this tremendous achievement and for working together with Israel to broker this peace plan. We deeply appreciate the moral clarity and steadfast support from the overwhelming majority of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, who stood with the Jewish state throughout this war and ensured Israel had the resources it needed to achieve its objectives against Hamas,” the statement said. 

“Now, America and the world must be vigilant to ensure that Hamas adheres to the terms and implementation of the peace plan.”

The American Jewish Committee, which has worked extensively with the hostage families, said, “Hope is finally within reach.”

“We welcome President Trump’s announcement of a deal to free the hostages and begin to end the war. As we await the details, we look forward to the day we can finally say every hostage is home,” the statement continued. “We are grateful to the President and his Administration for their leadership in helping bring about this pivotal moment.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), in celebrating the deal, dubbed Trump “the peace president.”

“This historic deal not only brings the hope of prosperity to a region that has been ravaged by Iran-backed terror but establishes steps towards lasting peace,” Ernst continued. “Today there is a new dawn that could not have happened without the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, who united our partners and allies against our common enemy: Iran. Finally, the hostages who have endured a living nightmare will be reunited with their loved ones, and the bodies of Americans Itay Chen and Omer Neutra can be laid to rest in dignity.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), the chair of the House Republican Conference, also credited Trump for the deal.

“This is what happens when we have strong leadership. Funny how peace only seems possible when President Trump’s in charge,” she said. “The Israel-Hamas ceasefire didn’t happen by accident — it happened because of his strong leadership that puts America — and peace — first. Grateful the hostages are finally coming home and peace in the Middle East is on the horizon.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said, “We should all be rooting for the success of an agreement that secures the release of the hostages and ends the war. Who could possibly be against that?”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, said that the “news is a welcome breakthrough and a testament to the strength of America’s unwavering partnership with Israel and our Arab partners.”

“Now, with Hamas reportedly accepting the ceasefire deal and releasing all remaining hostages, we have a historic opportunity to end the bloodshed and begin rebuilding a secure, peaceful future for Israel,” Lawler continued. 

“Thank you to President Trump for leading this effort and working tirelessly to establish peace and bring the hostages home. The United States, Israel, and our regional partners will hold Hamas accountable, and there will be no tolerance for backsliding or deception.”

Speaking at a press conference on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel alongside a former hostage and the family member of a U.S. citizen still held in Gaza, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Jewish organizational leaders slammed critics of Israel and emphasized that the responsibility for the continuation of the war in Gaza lies with Hamas.

“To all of the critics and naysayers who haven’t missed a chance to scream, yell and slam Israel, I say to them, ‘Where are your voices today? Where are your voices for peace?’” Gottheimer said. “You must push Hamas and take the deal that Israel has already accepted and that the Arab states and the U.S. support.”

He also emphasized the need to counter “social media cooked-up fiction” that has attempted to distort the memory of the attacks.

Hoyer, the former Democratic majority leader, condemned as outrageous the antisemitism that has targeted the Jewish community — whom he called “the victims” of the Oct. 7 attack — and emphasized repeatedly that Hamas is responsible for the attacks two years ago and everything that has followed.

“[The] trauma has grown with every hostage executed, every missile launched and every day this war has been drawn out — by Hamas,” Hoyer said. “Hamas’ crimes on Oct. 7, tragically have also led to the deaths, injury and displacement of thousands of Palestinians as well. Hamas has their blood on their hands.”

Hoyer, emphasizing the millenia-long history of antisemitism, said that people and leaders must speak up and take action against it.

“To young people: Do not fall into the trap of believing misinformation. Focus on who attacked, who abused,” Hoyer said. “America responded to the Japanese, we responded to Hitler’s actions in Europe. It was very tough: hundreds of thousands, indeed, millions of lives were lost. We thought perhaps that we may have, as mankind, learned a lesson of the cost of hate, the cost of bigotry, the cost of prejudice.”

Former Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, offered his thanks to Gottheimer and Hoyer for their clear stances in support of Israel and the hostages.

“In a world swimming in moral confusion, I want to extend our deep gratitude for the moral clarity with which you have consistently approached the events of Oct. 7, the need to speak up, the need to be clear about what happened and the need for us to always remember,” Deutch said.

He added that leaders have a responsibility to condemn antisemitism and Hamas unequivocally, and that their choice of rhetoric has “life or death consequences.”

“We’ve seen a terrifying surge in antisemitism, and in this upside-down world that we live in, Hamas is so often praised while its hostage-taking, atrocities and war crimes are ignored. Today is a reminder that we need to reset the truth,” he continued. “Words matter, and leadership matters. And when public figures slander Israel would normalize calls for violence, chants of globalizing the intifada, when there is open praise for Hamas — then they help to create the conditions for violence from Washington to Boulder to Manchester.”

Deutch also highlighted that, immediately after Oct. 7, before Israel had even begun its counterattack, people around the world marched in the streets in support of Hamas.

On the second anniversary, he continued, “there are some marches taking place around the world of the same people who were not interested in peace two years ago, when they supported Hamas. If they were serious about peace now, they will be marching to force Hamas to accept the terms of this deal. This is a moment when all of the people who claim to support peace have to be held accountable.”

Meredith Jacobs, the CEO of Jewish Women International, contrasted the sense of belonging she felt during a High Holy Days event at the White House in October 2022 with the widespread denial and ostracization that Jews and Israeli victims of Oct. 7 faced from the world following the attacks.

“October 2022 I was secure in my place in the world, secure in my safety and acceptance,” Jacobs said. “A year later, October 2023, that sense of belonging and safety was shattered. … I remember sitting with horror in the silence of the world and in the silence of other feminist organizations, and I remember what came after the silence, the effective malicious campaign of disinformation and denial.”

“When it came to Israeli women, those who were supposed to stand with us delegitimized the evidence, dehumanized Israeli bodies and applied a double standard when responding to the rape and mutilation of Israeli women,” she continued.

Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky recounted the trauma she underwent in Gaza: “I was beaten … taken to Gaza on a motorcycle, with sexual abuse. For 55 days, I was held in captivity, living in fear and hunger, and deprived of all basic human grace. No fresh air, no sunlight, no showers, very little food or water. I lost 24 pounds. I lost hearing in my left ear. My hip was broken. My leg was burned. My jaw was dislocated and they took my soul.”

She said that she cannot heal until the other hostages, including her partner, Matan Zangauker, are released. And she emphasized that this is “a fight for all of us” — that the same terrorism could come for “any country.”

Speaking on behalf of deceased American hostage Omer Neutra’s parents, Neutra’s cousin Yasmin Magal said that the Trump plan has appeared to usher in a true shift.

“Today, two years later, we sense a shift for the first time. There is a real alignment. Recognition that the moral center of the war is not territorial politics but the fate of the hostages. We have seen bold leadership in recent days,” Magal said. “Willing to act with clarity, urgency and strength, President [Donald] Trump has demonstrated that kind of courage, understanding that resolving the hostage crisis is not just a humanitarian necessity, but the key to stability and peace. We need the same moral clarity from all leaders around the world, because peace cannot begin until the hostages come home.”

At the press conference, Gottheimer announced a series of pieces of bipartisan legislation aimed at commemorating the Oct. 7 anniversary. 

One, cosponsored by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), would bestow a Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor, on the American hostages and victims of Oct. 7. 

The second, cosponsored by Reps. Lois Frankel (D-FL), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Young Kim (R-CA), would condemn the Oct. 7 attack, call for the release of hostages, reaffirm Israel’s right to self-defense, advocate for humanitarian aid and condemn antisemitism.

The third, cosponsored by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), would direct the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to create a model curriculum about the Oct. 7 attacks, the history of antisemitism and its role in the attacks and the denial and distortion of the attacks that followed Oct. 7.

Each of the pieces of legislation is supported by a range of Jewish ådvocacy groups.

Separately, in the Senate, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) and every Senate Republican introduced a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 attacks and “destructive and antisemitic protests in the United States” and supporting the ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations brokered by the Trump administration.

Oct. 7 bloomed warm and sunny in Washington this year as dozens of Jewish community leaders and bipartisan political officials gathered somberly at a pavilion at the Kennedy Center to mark two years since the Hamas terror attacks in Israel. 

A large sukkah, deemed the “Sukkah of Hope,” had a simple message displayed: “Two years in captivity. We can bring them home,” with photos of the 48 people, living and dead, still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Several former hostages and the family members of those still in Gaza walked up to the stage inside the sukkah, one after the other, all with variations on the same message: Thank you, President Trump, they said. Bring our loved ones home. 

“President Trump, we are thankful for what you’ve done, for your determination, for the time and energy you’ve given to this cause,” said Liran Berman, whose twin brothers, Gali and Ziv, remain in Gaza. 

“We are really grateful and hopeful. I’m glad that this man, Donald Trump, is behind us,” said Iair Horn, who in February returned to Israel after 498 days in Hamas captivity. His younger brother, Eitan, is still being held in Gaza.

Their appeal to the president’s dealmaking prowess came after the Hostages and Missing Families Forum nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he has long coveted. The president sent a letter to the former hostages and the hostage families early Tuesday thanking them for the nomination and expressing his commitment “to returning all the hostages home, and ensuring the total destruction of Hamas so these horrific acts may never be repeated.” 

The Sukkah of Hope was supposed to be constructed on the Ellipse, outside the White House. But the government shutdown meant that could not happen. Still, its move to the Kennedy Center did not keep high-level government officials from visiting. 

Before the memorial service, several Cabinet secretaries had breakfast with the former hostages and hostage family members. In attendance were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

Ronen Neutra, whose son Omer was killed on Oct. 7 and whose body is being held hostage by Hamas, said the Cabinet members sounded optimistic about the possibility of a deal. 

“We are hearing from the Cabinet members their optimism that we might be getting closer to a deal,” Neutra said. “But I think what is more important for us, or as important, is to hear the commitment that [we] have been hearing from President Trump, that this has to happen, and this is on his top priority list, and I think it trickles down.” 

Lutnick and his wife, Allison, supported the creation of the sukkah through their family foundation. 

“Donald Trump is the driving force of peace in this world,” Lutnick said at the memorial event. “The United States of America is together with the hostages and the hostage families. We are part of you, we are with you and we will help get them home.”

In the crowd at the event were Noa Argamani, Edan Alexander, Keith Siegel, Arbel Yehoud, Doron Steinbrecher and Ilana Gritzewsky, all of whom survived Hamas captivity. Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and the Neutra family met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. 

At the memorial, several outlined the torture they face and they fears they harbor for loved ones who remain in Gaza. 

“There are no words in any language to describe what I went through,” said Yehoud, whose partner, Ariel Cunio, 28, remains in Gaza. “Even as I stand here before you, I’m not really there. A massive part of me is still there, trapped in that darkness, and I will remain there until my Ariel and everyone comes home.”

Freed hostage Eli Sharabi’s new book, Hostage, ends with him visiting the graves of his wife, Lianne, and his daughters, Noiya and Yahel, for the first time after being released from nearly a year and a half of captivity in Gaza, during which he had hoped they were still alive following the Hamas attack on their home in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023.

“This here is rock bottom. I’ve seen it. I’ve touched it,” Sharabi writes. “Now, life.”

The memoir tells a horrific story of 491 days of violence, deprivation and starvation. 

That final sentence of Sharabi’s memoir — “Now, life” — could sum up his post-captivity self. In an interview with Jewish Insider last month, Sharabi said he was determined to reassert his agency, take action on hostage advocacy and move forward in his life.

Sharabi seemed cheerful speaking about his recovery. He was still slimmer than his pre-captivity self, but no longer as gaunt as he was emerging from the tunnels in Gaza in which Hamas starved him, giving him only a stale pita to eat each day, at most.

“I’m getting stronger every day,” Sharabi said. “I make sure to exercise and have weekly therapy sessions and make sure to take care of myself. I am strong and positive and facing forward.”

Sharabi’s days are filled with meetings around Israel and the world advocating for the remaining hostages to be freed.

“From the moment I got out of Sheba [Medical Center], 10 days after being freed, it has been non-stop action,” he said. “I have a lot of trips abroad, meeting with government officials — presidents, prime ministers, members of parliament, foreign ministers — and a lot of lectures in Israel and around the world, to a lot of Jewish communities. … It’s non-stop, morning to night.” 

In his book, he recounts reassuring hostages Alon Ohel, who is still in Gaza, and Eliya Cohen and Or Levy, who have since been released, that he was sure their families were protesting and advocating for their release.

“It was important for Eliya and me to tell Or and Alon, who were more pessimistic about our chances, to get out and thought ‘maybe they forgot us,’” Sharabi recalled. “Eliya and I were very positive and said we had no doubt our families and good friends are not resting for a moment and doing all they could to free us.”

Sharabi said that when his captors would tell him about protests in the streets of Israel, they would say the demonstrations were against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he and his fellow hostages saw it as “the nation going out to fight for us. It gave us hope.”

When Sharabi was released, he saw that the scale of the hostage advocacy movement was beyond what he had imagined.

“When I got out and understood that it was masses of people in Israel, it excited me,” he said. “I met members of Jewish communities in New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Mexico. I meet Israelis and Jews all around the world and understand what they did all this time. It is very touching. I didn’t expect it at all. I expected my friends and family. I didn’t think that people would have posters of me at their holiday table. It’s heartwarming.” 

At home in Israel, however, there have been sharp political divisions about the looming deal to release the hostages in exchange for ending the war in Gaza. Some far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government oppose President Donald Trump’s plan, which calls to free all 48 remaining hostages — 20 of whom are thought to be alive — within three days, because they call to prioritize defeating Hamas.

“In Israel, everything is political,” Sharabi lamented. “It’s terrible. All of our elected officials, with no exception, are partners in this terrible thing. I think all the people of Israel are sick of everything being political. I think most people in Israel hate this.”

The hostages, Sharabi said, “are not about right and not about left.” His brother, Yossi, was also taken captive and was killed while in Hamas captivity, which the IDF found may have been caused by an IDF airstrike.

Sharabi had an almost paternal relationship with Ohel when Hamas held them captive together in the tunnels under Gaza, and he expressed relief to have seen Ohel in a new hostage video released by the terror group last month.

“He’s amazing,” Sharabi said. “If you told me a week after I met him that he would survive six or seven months alone, after I left him, I would have doubted it. I left him after a very positive process during which he strengthened himself and learned how to survive, that you can’t be nice all the time and can’t be naive. He developed resilience and isn’t shaken by every change and every fear.” 

Sharabi emphasized that, while in captivity, it is crucial to “understand that not everything is in our control, but we have the ability to choose how we respond.” 

“I’m optimistic that soon we will see [Ohel] united with his family, and soon after, I will reunite with him. I am looking forward to it,” he said. 

Sharabi describes his captors in detail in the book. Some were always cruel, while others snuck the hostages extra scraps of food. Some were true extremists, while others appeared to be in Hamas for the money. 

“There are no innocent people in Gaza,” he said, “not civilians and certainly not the people in Hamas. In the 52 days that I was aboveground, not in tunnels but with a family in a house, they made sure people outside would not hear or see me, because they thought people would come in and kill me.”

“I recognize that even within Hamas, after spending 24/7 with them for many months and having different conversations with them, I understand who is ideological and who stumbled into it because Hamas controls the financial faucets in Gaza,” Sharabi added. “Does that make them innocent? Of course not. The moment they got the order, I was shackled around my legs. If they were told to shoot me, they would have shot me. … Some did it for money, not ideology, but they starved me, humiliated me and beat me. It doesn’t make them innocent.”

Sharabi also called on the Western world to recognize that Hamas is part of a broader ideology that threatens them, as well.

“I recently got back from 10 days in Australia,” he recalled. “We flew to Canberra to meet the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, both of whom are, at the very least, not pro-Israel. It was important for me to tell them two things.” 

“First, disagreements with Israeli policy are fine. I, too, as a citizen, don’t always agree with Israeli policy. That’s what’s good about a democracy… We can say our opinions and disagree. But at the same time, even if they don’t think like Israelis and don’t have to care about me as an Israeli, they are part of the Commonwealth, and my wife and daughters were British and murdered in their homes with their British passports in their hands — the Hamas terrorists knew.”

Sharabi said his captors said to him time after time that “after Israelis and Jews, they will get to France, Britain, America and Spain. The whole world will be Islam.”

Second, Sharabi said he speaks out against antisemitism in his meetings with leaders.

“It cannot be that in 2025, Australian Jews are afraid to go out into the streets. It’s 2025, not 1940. That is [the leaders’] responsibility. They are not speaking out clearly enough against antisemitism. I’m not a politician or a diplomat, so I can say that each one of them is responsible. … Every Jew today is affected by the hate crimes in the world, and that is the responsibility of the government and elected officials,” he said.

Sharabi said his constant activity, including writing his memoir, “has a therapeutic side to it, to deal with [the experience] and not leave it all inside.”

“I don’t like to compare it to the Holocaust, but a lot of survivors didn’t talk, not even to their children,” he noted. “My psychologists, from the beginning, said … they never saw such a huge trauma. It’s not just the captivity, but also the huge loss of my wife, daughters and brother. It’s important to talk. It helps me a lot.”

As to why he doesn’t like to make comparisons between Oct. 7 and the Holocaust, when some Israelis have done so, Sharabi said that during the Holocaust, Jews were “a stateless people, a homeless people, with no government to take care of them.”

“There is a lot of anger in Israel in part because there is a country, there is an address that was supposed to take care of us and our security, and it failed,” he added. “It’s not like the Holocaust, so I don’t like the comparison. There were horrors there that we didn’t see here, like the gas chambers; instead there is a murderous terrorist organization.”

At the same time, Sharabi noted that in the months since his release in February, he has not been exposed to a lot of the details and footage of the Oct. 7 attacks, in which his wife and daughters were among the 132 Israelis murdered in his hometown, Kibbutz Be’eri: “I am being protected like a safe. I haven’t turned on the TV; I don’t watch my own interviews.”

“I have trouble grasping it,” he added.

Even without exposure to the horrors of Oct. 7, speaking and writing about his captivity means going back to the darkest moments of his life, repeatedly.

“I am connected to the pain. I recognize it; I have words for it. Not a day goes by that I don’t cry over it. I hear music on the radio in the car that reminds me of the girls,” he said. “But I also remember them with a lot of smiles, and when I cry, it’s about longing for them, not sadness. I am emotional about the good, when I remember my wife and my girls and their smiles.”

“It’s good for me to talk all the time. It’s important to me. I’m freeing it from my system, instead of leaving it inside,” he added.

AIPAC is set to begin airing an ad on MSNBC on Monday featuring testimony from former hostage Ohad Ben Ami, who was held by Hamas in Gaza for 491 days.

The ad — while largely non-political — constitutes a notable outreach from AIPAC to the liberal Democratic base, a demographic that polls show is growing increasingly antagonistic toward Israel.

The ad will air in the Washington area 14 times over seven days, seven times on morning shows and seven times during the evening.

“Doctors said that if I would have stayed another two weeks or three, I would have not survived. We are in the dark, no food, no medicine. Like, you are in hell,” Ben Ami states in the ad. “It is more than 200 days [since] I [got] out. If you want to bring [the remaining hostages home] alive, we must do it fast.”

“Hamas still holds 48 hostages in Gaza,” captions displayed on screen read. “Free the hostages, remove Hamas, end the war.”

Hamas officials are meeting with Israeli negotiators in Cairo on Monday following an announcement from the terror group on Friday that it was willing to enter final negotiations to release the hostages and end the war, along the terms outlined by President Donald Trump’s proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hostage families and others in Israel expressed cautious optimism over the weekend, after Hamas agreed to enter talks to free the 48 remaining hostages in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

An Israeli team consisting of Strategic Minister Ron Dermer, diplomatic advisor Ophir Falk, Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Gal Hirsch and representatives of the Mossad and Shin Bet are expected to head to Cairo on Monday for proximity talks to negotiate the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-step plan to end the war. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, who has been involved in the talks, will represent the U.S.

Netanyahu said in a video statement Saturday night that Israel and the U.S. intend to “limit this negotiation to a few days” and that it would be about “technical details” of the Trump plan. 

“We will not tolerate any more delay tactics, time-wasting or evasion on the part of Hamas,” he said. 

As Trump noted on Truth Social, the ceasefire would immediately take effect once it is agreed to by Hamas. The terror group would have to release the remaining 48 hostages – 20 of whom are thought to be alive – in exchange for Israel’s freeing of over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners, hundreds of whom are serving life sentences on terrorism charges, and the rest arrested in Gaza in the last two years. Then, Israel would withdraw to an initial line, as part of a gradual withdrawal toward a buffer zone along Gaza’s perimeter. 

The details likely to be negotiated include the precise line to which Israel will withdraw initially and, at the end of the process, which countries will make up the International Stabilization Force meant to be the “long-term internal security solution” to keep Gaza demilitarized and prevent the resurgence of terrorism, according to the Trump plan, and who will be part of the transitional technocratic committee meant to govern Gaza. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan are expected to be involved in the Peace Board led by Trump that will oversee the transitional government.

Netanyahu vowed that “Hamas will be disarmed and the Strip demilitarized. This will happen either via a diplomatic route, according to the Trump plan, or via a military route by us.” 

The talks come after Hamas released a statement early Saturday in which it embraced parts of the Trump plan — exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an influx of aid and encouraging Palestinians to remain in Gaza — but rejected the concessions the plan would entail, including the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza. Hamas said it would punt that decision to “a collective national position … to be discussed within a comprehensive Palestinian national framework, in which Hamas will be included.” 

Despite Hamas accepting only a fraction of his plan, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he believes the terrorist group is “ready for a lasting PEACE” and called on Israel to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly.” 

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir then “instructed to advance readiness for the implementation of the first phase of the Trump plan for the release of the hostages,” according to an IDF statement early Saturday morning. At the same time, Zamir said, “all troops must maintain high alertness and vigilance, in addition to reinforcing the need for a rapid response to neutralize any threat.”

In his video statement, Netanyahu presented Trump’s plan as being coordinated with Jerusalem. “As a result of the intense military pressure we applied and the diplomatic pressure, Hamas was pressured into agreeing to the plan we presented,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister added that “we are on the verge of a very great achievement. … It is not yet final; we are working on it diligently, and I hope, with G-d’s help, that in the coming days, during the Sukkot holiday, I will be able to inform you about the return of all our hostages, both living and deceased, in one phase, while the IDF remains deep within the Strip and in the controlling areas within it.”

Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square was filled with demonstrators on Saturday night, calling for the deal to be implemented.

Liran Berman, brother of hostages Ziv and Gali Berman, said that “with hope comes fear. Will the deal be signed? When will I see my brothers again? We are suspended between hope and dread. We have lived through Hamas’s lies before. We cannot let another deal collapse. Not again. President Trump, we stand with you. Do not stop. It is now or never.”

Former hostage Gadi Moses said, “I know the road is still long and riddled with obstacles, but today I can say that for the first time since my release from captivity, I have heard declarations that may give us some hope. This is the time to cease fire and focus on returning all the hostages and ending the war.”

Also Saturday, Netanyahu held meetings and discussions with the leaders of right-wing parties in his governing coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have called to annex and settle the Gaza Strip.

Ben-Gvir said that “we will be happy like everyone to see all the hostages returning to us,” but “if Hamas continues to exist after all the hostages are freed, Otzma Yehudit [Ben-Gvir’s party] will not be part of the government. We will not be part of a national defeat that will turn into a ticking time bomb until the next massacre.”

Smotrich did not threaten to leave the coalition, but he said that Netanyahu made a “severe mistake” by acquiescing to Trump’s call to stop the attack on Gaza City rather than holding “negotiations under fire.” 

“It’s a recipe for Hamas to waste time and wear down Israel’s stance,” he posted on X. 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has said his party will vote to prop up the government if parties within the coalition attempt to bring it down to stop a hostage and ceasefire deal. 

On Saturday afternoon, Lapid said: “When Shabbat ends and you hear Smotrich and Ben-Gvir’s threats, remember they have nothing to threaten with. We won’t let them sabotage the deal. A clear majority of the Knesset and a clear majority of the nation support the Trump plan.”

Hamas said in a statement on Friday night that it was ready to enter final negotiations over the Trump-authored peace plan and that it was willing to release all the hostages remaining in Gaza. 

The Palestinian terror group said it would release the living hostages and the bodies it has held hostage since the Oct. 7 attacks nearly two years ago. Twenty of the 48 hostages are believed to still be alive. 

Hamas added it is willing to hand over administration of the Gaza Strip to a “Palestinian body composed of independents.” But the terror group also insisted — contradicting the terms of the Trump proposal — that Hamas will maintain a role in discussions over the future of Gaza through a “comprehensive Palestinian national framework.”

The deal is not yet final, and in its response to the Trump plan, Hamas said that the group is ready to enter negotiations to discuss the remaining details.

In response, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he believes Hamas wants to make a deal, and called on Israel to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.” 

“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump wrote. “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy declined to comment.

This story was updated at 5:32 p.m.

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepting President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza at the White House on Monday, the ball is now in Hamas’ court.

Whether Hamas would agree to release the hostages first, before Israel makes any concessions other than stopping the fighting, remains to be seen. There is also newfound pressure on Qatar, a chief patron of Hamas, to convince the terror group to accept the deal.

The late Israeli elder statesman Abba Eban famously said, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” In readily accepting Trump’s plan, Netanyahu is counting on Hamas to do just that.

That’s not to say that Netanyahu opposes the plan. His calculus may be that he will be able to execute the parts he supports, while the aspects he finds less favorable are unlikely to materialize anyway — largely, he believes, due to the Palestinians’ own intransigence.

As Netanyahu noted in the press conference, the plan meets all of Israel’s war aims: Bringing back the hostages, dismantling Hamas — most of which Israel already did in the war — and making sure it no longer poses a threat to Israel, through demilitarization and deradicalization. Other elements of the plan that Israel has long said would be part of the “day after” for Gaza are a technocratic government with help from international partners, and the IDF retaining a buffer zone inside Gaza’s perimeter. Netanyahu also reportedly secured 11th-hour edits to the plan regarding the IDF’s withdrawal and Hamas’ disarmament prior to the press conference.

But the details are tricky. 

For example, point 17 of the plan: “In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the [International Stabilization Force].”

In other words, if Hamas rejects the plan, humanitarian aid “without interference” — likely including dual use items that could be exploited by terrorist organizations — would still be immediately and significantly scaled up and managed by the United Nations and Red Crescent, among others. Once an international force is put together, the IDF would still be expected to retreat from areas in which it has defeated Hamas. And a transitional, technocratic government overseen by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “Board of Peace” would be put into place. 

All of that is meant to happen even if the hostages are not freed and Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

Yet, Trump said that if Hamas rejects the plan: “You know, Bibi, you have the full backing to do what you have to do.” And Netanyahu made clear what that means to him — continuing the war: “Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men, to have Hamas stay in Gaza.” 

Arab countries that would potentially take part in the “Board of Peace” and the International Stabilization Fund have said repeatedly that they would not participate in administering Gaza until the war ended, which makes it unclear if, as the plan says, all of that will really happen if Hamas rejects the deal and the war continues.

Then there’s the part of the plan that is most controversial in Netanyahu’s political base: the potential involvement of the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza, and the creation of a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

“Gaza will have a peaceful administration that is run neither by Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said in the press conference.

Yet the text of the plan says that the Gaza transitional government will only stay in place “until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza.”

The 2020 proposal includes things such as “a constitution … that provides for freedom of press, free and fair elections, respect for human rights for its citizens” and more, as well as “transparent, independent, and credit-worthy financial institutions” and ending incitement. 

Netanyahu said on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing” that “if all of that is turned on its head, there’s a tremendous transformation … Good luck. Some people believe it happens. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

The plan also says that the “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” would only happen “when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out.” Netanyahu appears to be calculating that Ramallah is unlikely to meet those conditions.

That being said, Netanyahu did sign a document that says unequivocally “we recognize [statehood] as the aspiration of the Palestinian people,” which is disturbing to some on the Israeli right, who argue that even acquiescence in principle is a problem.

While there is significant opposition to the plan from the right flank of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, it has been neutralized for now, in that most of the plan will not go to any kind of vote in the Cabinet. Any attempts to bring the government down over it would have to wait three weeks for the Knesset to come back from its recess, and even then they are likely to fail, with some of the opposition offering Netanyahu a “safety net.”

But as Netanyahu heads back to Israel having said “yes,” plenty of doubts remain as to whether this plan will actually be enacted. First, whether Hamas agrees, and then, new questions and challenges every step of the way.

Senators reacted with cautious optimism — and a degree of skepticism — to President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday of a sweeping deal that would end the war in Gaza, see the release of the remaining hostages and facilitate reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that the execution of the deal would require close monitoring of Hamas’ compliance and that long-term peace in the region will likely require eliminating Iran’s other proxies, in addition to Hamas.

“I hope Hamas agrees — we’ll get the hostages home. Distrust and verify with these guys,” Graham said. “A lot of loopholes if you don’t watch it, but I hope we can land this deal.”

“When you talk about normalizing the Mideast, I’m all for that. But after Oct. 7, we have to learn one thing: As long as radical Islamic terrorist groups exist, you can’t have a normal Mideast,” Graham continued. “I hope we can land this deal and bring the hostages home and start a new chapter in Gaza and the West Bank, but I will never support normalization until Hezbollah is dealt with. You cannot say the Mideast is a normal place as long as Hezbollah is a threat the way it is today.”

He said that he’s concerned that Hezbollah would replicate Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack if Israel and Saudi Arabia again begin to move toward normalization again before the Lebanese terror group is eliminated.

“If we do the Hamas deal, we should insist that the region deal with Hezbollah and take them both down, then eventually the Houthis,” he continued. “My takeaway of Oct. 7 is if you don’t have these radical groups in a box, you can never really achieve peace.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that there are “some details to be filled in, but I think by and large this seems like a very encouraging development.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was hesitant to offer an assessment of the deal before Hamas had agreed to the terms.

“It’s the deal that hasn’t happened yet. It’d be nice. I mean, I guess it would be great if we get the hostages back and we get a ceasefire and we get to rebuild Gaza. That all sounds really good. I’m glad that Trump cares about this. It seems optimistic,” he told JI. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) expressed some hesitation about engaging with the Qataris and taking a deal, but suggested Trump was ready to bring the conflict to a close. 

“It’s bold. It’s gutsy on the president’s part. I just will believe it when I see it. I’m just so skeptical of one side in this, getting Qatar in there and involved,” Cramer told JI. “Clearly we’re playing along a little. I don’t know. I just don’t know. I think the timing for Trump is sort of like, ‘Okay, now’s the time [for a ceasefire]. We’ve done the dance long enough.’”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) said he’s reviewing the plan, adding that the elimination of Hamas is a necessity.

“You can’t have Hamas promising the destruction of Israel,” he continued. “As long as there’s no threat, I see an opportunity here, but you can’t make a deal with somebody that wants to exterminate you.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jim Risch (R-ID) praised the plan on X. “President Trump again shows his commitment to peace with his plan to bring all the hostages home, end the war in Gaza and transition to a future that allows the Palestinian people to prosper without Hamas’ terror schemes,” Risch said. “Anyone who wants a better future for the Palestinian people should join this pursuit of peace.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Jewish Insider he’s “glad they look like they’re moving toward peace.”

“I don’t think Israel is worried any longer about being popular. I think Israel was worried about its survival, and I respect that. And they’re going to do whatever it takes,” Kennedy continued. “Now, will Hamas accept it? I don’t know. I really don’t know. I hope they do. But if they don’t, I think Israel needs to continue to do what it’s been doing and wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.”

Democrats expressed hope that the deal would bring the war to a close.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told JI, “I’m encouraged the president’s engaging directly and saying this war must end. Humanitarian relief needs to go in, hostages need to come out, there needs to be a plan going forward for Gaza,” but said he hadn’t seen the details of Trump’s announcement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that he was not familiar with the specifics of the plan. “If there’s a ceasefire and return of the hostages and humanitarian relief, bravo,” Blumenthal said.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s Gaza operations in the Senate, told JI he hadn’t reviewed the plan but “my main concern [is to] start getting food and medicine in. That has to happen immediately.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. “I call on Hamas to accept, and Israel to faithfully implement, the proposal laid out by the United States.”

Prior to the meeting, leading Senate Democrats had urged Trump to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a hostage deal that ends the war, as well as to pressure Netanyahu to rule out annexation of the West Bank.

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel had agreed to sign onto the White House’s 20-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza, with Trump calling the development “one of the great days ever in civilization.” 

Both leaders described the deal, which would release all of the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for an immediate end of the war, as the starting point for greater regional integration, a goal that Trump described as “eternal peace in the Middle East.” 

Senior Trump administration officials first introduced the plan last week in a meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders in New York, and Trump said he had buy-in from the Qataris, who have been a go-between in negotiations with Israel and Hamas, and that he had discussed the matter with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. 

But the deal is not yet final: Hamas has not yet agreed to it, though Trump expressed hope that the terror group will do so. Trump said he would allow Netanyahu to continue the war with his “full backing” if Hamas does not agree to it. 

“This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it has to be done,” Netanyahu said at the press conference. “All these goals must be achieved because we didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men, for Hamas to stay in Gaza.”

The plan would require the release of all the hostages still held by Hamas back to Israel within 72 hours, and an immediate end to the war, according to a copy of the plan published by the White House. In exchange, Israel would release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails, along with nearly 2,000 Gazans detained since the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023.

The first principle of the plan is that Gaza would be deradicalized, with Hamas out of power and transitional mechanisms in place to take over governance of the beleaguered territory. Amnesty would be offered to Hamas members “who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons” once the hostages are returned. Hamas members who wish to leave would have safe passage to do so, although the plan does not explicitly state that they will be required to leave. The plan would also surge aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other international mechanisms as soon as the hostages are released.

An international transitional body, with Trump as chair and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair heavily involved, would oversee the redevelopment of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority has been reformed and is able to take over leadership of the Gaza Strip. The U.S. and other Arab and international partners would develop a temporary stabilization force to deploy in Gaza, and Trump would oversee the creation of an economic development plan to facilitate investments in the seaside territory. 

“I believe that today we are taking a critical step towards both ending the war in Gaza and setting the stage for dramatically advancing peace in the Middle East, and I think beyond the Middle East, with very important Muslim countries,” Netanyahu said. “We’re giving everybody a chance to have this done peacefully, something that will achieve all our war objectives without any further bloodshed.” 

Several Muslim leaders announced their support for the deal, including the prime minister of Pakistan and the Emirati foreign minister. 

As Trump and Netanyahu stood side by side, each heaping praise upon the other, they were not entirely on the same page about all aspects of the deal — in particular the role of the Palestinian Authority in the future governance of Gaza, which Netanyahu has all but written off, despite that goal listed as an objective in the White House’s plan. 

“Gaza will have a peaceful civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said, a contrast to the plan’s language that the PA — once it is reformed, an objective that could take years — will control Gaza. 

The White House deal also recognizes “Palestinian self-determination and statehood” as “the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” Netanyahu, however, has said repeatedly that a Palestinian state is out of the question. 

Trump did not refer to the plan’s language about Palestinian statehood in his remarks, instead offering leeway to Netanyahu. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is very clear about his opposition to a Palestinian state,” Trump said. “Several countries have foolishly recognized the Palestinian state.” 

The leaders’ comments followed a three-hour meeting between Trump and Netanyahu. During the meeting, Trump orchestrated a phone call between Netanyahu and the Qatari emir, which Trump said afterward was a “a heart-to-heart conversation” in which Netanyahu apologized for Israel’s attack on Doha last month that targeted Hamas leaders and killed a Qatari security guard. The three nations agreed to launch a “formal trilateral mechanism” to “enhance mutual security, correct misperceptions and avoid future misgivings.” 

The full text of the plan says that even if Hamas rejects the plan, the scaled-up humanitarian aid operation will continue, and terror-free areas will be handed over from the Israel Defense Forces to the international stabilization force. But Trump said that Israel will have the “full backing” of the U.S. to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas does not accept the plan. 

“If Hamas rejects the deal — which is always possible, they’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing,” said Trump.  

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads into his meeting with President Donald Trump today, the key question is what kind of Gaza ceasefire plan he will agree to — and how Hamas will respond.

“We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu. “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!! President DJT.”

Netanyahu was more circumspect. “I hope we can make it a go because we want to free our hostages,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

“He won’t say no to Trump,” a source in the prime minister’s delegation said. But what Netanyahu has been saying is something like, “yes, but.”

While Trump clearly would like to make a big announcement at the end of Netanyahu’s White House meeting, having repeatedly said in public that the war will soon end, he has left out the specifics. 

A version of the plan that Trump shared with Arab leaders has leaked, but the administration has not made it public or talked much about specific goals beyond ending the war and freeing the hostages. Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who held Witkoff’s role in the first Trump administration, met with Netanyahu twice in New York and again in Washington, quietly working out the details.

Among the elements of the plan Trump shared with a group of Arab countries at the U.N. General Assembly last week, are that the war would end and Hamas would release the 48 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, within 48 hours of the ceasefire taking effect. In exchange, Israel would release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences for serious acts of terror. Israel would not occupy or annex Gaza, and would gradually withdraw from territory.

If Hamas does not agree to the plan, it would still call for Israel to withdraw from parts of Gaza where Hamas is out of power and for an international stabilization force to take over.

Gaza would be deradicalized and demilitarized, and redeveloped, with a surge of aid entering the area. At first, Gaza would be administered by Palestinian technocrats supervised by a U.S.-backed international body with Arab and European countries taking part. This administration is meant to continue until reforms are completed in the Palestinian Authority.

Ultimately, the plan states, it may create the conditions for a pathway to Palestinian statehood, and the U.S. would facilitate a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.

The plan also marks a major shift in Trump administration policy. While the president said in February that all residents should leave Gaza, which would then be turned into a “Riviera,” it now says that Gazans would be encouraged to stay and build their future. 

The plan contradicts Israel’s conditions to end the war in a number of ways, including that Israel retain a military presence along Gaza’s periphery, security control of Gaza and be allowed to strike anytime it sees terror rearing its head again. 

Netanyahu also made clear in his speech to the UNGA on Friday that a Palestinian state is not acceptable to Israel, saying that “giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al-Qaida a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11. This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it.” He said in the interview on Fox News on Sunday that he was skeptical the PA could undergo such a “tremendous transformation.”

At home, Netanyahu faces pressure in both directions. Coalition partners like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said Netanyahu has “no mandate to end the war without defeating Hamas,” and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who publicly stated his red lines on Monday, including full Israeli security control of Gaza, a permanent IDF presence along Gaza’s perimeter and no Qatari or PA involvement. Others on the right say that the plan gives too much to the Palestinians without demanding enough in return. A delegation of West Bank mayors flew to the U.S. over the weekend to try to talk Netanyahu into insisting on annexation.

Yet, at the same time, some in Likud have been quietly urging Netanyahu to accept the broader strokes of the plan — the return of the hostages and demilitarization of Gaza – to bring about the end of the war. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he trusts Netanyahu “to represent Israel’s interests as needed in talks with President Trump.”

While Netanyahu may be facing pressure from Trump to return to Israel with a ceasefire plan to enact, the quiet diplomacy — at least by Trump administration standards — indicates that they may give him some time and space to decide. 

Yet there is another deadline ahead. Between all of the sports, culture, arms and other boycotts, there is a far more consequential threat emerging: the potential suspension of free trade between Israel and the EU, its largest trading partner, until at least 2027, which could send Israel’s economy into a tailspin. 

The European Commission is set to vote on the matter on Oct. 20, and it requires a qualified majority to pass. Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Hungary are on Israel’s side, but whether that will be enough remains to be seen. A ceasefire agreement could put a stop to Brussels’ initiative. 

And lest we forget, there’s the likelihood that Hamas will reject the plan. While there are elements of it that could go forward without Hamas’ acquiescence, for Israel freeing the hostages is a necessary condition for the reconstruction of Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces launched a major ground operation in Gaza City on Tuesday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military announced.

“We started intensive action in Gaza,” Netanyahu said at the Tel Aviv District Court, where he asked to postpone his testimony in his ongoing corruption trial in light of “important things happening.”

The IDF operation, known as Gideon’s Chariots II, aims to seize Gaza City, one of two remaining areas of the Gaza Strip still under Hamas control and home to the vast majority of the enclave’s population at this point in the war, though the Israeli military said that a significant percentage of the city’s residents had fled the area ahead of the offensive.

The ground campaign in Gaza City follows several days of aerial bombings and fighting on the outskirts of the city. 

The new operation comes as Israel faces growing foreign and domestic pressure to end the war, which is nearing its two-year mark. The families of hostages being held in Gaza also warn that the ground campaign threatens their loved ones who are being held captive in the city. An IDF official said that the offensive in Gaza City was entering a “new phase,” targeting the network of Hamas-built tunnels after weeks of operating in the city’s periphery.

Two divisions entered Gaza City on Tuesday, and more will gradually be added, the military official said.

Gaza City is “Hamas’ main stronghold,” and the IDF expects to encounter 2,000-3,000 Hamas fighters there, the military official said. 

IDF Spokesperson in Arabic Avichay Adraee posted on X warning residents of Gaza City that the IDF “has begun destroying infrastructure in Gaza City.” 

“Gaza City is considered a dangerous combat zone, and staying in the area puts you at risk,” he wrote. “Join the more than 40% of the city’s residents who have left the city to ensure their safety and the safety of their loved ones.” 

In recent weeks, Israel instructed residents to move south along designated routes, but fewer than half have done so, with Hamas threatening those who wished to leave the city and others refusing to move again. 

“Hamas is actively trying to block Gazans from moving out of Gaza City,” the IDF official said. “They are trying to turn Gaza City into one of the largest cases in history of using human shields, using hundreds of thousands of people.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that “Gaza is burning. The IDF is striking terrorist infrastructure with an iron fist and IDF soldiers are fighting courageously to create the conditions to free the hostages and defeat Hamas.”

“We will not give up and will not retreat until we complete the mission,” he added.

The Israeli Air Force bombarded Gaza City on Monday night, with reverberations felt as far as central Israel. 

Meanwhile, Israel has demolished over 50 multistory buildings in Gaza City, which Netanyahu has called “terror towers.” The IDF official called the buildings “key targets … that would be used against us in a ground operation.”

Several hostages’ relatives set up tents outside of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem overnight Monday, amid Israeli Air Force strikes on Gaza. 

The Hostage Families Forum cited reports that some hostages have been moved above ground, and said that their loved ones are being “used as human shields.”

“The Prime Minister has decided to send IDF soldiers to areas where our loved ones are located, who might be harmed and not return alive,” the forum stated. “He is doing everything to ensure there is no deal and not to bring them back. … We are terrified that this might be their last night, that the living hostages will pay with their lives, that the deceased will disappear there. We are no longer willing to accept this. We came here this evening, and we are not moving from here.”

Hours before the Gaza City offensive began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio departed Israel after a two-day visit and headed to Qatar, who he said should continue mediating between Israel and Hamas to end the war and free the hostages.

“If any country in the world can help mediate it, Qatar is the one. They’re the ones that can do it,” Rubio said.

A senior Hamas official publicly rejected any deal requiring the terrorist organization to lay down its arms, after Israel said it would support such a deal proposed by the Trump administration.

In response to the Trump deal, Bassem Naim, a Turkey-based senior Hamas official, released a statement on his Telegram channel on Monday calling the proposal a “humiliating surrender document” and not a serious offer to end the war. 

Naim told Middle East Monitor, a pro-Hamas, Qatar-funded site, that the terrorist group would agree to a long-term ceasefire and would release all of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but the Palestinians “right” to weapons and to fight Israel “cannot be relinquished.” He also said the terrorist group would only agree to a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza.

The Trump administration’s deal, according to Israel’s Channel 12, would require Israel to stop its military operation in Gaza City and start a 60-day ceasefire. In the first 48 hours, Hamas would release all 48 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Then, the sides would negotiate the end to the war.

The proposal does not get into the details of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which is supposed to take place gradually as other elements enter to administer the enclave. Israel has said it will maintain a security perimeter around the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt.

According to Kan, peace activist Gershon Baskin, at the request of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Wikoff, passed the offer to Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, with whom he reached the 2011 deal to release captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Baskin told Al-Monitor that the plan includes incentives for Hamas, though he did not specify what they are. 

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday that “everyone wants the Hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end! The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept them as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

A source close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that while Israel is “seriously considering” the proposal, “it seems that Hamas will continue its refusal.” 

A Qatari official briefed media that the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, met with Hamas negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya on Monday and pressed him to “respond positively” to the proposal.

Israel has said its conditions to end the war are “the release of all hostages, Hamas’ disarmament, demilitarization of the [Gaza] strip, Israeli security control of the [Gaza] Strip, the establishment of an alternative civilian government that does not educate to terror, does not promote terror and will not threaten Israel,” as the Prime Minister’s Office stated last week.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened on Monday that “a great hurricane will strike today in the skies of Gaza City and the roofs of the terror towers will shake.”

“This is the last warning to the Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: Free the hostages and lay down your weapons or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be destroyed,” he wrote on X. 

Hours later, Netanyahu said that the Israeli Air Force bombed 50 “terrorist high-rises” in Gaza City.

“All of this is only the introduction, only the beginning of the main intensive operation, the ground incursion of our forces, that are now getting organized and gathering, into Gaza City,” he added during a visit to Air Force Command. “To the residents of Gaza, listen to me carefully: You have been warned. Get out of there.” 

At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu acknowledged “the price that we are paying in the diplomatic and public diplomacy fields.”

“The best way to get out of this, of course, is to … end the war as fast as possible with the victory that we have defined: Eliminating Hamas, the return of all the hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again threatens Israel,” he said. 

However, he added: “If I need to choose between victory over our enemies and malicious propaganda against us, I choose victory over our enemies.”

As Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of a planned takeover of Gaza City and rejects ceasefire proposals that fall short of a comprehensive deal to end the war and release all of the hostages, Jerusalem finds itself facing calls both at home and abroad against further entrenchment in Gaza.

At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing pressure from Washington to end the war — with a decisive victory over Hamas.

President Donald Trump signaled his growing weariness with a protracted war in an exchange with The Daily Caller, published earlier this week, in which he said Israel is “gonna have to get that war over with,” noting that Israel “may be winning the war, but they’re not winning the world of public relations.” Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday that Trump had instructed Israel to go into Gaza City with “full force.”

Days earlier, the president held a White House meeting that included Jared Kushner and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss a “day-after” plan for the Gaza Strip. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer scrapped a planned meeting with World Food Program head Cindy McCain to fly to Washington for consultations.

Taken together, Trump’s comments and last week’s gathering underscore the president’s dwindling patience with the ongoing war — concerns that have been highlighted in Israeli media reports in recent days.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported over the weekend that Trump, frustrated by Hamas’ intransigence, is pushing Netanyahu to move more quickly to decisively defeat Hamas. That could pose a challenge for Israel, which has not been able to declare “total victory” against Hamas in nearly two years but now faces White House pressure to end the war in a short amount of time — “perhaps even within two weeks,” according to Channel 12. 

It remains unclear whether Israel is fully prepared for an incursion into Gaza City — the IDF announced on Wednesday that it will work in the coming weeks “to strengthen operational readiness in the Gaza Strip” — or is threatening the move as a negotiating tactic to push Hamas to accept a comprehensive deal, after the Prime Minister’s Office conveyed that it would not accept a partial agreement that doesn’t result in the release of all of the remaining hostages. 

Following the collapse of talks over the summer, Washington had reportedly been frustrated not only with Hamas but with Qatar, which presented a rosier-than-reality picture of the talks. Those frustrations shifted the White House’s calculus and boosted support for Netanyahu’s approach to Gaza.

“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site last month. 

Fresh off its successful resolution of the decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Trump administration is looking to score another win on the global stage. Following last month’s summit in Alaska aimed, unsuccessfully, at ending the Russia-Ukraine war, a wind-down of the Israel-Hamas war would give the White House a diplomatic victory, as well as say in Gaza reconstruction efforts.

For now, Israel and the U.S. appear to be largely speaking in tandem, with a shared vision for the future of Gaza. But if Israel fails to achieve “total victory” on Trump’s truncated timeline, Jerusalem and Washington could be headed on a collision course. 

The Boulder chapter of “Run for Their Lives,” an organization that arranges weekly marches to advocate for the hostages held in Gaza, will no longer publicly advertise its walking route, the group announced on Wednesday. 

The decision comes “following weeks of escalating harassment and threats,” including from a candidate for city council, the group said, less than three months after a Molotov cocktail attack on the group left a participant dead and injured 15 others.

The weekly walks will take place “under heavy security at undisclosed locations,” going forward, the organization said.

In recent weeks, community members have stalked and shouted slurs at participants, such as “genocidal c**t,” “racist” and “Nazi,” and have threatened organizers’ children, according to the Colorado Jewish Community Relations Council. 

Among the demonstrators is a candidate for Boulder City Council, Aaron Stone, who called Rachel Amaru, founder of the Boulder chapter of Run for Their Lives, a “Nazi” during one of the walks. 

Boulder City Council member Tara Winer, who is Jewish and sometimes joins the walks, told Denver’s 9News that she has been targeted by the anti-Israel demonstrators while on the walks. “I have to deal with the agitators every two weeks [at open comment City Council meetings], if not more, and my weekend is my weekend, so I did not want to have to stand there and listen to that again,” she said. “I think that I have been targeted. Yes, absolutely.” 

“This walk has already been the target of deadly violence. Now participants are facing a level of harassment that makes it impossible to continue safely in public view,” Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Colorado JCRC, said in a statement. 

The torment comes as anti-Israel rhetoric has increased at Boulder City Council meetings and among council members since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks. Last month, Councilmember Taishya Adams accused the City Council of “continuing to fund this genocide,” in reference to the Israel’s war with Hamas. She also wrote on social media that the killing of Native Americans was the “biggest genocide,” bigger than the Holocaust, and said their communities haven’t received reparations, “unlike Jewish people.” 

Adams also refused to condemn the June 1 firebombing, in which Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, threw a Molotov cocktail at participants of the solidarity walk for hostages being held by Hamas. Karen Diamond, 81, died weeks later after succumbing to her wounds.

Pro-Israel Democrats expressed cautious optimism about the unexpected decision by Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin to withdraw his resolution pressing for humanitarian aid to Gaza and for the release of hostages held by Hamas, which was unanimously approved by party members on Tuesday at the DNC’s annual summer meeting held in Minneapolis.

Martin, in a sudden reversal, announced he would pull the resolution after DNC members rejected a dueling measure, opposed by pro-Israel groups, that had endorsed an arms embargo and a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel. Instead, he said he would create a task force “comprised of stakeholders on all sides” of the Israel debate to pursue what he called a “shared dialogue” on an increasingly divisive issue.

“This was a surprise ending to this meeting,” Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which helped draft the pro-Israel measure and privately advocated for its passage, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday. 

Despite Martin’s 11th-hour reversal, Soifer said she was satisfied with the outcome, noting the DNC also passed a resolution condemning antisemitism that, coupled with its rejection of the arms embargo proposal, “reflects where the party stands” on major issues concerning Israel and the Jewish community.

“It’s my sense,” she added of Martin, “that he introduced and ensured passage of this resolution to defeat the other resolution,” which she said “was completely out of step with the views of the party.”

Soifer said she hopes to join the proposed task force “to discuss the path forward” on approaching Israel, acknowledging internal tensions that have roiled the party in recent years. Martin “clearly recognized that there are a range of strongly held views on this matter, and he wants to make sure that those voices are heard,” she told JI.

Martin has not yet shared additional details on the task force, and the DNC did not return a request for comment from JI. Latonya Reeves, a DNC member in Minneapolis, told JI on Tuesday that she had not been further informed of the task force — which she called “the best way to move forward” on the issue.

Sara Forman, who leads the New York Solidarity Network, a local pro-Israel group that aligns with Democrats, said she was broadly “encouraged” that the DNC had chosen “not to recommend” what she dismissed as a “one-sided resolution against Israel,” arguing that the party “represents far more than its progressive base.”

“I’m always one for conversation, and think that talking about things is an important step, so I’m going to offer grace to Martin in this regard,” she said of his announcement. Still, she added of the failed resolution, “I think it’s a bigger concern overall that the Democratic Party seems to be uniquely singling out Israel for rebuke or scrutiny in a way that no other U.S. ally is rebuked or scrutinized.”

A spokesperson for Democratic Majority for Israel, which released a statement praising the DNC’s votes before Martin revealed he would pull the resolution, said it was “pleased that the anti-Israel measure was decisively defeated by the committee,” but declined to comment more broadly on what transpired at the end of the meeting.

Brian Romick, DMFI’s president and CEO, said in an interview with JI that he viewed the outcome on Tuesday as “a win” for the pro-Israel community, in light of the potential for a more hostile debate. “The bad resolution was rejected and Ken’s compromise resolution also passed the committee,” Romick said. “That all happened publicly” and “reaffirmed where the party stands on Israel,” he said. “Anything else beyond that is just inside baseball.”

Some Democratic insiders familiar with internal party dynamics indicated that Martin had chosen to change course because he anticipated a disruptive floor debate over his resolution, which was poised to face broader scrutiny during the DNC’s general session on Wednesday.

“He’s worried about what would happen at the meeting,” one party source informed of the matter said on Tuesday. “On one hand, viewed from there, it makes sense and seems like a rational move,” the source reasoned, while also noting that it has “some real downsides.”

On the other hand, “when you punt something to a task force you actually continue the debate, because now it’s going to be a big fight” over who is included in the committee, the source said. “Then it becomes hard to move past.”

Manny Houle, a Democratic pro-Israel strategist in Minneapolis, said Martin’s maneuver was tactically smart — as DNC leadership seeks to avoid “internal proxy fights and focus messaging on pushing back against” the Trump administration in advance of the upcoming elections. “It is often a tactic to give your most ardent detractors busy work so you can focus on the work that matters,” he explained.

The party’s pro-Israel wing knows it has “the power to push back,” Houle told JI. “It’s not worth giving more air to the extremist factions.” The debate over Israel “is not going away anytime soon,” he added. “But we’ve shown where we stand and hopefully there are more pressing things that we need to give oxygen to.” 

Whatever Martin’s intentions, Susan Turnbull, a former DNC vice chair, said she was excited by the prospect of a task force, suggesting that it would be well-timed to take place between the conventions. 

“What I think is the case is that this, of all issues, needs to have consensus and that what he wanted in his first meeting is not to have winners and losers,” she told JI. “He wanted to come to a good result for collaboration.”

“I’m giving him a lot of credit because we have a hard enough time within the Jewish community dealing with this issue,” she said, adding that it will be “important that every perspective be considered” as the DNC hones its approach to the Middle East.

It remains to be seen if Martin, who on Tuesday acknowledged a “divide” in the party over Israel, will find partnership on the opposing end of the issue. Allison Minnerly, the 26-year-old DNC member who had introduced the failed measure on Gaza, which faced criticism for not mentioning Hamas, voiced disappointment with his decision and said he was “prolonging” the conversation rather than taking a position to align the party with a base she views as amenable to her views on Israel.

Still, as the DNC moves to reach a tenuous detente on Israel, some pro-Israel Democrats said that any future resolution on the issue should reflect values that have long been espoused by the party, even as they have faced ongoing pushback from the activist left. 

“The vast majority of American Jews, and Americans more broadly, understand the complexity of the conflict — wanting to see Israel’s security protected and the remaining hostages released, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza truly addressed, and all parties work toward a future in which both Israelis and Palestinians are safe and free,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the nonpartisan Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told JI. “Any resolution on Gaza should reflect those widely-held values.”

Amanda Berman, CEO of the Zioness Action Fund, a progressive pro-Israel advocacy group, said on Tuesday that “there is legitimate critique and concern about this devastating war dragging on — and Democrats should stand staunchly with the Israeli public as it models dissent, protest and a pro-democracy movement the American left should emulate.”

“To the extent that any fringe element of the Democratic Party is willing to abandon Israel and the American Jewish community,” Berman said, “they will be abandoning true progressive values, liberation for persecuted minority communities, our historic alliances and America’s national security.”

Shortly after members of the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution on Tuesday voicing support for humanitarian aid to Gaza and calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas, Ken Martin, the party chair, announced that he would withdraw the measure, which he had introduced, and instead form a task force to continue discussing the matter.

The surprise reversal came even as the DNC, now holding its annual summer meeting in Minneapolis, had voted to reject a dueling and more controversial resolution that had backed an arms embargo as well as a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, raising alarms among Jewish and pro-Israel Democrats who rallied behind Martin’s effort, co-sponsored by DNC leadership.

“There is a divide in our party on this issue. This is a moment that calls for shared dialogue and calls for shared advocacy,” Martin said after the competing measure had been voted down. “And that’s why I’ve decided today, at this moment, listening to the testimony and listening to people in our party, to withdraw my amendment resolution to allow us to move forward in a conversation on this as a party.”

He said that he would “appoint a committee or a task force comprised of stakeholders on all sides of this to continue to have the conversation, to work through this, and bring solutions back to our party.”

Martin announced his decision after huddling with co-sponsors of the failed resolution, which also called for recognition of a Palestinian state and was expected to be voted down. The measure additionally drew criticism for not mentioning Hamas — in contrast with Martin’s proposal, which also supported a two-state solution. The measures, each backing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, were nonbinding and meant to telegraph the party’s stances on an issue that has increasingly fueled internal tensions.

His about-face underscores the pressures that Martin, who became DNC chair in February, is facing from an outspoken contingent of anti-Israel activists who are now aggressively seeking to push the party away from its traditional commitment to defending the U.S.-Israel relationship — which has come under growing strain amid party backlash to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Martin has offered no additional details on what motivated his abrupt decision or his new plan to create a task force. The DNC did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

His sentiments echoed the “big-tent” rhetoric that he had endorsed when he ran for DNC chair — with some pro-Israel party members voicing reservations that his approach could be overly accommodating to extreme views and fail to enforce red lines on Middle East policy.

Martin’s Gaza resolution was unanimously approved by the DNC’s Resolutions Committee, while the dueling measure, introduced by a 26-year-old member from Florida, was rejected in a voice vote.

The committee did not take a recorded vote and no members asked for a breakdown, a person familiar with the process said. An attempt to add language into the alternate resolution calling for the release of all hostages and to oppose offensive weapons to Israel also fell flat, reflecting a failed effort to unify the resolutions that preceded the votes this week.

The meeting on Tuesday was expected to be heated but largely avoided the sort of drama that animated its convention last year, drawing more attention for Martin’s decision to yank his own proposal near the end of the proceedings.

Even as Martin called for a continued dialogue on the matter, Allison Minnerly, the DNC member who had introduced the failed resolution, expressed disappointment with his choice and said she believed he was “prolonging” the conversation rather than taking a position to align the party with a base that she views as amenable to her views on Israel.

An Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital that reportedly killed 20 people, including four journalists, was a “tragic mishap,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, not long after President Donald Trump criticized the attack. 

“Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home.”

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he is “not happy” about Israel’s strike on the Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip.

“I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to see it,” Trump said, while noting that he did not know the details of the strike.

The president added that he is also committed to getting the remaining hostages out of Gaza, though he expressed doubt that a deal would come through.

“At the same time,” he said, “we have to end that whole nightmare. I’m the one that got the hostages out. I got them out, all of them. [Middle East envoy] Steve Witkoff has been amazing.”

Israel has said that 20 living hostages are still being held in Gaza, but Trump on Monday repeated a claim that the true number is “probably a little bit less than 20, because I think one or two are gone.” Israeli officials have not said that any of the 20 hostages believed to be alive have died recently. 

Hamas, Trump said, is unlikely to release the hostages. 

“I said a long time ago I’m going to get them out, but when we get down to that final 10 or 20, these people aren’t going to release them, because [Hamas is] dead after they release them,” Trump said. “It’s a nasty situation, very nasty. Horrible thing.” 

The Israeli Defense Forces announced that it would conduct an inquiry into the attack. “The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such. The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops,” IDF international spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.

Following his recent trip to Israel, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) says he believes that the Jewish state is “as close as I’ve understood it to be to ending” the war in Gaza.

“The language around aid has changed. [Israel talks] about surging aid and they talk about ending this war quickly,” Landsman, who discussed his trip on Wednesday with Jewish Insider, said. “They talk about getting the hostages back no matter what, and whether there’s a deal or not, they’re getting them home. So, they obviously can’t speak to what that looks like or what that means, but I got the sense that this should and hopefully will be the end.”

He made a similar comment in a statement on his trip shared with JI, which stated: “The end of the war appears close, and G-d willing it ends very soon. With it, rebuilding of Gaza can begin. The first glimpses of this ‘day after’ plan can be seen, and the Arab nations that have declared the end of Hamas must play a huge role in what happens next.” His comments came as Israel weighs the most recent ceasefire proposal, and as the IDF prepares to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of plans to take over Gaza City in the coming months.

Regarding next steps, Landsman wrote in the statement, “This is a moment of truth for Qatar, to be sure. With senior Hamas leaders in their midst, detaining them – if negotiations continue to falter – may be necessary. This could hasten the end of the war and the release of the hostages. They must do everything in their power – now.”

Landsman told JI that he believes “everyone should be putting pressure on all parties to end the war. I think it is entirely appropriate to put pressure on the Israeli government to end this war. I also think it is necessary for people to put pressure on Qatar and Egypt to end this war, to use all of the leverage they have, particularly with the senior Hamas leaders that are in Qatar.”

“I believe that’s true to some extent, to a lesser extent, for folks in Egypt to say we’re done, you have to accept a return, a deal that ends this war and returns hostages. The pressure also needs to be placed on these 22 Arab countries, and I believe Egypt and Qatar are on that list, but the other 20 who have said, in an unprecedented move, that Hamas needs to disarm and disband. Now they’ve got to turn that into action and establish a coalition with the United States and Israel and Europe to end this war,” he continued. 

The Ohio congressman was one of 14 House Democrats who took part in a delegation to the Jewish state last week. The trip was organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, which organized a similar visit to Israel for House Republicans the week prior that overlapped for several days with the Democrats’ trip.

Landsman told JI that he viewed the trip as an opportunity to accomplish three main objectives: to be available as a resource to answer questions from Israeli leaders and build relationships with newer members of Congress like himself; to get fully briefed on the work being done to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza; and to engage with stakeholders in the broader peace process in the region. “Going sort of allows me to do all three of those things,” he said.

Landsman said that this trip highlighted the similarities between the American and Israeli people and as citizens of liberal democracies where citizens are free to air frustrations about their respective governments. 

“The frustration with the government is something that many Israelis feel. They are frustrated with this government, especially as it relates to Gaza,” Landsman said. “And I appreciate that because it’s a liberal democracy. Israelis are just as critical of this government, if not more, than folks around the world or here in the United States.”

Landsman told JI that the Israeli officials and citizens he spoke with urged him and others on the trip to continue supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship during moments when they took issue with some of the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“They remind you that they would never want anyone to abandon them, as we would never want anyone to abandon us. It’s an important reminder that being critical of the government when you disagree is part of democracy, it’s why democracy and freedom are so important,” he said. “There’s a line. In terms of having the strength and courage to both stand up to and criticize your partners, while also having the strength and courage to not abandon them, especially a partnership like this one and in an existential moment such as this.”

The Ohio Democrat offered a similar thought in his official statement, in which he wrote: “Instead of abandonment, many of us have chosen to visit the region, to show up, and to support the Israeli government when we agree and to push back when we don’t. We know that abandonment may be politically expedient, but it is strategically wrong. It will render our country unreliable to those who we need to ensure global security and global prosperity.”

“We must always remain a reliable partner for democracy and peace. The United States of America does not abandon its allies, nor will we do so here,” the statement continued. 

Landsman told JI, “We should not abandon Ukraine and our European allies. We should not abandon, and I don’t believe we will, one of our strongest partners in peace and democracy and freedom, and that’s the state of Israel.”

“We want people to stick with us. That’s why I used the word ‘reliable’ in my statement. We need people to stick with us for our economic prosperity, for national security. If we’re not sticking with others, people will stop sticking with us, and that is very bad for the United States,” the Democratic lawmaker said. 

“This is why we worry about [President Donald] Trump or any president that starts to undermine our relationships with folks across the world. It becomes very, very costly and very dangerous to the United States. We wouldn’t want anyone to look at this government [in the U.S.] and say, ‘Well, we’re gonna back away from our commitment, our investments in America.’ That would be terrible,” he continued.

Landsman said he believed his worldview was shared by the majority of the American people.

“When I come home and have these conversations, I get a very common-sense position. It’s where I believe most people are when I talk to them. They worry about the humanitarian situation. How can you not? They want this war to end. How can you not? They get frustrated with a government that has people like [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich. Of course, they should,” Landsman explained. 

“But they also know that Hamas can’t stay, and Israel has to figure out a way to win this war or end it so that folks can rebuild without a terrorist organization in their way. They know that Iran is the barrier to everything good in the region. They know if you start to undermine the partnership with Israel, the only people who win are folks associated with the regime and the terror networks they fund,” he added.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday he is “optimistic” while also remaining “realistic,” about the latest round of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with Hamas. 

“I want to be optimistic about a deal with Hamas but I’m also aware of who we are dealing with, we’re not dealing with a nation state. We’re dealing with savages,” Huckabee said during an online briefing co-hosted by the American Jewish Congress and World Zionist Organization. 

The former governor of Arkansas’ comments come as Hamas has reportedly agreed to a 60-day ceasefire proposed by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, during which some of the remaining 50 hostages would be released. Israel had not responded to the proposal as of Tuesday afternoon. 

“Whether or not [Hamas is] serious about bringing this to a close, all I can tell you is I hope so. But what’s happened before, even when they say they are thinking seriously about bringing this to a conclusion, making a deal, they always add one or more things that are completely unacceptable, bring those to a table, then it all starts over again,” he continued.

“So I’m not going to give up, I’m always going to be optimistic, but I’m also realistic,” Huckabee said. “These are not people that come to the table because they are reasonable,” he said referring to Hamas. 

Huckabee also spoke about what Gaza could look like after the war ends. “It’s going to be a very different future and we don’t know exactly where it’s going,” he said, claiming that most Gazans he’s met with do not want Hamas in control, nor do they want the Palestinian Authority, Palestine Liberation Organization or Fatah in power.

“One thing we can agree on is Hamas can’t win, they can’t stay, they must disarm,” he said. The ambassador condemned France and the United Kingdom for their intent to formally recognize a state of Palestine. Doing so, he said, is “empowering and emboldening Hamas.” 

Huckabee lauded the June 22 U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which “obliterated their nuclear capacity,” but he cautioned that Iran still has “nuclear aspirations.” 

“You would think they would give those up in light of what happened to them,” Huckabee said.  

“Iran is still talking about how to get nuclear capacity. I would say to them, ‘You’ve been kicked once you don’t want to go through it again.’ But if it has to be, it will be.” 

The unrest could be felt everywhere — in traffic jams, on the airwaves, in WhatsApp groups, even in the waiting room of a dental clinic.

Across Israel yesterday, hundreds of thousands joined a nationwide unofficial strike, led by hostage families and bereaved families, demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages still held there. According to the Hostages Families Forum, over 1 million people participated in protests throughout the day. As the government plans to escalate its military campaign against Hamas, emotions ran high across towns, cities and online spaces, deepening a national rift.

Police clashed with demonstrators blocking roads. In Ra’anana, a truck driver was arrested after allegedly attacking a protester. In a Tel Aviv neighborhood mothers’ WhatsApp group, several members condemned local cafés for staying open, while another defended them for “not strengthening Hamas.” At a dental clinic, a man berated staff for opening their doors, shouting, “What about the hostages!?”

At the heart of the tensions is a painful divide: protesters — including the majority of the hostage families — argue that rescuing the captives must come before all else. Meanwhile, the government and its supporters, and even several hostage families, claim such demonstrations weaken Israel’s negotiating hand and embolden Hamas. Israeli President Issac Herzog, speaking at Hostages Square, said “There’s no Israeli who doesn’t want them back home. We can argue about philosophies, but truly, the people of Israel want our brothers and sisters back home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his government’s stance in a public statement, warning: “Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas, are not only hardening Hamas’s stance and pushing off the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will recur again and again … to advance the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, we must complete the work and defeat Hamas.”

Yet recent polls show that a majority of Israelis support prioritizing the hostages’ release and bringing an end to the war.

Israeli journalist and commentator Ben Caspit wrote on social media: “To join the protest strike, you don’t have to be a leftist. Nor a centrist. Nor a rightist…  You need a heart. There on the left side, between the ribs and the lungs. A beating heart that feels the need to express solidarity with our kidnapped brothers, with their families, with the terrible suffering.”

“And no, don’t believe the spin that it ‘helps Hamas.’ It doesn’t. Hamas doesn’t need strike X or demonstration Y to get to know Israeli society. Hamas knows us very well, just as we know them. They are death eaters. We seek life. That’s the whole difference.”

Meanwhile, Amit Segal — a reporter and political commentator often seen opposite Caspit on Channel 12 — offered a more sober take in his newsletter on Sunday: “While the strike will help many Israelis express their frustration and desperation to bring the hostages home, it won’t bring Israel closer to achieving the very thing they’re protesting for.”

Even if that may be, the protests reach further than home: former hostages have recounted the strength they gained from witnessing the demonstrations on the news while in captivity in Gaza. In Tel Aviv, as night fell, thousands of protesters raised their phone flashlights in Hostages Square and the surrounding streets, creating a moment of visual unity. The sea of lights stretched across the plaza and beyond — a simple gesture that carried a message of solidarity for the hostages still held in Gaza.

At the same time, the wheels of war are already turning. While Israelis grappled with grief, anger and hope in the streets, the military was preparing for its next incursion. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, declared yesterday from the Gaza Strip: “Today we are approving the plan for the next phase of the war.”

“We will maintain the momentum of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ while focusing on Gaza City. We will continue to strike until the decisive defeat of Hamas, with the hostages always at the forefront of our minds,” Zamir said, adding, “Soon we will move on to the next phase” of the operation.

Returning from a trip to Israel, two first-term House Republicans blasted European nations and others that have recently hardened their positions toward Israel, saying that those decisions had set back efforts to free the hostages and end the war.

One of the lawmakers who visited Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation also indicated that she had not heard in meetings with Israeli leaders a concrete plan for bringing the war to an end.

Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) told Jewish Insider she had been interested during the trip to examine the increasing hostility by European countries and others toward Israel, including their decisions to recognize a Palestinian state, and their public postures blaming Israel for the humanitarian issues in Gaza.

“It is not supported by the facts on the ground. … Europe’s actions definitely set back the … negotiations for Hamas releasing the existing hostages — potentially resulting in them dying,” Fedorchak said. “It’s maddening that these countries that should know better, or should take the time to find out better, are taking these very unhelpful positions.”

She called on the European leaders and others criticizing Israel to visit the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and meet with Hamas’ victims, calling it “almost unfathomable that people are blaming Israel.”

“Go talk to the families whose houses were invaded, and the parents of 15-year-olds who died being shot at in a safe room, trying to hold the door from the terrorist on the other side,” Fedorchak said, “families who had to watch their women be raped and abused. The 300 young people that were killed at the music festival.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) told JI that it was critical for the group, and for supporters of Israel in general, to “continue to make clear the lie being spread about starvation” — which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted does not exist in the enclave while President Donald Trump has said there is “real starvation.”

Fine also said it was crucial to “stand up to these countries like France and the U.K. and Canada and Australia that have fully embraced Muslim terror and want to reward it.” 

He likewise argued that the European countries’ actions had extended the war. Fine said he’s not worried, however, about longer-term fallout from the shift away from Israel by some of its longtime European allies.

“I’ve always thought Israel needs to stop caring about what the world thinks and take care of itself,” he said. “There’s lots of antisemites in the world, they’re always looking for an excuse. … All of this stuff is simply an excuse to let your inner antisemitism out. That’s all any of it is.”

Fedorchak indicated that Israeli leaders had not laid out a concrete plan for how they would bring the war to an end.

“The big question of how do you end this, and how do you get out of it with the hostages alive — I didn’t ever hear a real great plan for that. I think that’s a million-dollar question,” Fedorchak said, highlighting concerns about the hostages being held in potentially booby-trapped tunnels, the risks to Israeli soldiers in the ongoing military campaign and the likelihood that further concessions to Hamas in negotiations will further embolden the terror group.

“I was frustrated that a long-term solution — or even an immediate solution for the war — is very elusive. I wish that it hadn’t gone on so long. I wish that when the hostages were first taken, the whole world would have stood with Israel and tried to get them back right away … so it wasn’t allowed to drag out so long,” she said.

Fine said that specific plans for ending the war would be sensitive for Israel to share, but that the goals remain the same, of bringing home the hostages and ensuring that terrorists do not continue to control Gaza.

“It has to get to an end point, so I am confident that it will get there,” Fine said. “I’m disappointed that I think these European countries, in their publicly backing Hamas, drag it out. If I was in Taiwan right now, I’d consider going into China and killing a bunch of people, because that seems to be the great way to get your country recognized.”

Fedorchak said she was struck by how the ongoing hostage crisis “has pretty much frozen in time that invasion in Israel, and everybody is reliving it pretty much constantly,” adding that the ongoing hostage situation is an “an ongoing, terrible human rights offense by Hamas.”

She added that the trip had highlighted the proximity of the threats that Israel faces: The lawmakers were forced to take shelter from a rocket attack on their first night in Israel. “You can’t appreciate what that’s like if you don’t go there and see it.”

The group also met with leadership from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Fine said that the meeting was an opportunity to learn more about its efforts — including that “they haven’t used any lethal force at all since they set up their sites,” he said.

He also noted that the GHF leaders told the group they had been trying to work with Hamas, “but the U.N.’s not interested in working with them, because the U.N. is an offshoot of Hamas.”

Fedorchak said that GHF leadership gave the impression that the organization was “making progress” in expanding aid deliveries and aiming to open more distribution sites. 

She said the U.S. should continue providing humanitarian aid and called on other nations to do so as well, calling it “critical” to protecting and supporting the Palestinians “that are really stuck there” as Israel continues its efforts to defeat Hamas, either through military means or a Hamas surrender.

“Hamas still has a stranglehold on the leadership and governing in Palestine or in Gaza, and they’re a terrorist organization with the [goal] of eliminating Israel,” Fedorchak said. “So that’s not going to work long term there. I don’t envision any time where Hamas can lead Gaza and provide peace and economic stability for the people there and for their neighbors to the east and north of Israel. So Hamas has to go.”

Nevertheless, Fedorchak said she came away feeling hopeful about the potential future beyond the war, saying that there’s “a lot of promise” for expanding the Abraham Accords and ultimately “hopefully providing an opening for a new pro-peace Palestinian leadership to take root in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Fine, who has traveled to Israel before and has quickly built a name for himself as a combative supporter of Israel in his short time since taking office, said he was grateful for all of the colleagues who joined the trip and showed their support for Israel.

“It was good to see that the anti-Israel voices are small and they are loud,” Fine said. “The vast majority of my colleagues, I think, are even more pro-Israel now than they were before. … I don’t think we can give too much attention to the antisemites in Congress. I think the vast majority of Republicans are more pro-Israel now than they were before, not less.”

He argued that an overlapping trip by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — during which Johnson offered support for Israel asserting full sovereignty over the West Bank, which Fine refers to by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria — is a signal of Republicans’ continued and increased affinity for the Jewish state.

Addressing those — including some Republican lawmakers — who’ve grown frustrated with Israel’s leadership and the war in Gaza, Fine said that “their frustrations are misplaced.”

“The … people who it appears are starving in Gaza are the hostages,” he said. “The responsibility for all of this lies with the Muslim terrorists. This all ends if they release the hostages and surrender.”

Fedorchak said that the visit had given her “a greater appreciation for the value of America and our willingness to stand up for the ideals” that the U.S. shared with Israel and its allies. 

“I appreciate that the U.S. is willing to be on the front lines defending that, and the partnership with us and Israel is obviously central to Israel’s ongoing strength and existence in the Middle East,”  she said. “It’s really valuable to have an ally like Israel in the Middle East.”

Fedorchak said she was deeply impressed with Israel’s “resourcefulness,” both in developing impressive weapons and defensive systems as well as in agriculture, and with Israelis’ focus on family, patriotism and national service.

Fine noted that the group had also received a briefing about the atrocities committed against the Druze in Syria, and condemned the international community for its comparative lack of attention on that crisis. “Nobody cares when you see Druze being slaughtered in Syria … no Jews, no news,” he said.

Asked about whether the U.S. should adjust its policy toward the new Syrian government in response to the attacks against the Druze, Fine declined to weigh in specifically, while reiterating that the situation is “dire” and is being overlooked.

In addition to the large group meetings, Fine said he’d taken several one-on-one meetings at the request of Israeli leaders, including with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman and members of Israel’s foreign ministry.

He said that those meetings had also focused on Israeli security issues — ”making sure Israel is safe and secure, Jews are safe and secure and having zero tolerance for Muslim terror.”

Fine also said that he was stopped by Israelis repeatedly during the trip who recognized him and were “appreciative of the stands that I’ve taken, about wearing a kippah.”

Tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the IDF, are as high as the record-setting temperatures that have swept the region.

The IDF’s top officials and the Israeli government have clashed on a series of issues in recent days, including the appointments of more than two dozen military officials and Zamir’s opposition to Netanyahu’s plan to take over Gaza City and expand IDF operations in the Gaza Strip, which was approved by Israel’s Security Cabinet last week.

The IDF chief of staff has warned that the new approach to Gaza risks the lives of the 20 remaining living hostages in the enclave, and would further deplete the military’s resources in Gaza. The army, under strain after nearly two years of war, has — even prior to Zamir’s appointment in March — been at odds with the government over the continued exemption of the majority of the country’s Haredi population from the mandatory conscription required of most Israelis.

Israel Democracy Institute President Yohanan Plesner told Jewish Insider this morning that “historically, the relationship between the political level — prime minister, defense minister — and the top brass of the defense establishment, and mainly the IDF chief of staff, has been based on the premise that when Israel engages or embarks on significant security endeavors, operations and so on, it’s based on mutual consent,” with both parties having “de facto … veto power.”

But now, Plesner said, Netanyahu “is violating this decision-making norm that characterized the way decisions on core security [and] national security issues were made in the past.”

Plesner pointed to IDI polling conducted earlier this summer that showed Zamir being the senior official in whom Israelis had the most trust, at 68.5%. The same poll found Netanyahu with a trust rating of 40%.

The potential removal of a senior official months into his tenure “was not in the cards in the past. A chief of staff would voice their professional opinion and they wouldn’t risk being fired.”

The clash between Netanyahu and Zamir has also drawn in former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is widely seen as one of the only people who could topple Netanyahu in the next election. Bennett attributed the infighting to Zamir’s opposition to the continuation of Haredi draft exemptions — an issue that has sowed division even within Netanyahu’s coalition and still threatens to topple the government.

“Instead of standing behind the army,” Bennett said, “the government has launched an attack *on* the army.”

Netanyahu has previously clashed with — and dismissed — senior military officials, most notably former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whom Netanyahu first tried to fire in early 2024 but was met with mass protests, before ousting him in November 2024. Last summer, Israeli media reported tensions between the prime minister and Zamir’s predecessor, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, over Netanyahu’s suggestion that hostage talks had not moved forward because Hamas did not feel enough pressure from the country’s military. Netanyahu also pursued the dismissal of former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar whom he clashed with on a number of issues — including the hostage negotiations and war strategy — citing “continuing lack of trust.” 

Plesner pointed out that relations between Netanyahu and both Gallant and Halevi “very much soured around the fact that they were committed to implementing the Supreme Court ruling” that removed the Haredi draft exemption, and that Zamir, as chief of staff, similarly backs the conscription of the Haredi community as war fatigue plagues the reservists who have served hundreds of days in uniform since the start of the war.

Nearly all of the IDF’s top leaders from Oct. 7, 2023, have departed their roles, whether by choice or force, in the almost two years since the attacks. Netanyahu — who has long tried to absolve himself of responsibility for the attacks, instead blaming the military and the Shin Bet — remains the only senior government official from that time still in power. Analyst Nadav Pollak suggested that the prime minister has, since Oct. 7, been “trying to divert the blame from him to the military leadership (he didn’t know Hamas plans etc.) and as long as the focus is on the IDF leadership it’s not on Bibi.”

Now, with the Knesset out for the rest of the summer, ceasefire talks stalled and an immediate collapse of his government off the table, Netanyahu is able to buy some time — perhaps up to several weeks — as Israel’s top political and military brass game out and implement the government’s Gaza strategy. Meanwhile, observers will watch to see how Zamir will carry out Netanyahu’s orders.

Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza City is meant to prevent further prolonging the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. 

The prime minister’s comments come as elements of the Israeli right and nearly all of the left have railed against the decision, further destabilizing the prime minister’s hold on Israel’s leadership.

In a video statement on Saturday night, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had “lost trust that the prime minister can and wants to lead the IDF to a decisive victory.”

At the same time, tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against the Cabinet’s decision, calling for an immediate hostage deal.

Speaking Sunday at a press conference for foreign media in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that “Hamas still has thousands of terrorists in Gaza … Hamas is refusing to lay down its arms, so Israel has no choice but to finish the job.”

”Contrary to false claims,” the prime minister argued, “this is the best way to end the war and to end it speedily.” 

Rather than take control of Gaza City, part of the remaining 25% of Gaza that Israel does not control, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir presented to the Security Cabinet on Thursday night a strategy of surrounding those areas, while expressing concern about the safety of the 20 hostages believed to still be alive if a military takeover is attempted.

As to whether Israel’s new plan puts hostages in further danger, Netanyahu said that “the option of just doing a war of attrition from a defensive position has not proved itself. It won’t bring [the hostages] out … [It will lead to a] protracted conflict that won’t bring the war to an end.”

”I don’t want to prolong the war. I want to end the war, and I think the other option would have prolonged the war,” he added. “Prolonging the war means that many of them could be starved to death.” 

Netanyahu also emphasized Israel’s “five principles for concluding the war,” authorized by the Security Cabinet, which he said were his “day-after plan” for Gaza. They consist of disarming Hamas, returning the hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, Israeli security control of the enclave and establishing a civilian administration for Gaza led by neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

Though Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News last week that Israel plans to take control of all of Gaza, the Security Cabinet decision announced early Friday morning fell short of that. 

The Security Cabinet voted early Friday, after a 10-hour meeting that began the previous day, for the IDF to “prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones.” 

Netanyahu continued to speak of the IDF seizing all of Gaza on Sunday, presenting an image of the “remaining Hamas strongholds” of Gaza City and the “central camps and Moassi,” a second enclave. A spokesperson for the prime minister clarified to Jewish Insider after the press conference that “the decision that was authorized is about Gaza City. Later, if needed, the central camps as well.”

Netanyahu said that, as Israel did before maneuvering into Rafah over a year ago, it plans to move the population out of Gaza City, “safeguard the civilian population and let us go, at last, into the most important stronghold of Hamas.” 

Gaza City is only part of the remaining 25% of Gaza not currently controlled by the IDF. Reports indicate that the IDF said  it will take two months to move the civilian population out of the city; Netanyahu said he instructed the military to do it in less time because he wants to finish the war as soon as possible.

That two-month window leaves an opening for another ceasefire deal as Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. are reportedly working on reviving negotiations.  

The plan was supported by “a decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Smotrich accused Netanyahu of “making a U-turn” from a plan they devised together “to go all the way,” involving “dramatic moves to bring victory in Gaza, a combination of a quick military victory and an immediate diplomatic move to exact a painful price from Hamas, destroy its military and civilian capabilities, and put unprecedented pressure to free the hostages.” 

Instead, Smotrich argued, the Security Cabinet chose to support “an immoral, unreasonable folly,” that would involve “sending tens of thousands of fighters to maneuver in Gaza City while endangering their lives and paying heavy diplomatic and international prices, only to pressure Hamas to free hostages and then retreat.”

“I cannot back this decision. My conscience doesn’t allow it … No more stopping [the war] in the middle … We must make a clear, sharp move to defeat Hamas and bring the hostages home all at once,” he stated.

Despite saying that he lost trust in Netanyahu, Smotrich did not say he was leaving the coalition. Instead, he called for another Security Cabinet meeting to further discuss Israel’s next steps in Gaza.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who, like Smotrich, has pushed for more aggressive moves in the war in Gaza, told Army Radio on Sunday that Smotrich turned down his offer to present an ultimatum to Netanyahu to quit the government if it does not accept a plan to “go in, destroy, conquer.” Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have called for Israel to fully occupy Gaza and build Israeli settlements in the enclave.

Smotrich’s outspoken criticism is a signal of the growing leverage he holds within Netanyahu’s volatile government. Netanyahu currently has a minority coalition, holding just 60 out of the Knesset’s 120 seats, making his political situation tenuous. The United Torah Judaism and Noam parties left the coalition last month over disputes relating to sanctions for Haredim who do not serve in the IDF.

Tzvi Sukkot, a lawmaker from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party, wrote in a post on X on Sunday morning, “if we are going back to Oct. 6, 2023 and decide to give up on the war aims, it is an existential threat to the State of Israel. If that is the situation, in my humble opinion, we must go to an election.” 

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote Smotrich a letter asking for his support for a bill to disperse the Knesset, which would trigger an election.

“You admitted that the prime minister’s policy is not bringing a decisive victory in Gaza, is not bringing back our hostages and is not winning the war,” Lapid wrote. “You added that you cannot stand behind the prime minister and back him anymore. In light of this, I call you to join me in a letter to the Knesset speaker in which we can say there was a significant change in circumstances that justifies bringing up the bill to disperse the Knesset again.”

At the same time, the political opposition and the Hostages Families Forum spoke out against the more aggressive approach in Gaza approved by the Security Cabinet, pointing to Zamir’s opposition to the move.

Lapid called the decision “a disaster that will lead to many additional disasters.” 

“In total opposition to the opinion of the military and security levels, without consideration for the exhaustion and attrition of the fighting forces, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich dragged Netanyahu to a move that will take many months, will lead to the death of hostages, to many soldiers killed, will cost tens of billions of Israeli taxpayer money and will lead to diplomatic collapse. That’s just what Hamas wants,” Lapid said. 

“As we approach the tragic one-year anniversary of the murder of six hostages who were executed by their captors, the expansion of fighting only further endangers those still held in Gaza’s tunnels,” the forum stated. “Hamas continues to exploit military escalation as justification for its brutal treatment of our loved ones … Our government is leading us toward a colossal catastrophe for both the hostages and our soldiers. The Cabinet chose last night to embark on another march of recklessness, on the backs of the hostages, the soldiers, and Israeli society as a whole.”

Tens of thousands gathered for the weekly demonstrations in central Tel Aviv Saturday night, blocking the city’s central artery, the Ayalon Highway. Some of the hostages’ relatives called for a general strike on Sunday and for soldiers to refuse orders.

Shai Mozes, nephew of released hostage Gadi Mozes, said that following the Security Cabinet decision, “the mission you’ll be given is participation in killing the hostages. In this situation, there is no choice but to refuse.” 

Several hostages’ relatives expressed support for a general strike, as did Lapid. The Hi-Tech Forum, representing dozens of Israeli tech companies and hedge funds, said they would allow their employees to miss work if a strike is held.

The Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, declined to support a strike, following a court ruling last year that they can only strike for explicitly labor-related reasons.

Netanyahu also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the press conference Sunday, saying that Israel’s “policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis while Hamas’ policy is to create it.”

Israel is working to avoid a humanitarian crisis by designating safe corridors for aid distribution, increasing safe distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and continuing airdrops by Israel and other countries, he said.

”The only ones being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” Netanyahu argued, displaying a screenshot from a video Hamas released last week of hostage Evyatar David and contrasting his emaciated arm with the much thicker one of his captor.

Netanyahu also displayed photographs of children from Gaza who appeared in the foreign media alongside claims that they had been starved by Israel, and listed the congenital diseases from which they suffered that were not originally reported. He said his office is looking into whether Israel can sue The New York Times over the matter.

The prime minister compared the claims to blood libels: “We were said to be spreading vermin in Christian society; we were said to be poisoning the wells; we were said to slaughter Christian children for blood. That was followed by massive violence, pogroms, displacement, followed by the worst of all, the Holocaust.”

”The international press is falling for Hamas propaganda, hook line and sinker,” he added, standing next to the text “Open your eyes to Hamas’s lies.” 

Netanyahu also said he had ordered the IDF to allow more foreign journalists into Gaza.

However, he stated, “We will not commit suicide to get a good op-ed.

The American Jewish Committee, one of the leading global Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy organizations, expressed its “deep apprehension” over the Israeli Security Cabinet’s vote to move forward with a military takeover of Gaza City, in a statement released by the organization on Friday.

AJC acknowledged the “extraordinary challenges” Israel faces due to Hamas’ “intransigence” in negotiations and the “failure of the international community to impose sufficient pressure on the terrorist organization.”

“Still,” the statement read, “the profound risks posed by a full military takeover of Gaza City cannot be overlooked.” It highlighted concerns over “endanger[ing] the lives of the remaining hostages” and the possibility of “substantial casualties among both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians,” in particular.

AJC called on the signatories of the New York Declaration — signed last month by dozens of countries including member states of the Arab League and European Union — to “apply maximum pressure on Hamas to agree to a hostage release and ceasefire agreement.” 

Israel’s Security Cabinet is set to vote this week on occupying the remaining parts of Gaza that it does not currently control, after Hamas refused last month’s ceasefire and hostage deal proposal and did not return to negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz held a three-hour meeting on Tuesday, which was reportedly very tense due to disagreement over the plan, though Zamir ultimately said he will follow through with the government’s decision. 

Zamir argued that the IDF should surround the areas in Gaza in which it currently does not have a presence, including Gaza City and towns in the center of Gaza in which hostages are believed to be held. Entering those areas, Zamir warned, would endanger the lives of the 20 hostages who are thought to be alive. Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if the IDF approaches, as it had executed six hostages a year ago. 

Beyond the fraught issue of the hostages, there is the matter of what “occupation” means. 

Broadly, the war in Gaza was initially conducted via raids in which the IDF would warn civilians to leave a given area, enter, destroy terrorist infrastructure and combat terrorists, and eventually leave to move to a different part of Gaza, letting the population return. Hamas terrorists would also end up returning to those areas, leading the IDF to have to enter some of the same places repeatedly.

In March, Israel embarked on Operation Gideon’s Chariots, in which Israel entered Gaza from its perimeter on all sides, and moved inwards, capturing territory and maintaining control of it, in contrast to its previous strategy. That operation has, in effect, resulted in Israel controlling 75% of Gaza. 

The remaining 25% is what Israel would move to control under the plan Netanyahu supports.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the former head of research for IDF intelligence, told the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast this week that the commonly used 75%-25% formulation is “a misrepresentation.”

“Almost all the population of Gaza is in areas controlled by Hamas, which allows Hamas to keep its grip over the population, and this is the source of its power … It’s not about the percentage of the area, it’s about who controls the population,” he said.

While “occupation” is the correct military term for what Israel would be doing by taking control of territory, the connotation of the word in the Israeli context tends to be the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since 1967 and where over half a million Jewish citizens of Israel live. 

Some Cabinet ministers have advocated for allowing Israelis to move to Gaza, where 21 Israeli settlements were forcibly evacuated in 2005; Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected such a plan.

What senior Israeli officials have long said is that, while Israel seeks to have other countries and some Palestinians administer Gaza, they will not do so until it’s clear that Hamas has been ousted. As such, Israel may have to take control for some time until other arrangements are made.

Kuperwasser said that while Netanyahu’s decision may be risky, Zamir’s preference of surrounding the remaining 25% of Gaza is more of the same.

“In Gaza, there are no good options,” he said. “The option of continuing what we have done for the last 22 months is not a good option, because it didn’t put enough pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and accept the idea that they should give up their arms. The option of succumbing to Hamas demands … is a very bad idea, too. And taking over Gaza is also a bad idea, because you end up being responsible for the population of Gaza and there is going to be a lot of criticism around the globe … you cannot guarantee that you are going to get the hostages alive.” 

Kuperwasser argued that the only way at this point for Israel to move towards freeing the hostages and removing Hamas from power is if Hamas is “convinced that we are about to take over Gaza by force and remove them from power by force … So we have to make this decision, and yes, it comes with a price.”

Starting on the new strategy may be enough to convince Hamas to reach a deal, Kuperwasser said, but in order to get to that point, he argued, Israel has to prepare to actually occupy Gaza. 

“We have to convince Hamas that we are serious, that we are really preparing for this eventuality,” including for civil administration of Gaza, he said.

Days after Hamas released a video showing hostage Evyatar David emaciated and being forced to dig his own grave in a tunnel under Gaza, David’s family called on the Trump administration to do anything it can to ensure that the hostages are released.

“Evyatar is fighting for his life with what little strength he has left,” Matan Eshet, David’s cousin, told Jewish Insider on Monday. “You can see it in his eyes. You don’t need a medical degree to understand that Evyatar only has a few days to live.”

David, 24, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova Festival on Oct. 7, 2023. 

In a video released over the weekend, an extremely gaunt David was shown in a tunnel under Gaza digging, with his bones protruding. He wrote on a calendar documenting the small amounts of food — either lentils or beans — his captors have given him on some days, and on other days he wrote “no food.” 

At one point in the video, a Hamas terrorist reaches out from behind the camera to hand him a can of food, and the terrorist’s arm is visibly much thicker than David’s.

“This can is for two days, just to keep me alive,” David said of the food.

“I don’t know what I’m going to eat,” David said. “I haven’t eaten in days … I’m getting thinner and weaker by the day … What I’m doing now is digging my own grave … This is the grave where I think I’m going to be buried. Time is running out.”

Prof. Ronit Endevelt, the former head of the Nutrition Division at the Israeli Health Ministry now on the Hostage Families Forum medical team, estimated that David’s weight dropped about 41% to 40-45 kg.

Hamas released a video of David in February of this year, with hostage Guy Gilboa Dalal in a car, visibly distressed while being forced to watch other hostages being released. David’s health has visibly deteriorated since the previous video; he appears much thinner and paler in the new one.

Eshet said his family is “feeling broken” after seeing the new footage. 

“It’s not Evyatar. He doesn’t look like that or sound like that. That’s not how he moves. We see the distress in so many ways. He looks like a shadow of himself,” Eshet said. “He has to get medical care and food already.”

The video of David describing his starvation at the hands of Hamas came as some of the world’s largest media outlets published photos of children in Gaza who they reported were starving, but failed to mention that they suffered from genetic diseases. More broadly, much of the media coverage of Gaza in recent weeks has been about the humanitarian situation and difficulties distributing food to the residents.

“It’s maddening,” Eshet said. “Hamas are the ones taking the aid instead of the civilians. And then they claim that [Israel is] starving them, not Hamas who is preventing people from getting the food, while Hamas is choosing not to let Evyatar receive food.” 

Eshet noted that the arm of the Hamas terrorist who handed Evyatar the can of food was “much bigger and more muscular compared to Evyatar.”

“On the news, you can see people walking in the food markets in Gaza. People do not look the way Evyatar looks,” Eshet added. “No one was close to looking the way Evyatar does.” 

Eshet called on “Israel and the world to demand that Evyatar come home already.”

“We need everyone who sees the difficult pictures of Evyatar to understand that we don’t have another minute. We don’t have another day. We can lose him in the coming days,” he added.

“The U.S. government succeeded in getting a deal on Day minus-One, before [President Donald] Trump’s inauguration,” Eshet said. “America needs to do the same thing again and stand up and insist that the hostages are freed now, regardless of whatever else is happening.

“They did it once. They made a deal happen. They need to use that power again to make sure Evyatar comes home,” Eshet added.

Asked about the reports that Israel plans to expand its military operations in Gaza, including in areas where the hostages are believed to be held, Eshet said he hopes “these are tactical tools to bring about a change, stand up to Hamas and reach a [hostage] deal from a position of strength.” 

Eshet and David are first cousins. Eshet recalled that they “grew up together.”

“Evyatar is a charming and loving person, a good listener with a contagious smile,” Eshet said. “He was a middle child, and was friends with his big brother and little sister. He always paid attention to whoever needed help in the house.”

Eshet said that David loved to play guitar and that his music could always be heard in his parents’ house. Before Oct. 7, David planned to travel the world and try to make a living playing music.

“He had a smile and shining eyes, and we’re all waiting for him,” Eshet said. “He was a boy who became a skeleton in the Hamas tunnels. He needs to come home and be a regular person and live the life that is waiting for him.”

There are 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Hamas rejected the latest attempt by the U.S. and Israel to reach a temporary ceasefire and hostage-release deal late last month.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad also released a video of hostage Rom Braslavski last week, who was also emaciated.

The Hostages Families Forum released a report by its medical team on Monday “warning that the hostages still held alive in Gaza are suffering from deliberate, prolonged, and systematic starvation … causing multisystem damage and posing an immediate risk of death.”

Prof. Hagai Levine, head of the medical team, said that “the outcome of this cruel experiment is foreseeable — body and mind will gradually deteriorate until they collapse. Any further delay in rescuing the hostages may cost human lives. We must not stand idly by while our brothers vanish. We must act now to bring them all home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to ask the Security Cabinet to back expanding Israel’s military efforts in Gaza, Israeli media reported on Monday.

“We are going to conquer the [Gaza] Strip,” a senior source in Netanyahu’s office told Israel’s Channel 12. “The decision was made. Hamas will not free more hostages without us fully surrendering, and we will not surrender. If we don’t act now, the hostages will die of hunger and Gaza will remain under Hamas’ control.”

A few caveats: Netanyahu did not use the term conquer or occupy with all of the Cabinet ministers to whom he conveyed his position, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN. Maariv reported that Netanyahu has not made a final decision yet about whether the IDF should take control of all of Gaza, and noted that legally, he cannot decide on his own without the Security Cabinet. 

“Netanyahu realized … that there is no point anymore in waiting for Hamas [to agree to a deal], and therefore a decision about the next stage of the war must be made quickly,” a source involved in the matter told Maariv. “The dispute now is not about whether to act or negotiate, because a deal with Hamas is no longer on the table. Rather, it’s about how to act without a deal, whether to go for full conquest or for a siege and increased pressure.”

IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly favors a siege over occupying all of Gaza.

The IDF currently controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip, and the new plan would bring the entire area under Israel’s control. Among the areas the IDF would enter would include Gaza City, where the IDF has not maneuvered in a year and a half, and towns in central Gaza, where some 20 remaining living hostages are believed to be held.

The military’s hesitation to enter those areas was, in part, due to a concern for the hostages’ safety. Last year, Hamas executed six hostages when the IDF approached their position and former hostages have said that their captors said they would kill them if the army approached the location where they were held. Hamas has also warned the IDF that attempts to rescue hostages would result in death.

Senior officials were quoted in multiple Israeli news outlets saying that Zamir should resign if he disagrees with Netanyahu’s decision to take control of the remaining 25% of the Gaza Strip. 

Netanyahu is expected to bring the proposal to a Security Cabinet vote on Tuesday. 

The move comes two weeks after Hamas rejected a partial ceasefire and hostage-release deal, and Israel and the U.S. said they would only pursue comprehensive agreements to free all of the hostages moving forward. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published videos in recent days of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David who appeared to be starving; the latter was filmed digging his own grave.

In addition to Zamir, others expected to argue against conquering the rest of Gaza, according to Channel 12, are Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Shas leader Arye Deri, National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Mossad chief David Barnea, among others.

Netanyahu has the support of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment on the reports. 

Rather than confirm or deny that he had made a decision about Israel’s next military steps in Gaza, Netanyahu posted a video to X after Hebrew media reported on the matter, which focused on Israeli efforts to get food and medicine to residents of Gaza, and compared claims that Israel was starving Gazans to antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) called on Qatar last week to step up more forcefully to pressure Hamas and bring about a hostage-release and ceasefire deal in Gaza, including taking into custody the Hamas leaders who have long enjoyed safe haven in Doha.

Landsman, in a lengthy X thread about the conflict in Gaza, took aim at various parties, including Qatar, which he called a “huge barrier” to peace given its continued support for Hamas. He revealed that he had rejected an invitation from the Qatari government for one of his staff members to travel to the country.

“It’s time to call the question on everybody, including the Qataris. There are legitimate questions about whether or not they should be doing more, they could be doing more,” Landsman said in an interview with Jewish Insider. “[Hamas] just refuses to engage anymore.”

In light of that situation, Landsman argued that every potential lever to change Hamas’ calculus must be explored and pursued.

He said that Qatar, as “the entity that has the most influence” over Hamas at this point, “has to feel way more pressure from the international community to do everything in their power” to get to a deal. The status quo of Hamas leaders living lavish lives in Qatar “should absolutely be questioned,” Landsman said.

He said he’s heard from Israeli officials and others involved in the hostage talks that the Qataris are “not seen as a trusted partner in this effort to end the war.”

In a letter to the Qatari ambassador rejecting the invitation for his staffer to travel to the kingdom, Landsman offered bracing criticism of Qatar’s role in hostage talks.

“Qatar’s gross mishandling of the hostage crisis in Gaza and failure to sufficiently pressure Hamas into ending the war prevents me from allowing staff to visit your country,” Landsman said. “That you continue to tolerate this obstructionist behavior from your terrorist beneficiary is incomprehensible.” 

Calling the Hamas political leaders in Qatar who are representing the terrorist group in hostage talks “useless,” Landsman called on Qatar to detain the Hamas leaders until the hostages are released and other reforms are implemented in Gaza.

He called on Doha to end “future financial support for Hamas and Gaza” until the hostages are released and other reforms are implemented and to take steps to address antisemitic and pro-Hamas content on Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-run media outlet.

He said he would be glad to send his staff on a trip to Qatar and to work with the country after it had taken the steps he outlined.

Landsman told JI that his conversations with Israeli leaders, on issues such as the need for additional humanitarian aid, produce change — albeit sometimes not as fast as or as comprehensively as he would hope. 

With Qatar, he said, “I have had so many conversations and nothing changes.” He indicated that his engagements with Qatar earlier in the war had been more productive, noting that he’d arranged to bring a delegation of hostage families to meet with the Qatari ambassador shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks during which their family members were kidnapped.

Beyond squeezing Hamas’ leadership in Qatar, Landsman said he wants to see the country step up as not just a meditator and facilitator of dialogue, but as a more active partner in pursuing a two-state solution and regional peace.

He said that Qatar’s lobbying efforts in the United States, its outreach to lawmakers and their staff, its funding of U.S. colleges and universities and other efforts to assert its influence domestically show that the country “care[s] deeply about what we think.”

“That is why I sent the letter and why I’m pushing and doing it publicly,” Landsman said. “I’m sitting here as one member of Congress trying to do everything in my power to end this crisis. … They want the West to like them. They want us to see them as a partner, as an ally.”

In spite of his current criticisms, Landsman did not at this point embrace the idea of moving the U.S. airbase in Qatar elsewhere in the region, arguing that the U.S. should not give up on its relationship with Doha.

“What I am saying is there are expectations of partners, and our partnership will be so much stronger if [Qatar’s] relationship with this terrorist entity ends,” he explained. “That relationship has potential, but it should go in the direction that makes the most sense for our national security and peace and stability in the region, and that means resolving their Hamas issue.”

Landsman also called for shifts in Israel’s strategy in Gaza, saying that the humanitarian crisis is real and that he has spoken directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the need to increase humanitarian aid.

He said Israel should be doing more to create humanitarian safe zones for civilians and to separate Hamas from the rest of the population of Gaza. And he argued that by sending in an “avalanche” of aid, Israel would diminish the impact of Hamas’ diversion of aid shipments.

He said Israel should also pull back on its large-scale campaign in Gaza and focus on targeted operations to find and liberate the hostages. 

Asked about the impact of fellow Democratic lawmakers and the international community blaming Israel for the continuation of the war, Landsman said that there is a place for pressure on Israel to adjust its strategy, “but don’t abandon our ally. This is one of the most important allies we have.”

He also emphasized that Hamas has shown no interest in or willingness to agree to a new hostage deal and that international attacks on Israel will embolden it further.

“If they continue to see people just hammering away at Israel — which they believe is critical for them to achieve their goal, which of course is to destroy the State of Israel — they will continue to [fight],” Landsman said.

Landsman characterized the recent Arab League statement condemning the Oct. 7 attack and calling for Hamas to release the hostages as an important public step in pressuring Hamas.

He said the statement’s public rejection of Hamas mirrors what he has heard privately from Arab leaders for months. “I think this is going to put more pressure on Qatar to figure out a much better path forward with their unique issues with Hamas,” Landsman said.

President Donald Trump decried the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Monday, telling reporters that he does “not particularly” agree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assessment that there is no starvation taking place in the enclave.

“That’s real starvation stuff,” Trump said, following a meeting in Scotland with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I see it, and you can’t fake that.” 

Trump said the U.S. will be getting “even more involved” in taking steps toward addressing hunger in Gaza, including by setting up “food centers.” A White House spokesperson declined to comment when asked for specifics about what this plan might entail. Trump said “all of the European nations” would be part of the project. 

“We’re going to do it in conjunction with some very good people, and we’re going to supply funds,” said Trump.

Food distribution in Gaza is currently being operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by both the U.S. and Israel. The organization has faced criticism for failing to meet the needs of Gazans, and scenes of chaos at the gates of its distribution centers have spread online.

Without mentioning GHF by name, Trump appeared to take aim at the existing aid mechanisms, saying that the new “food centers” will not have fences to keep people out. 

“We’re also going to make sure that they don’t have barriers stopping people here. You’ve seen the areas where they actually have food, and the people are screaming for the food in there, they’re 35-40 yards away, and they won’t let them because they have lines that are set up,” said Trump. “And whether they’re set up by Hamas or whoever, but they’re very strict lines. We have to get rid of those lines.” 

Trump blamed Hamas for the failure of recent ceasefire talks and for prolonging the war, including the humanitarian crisis. The president’s comments come after European leaders have pressed Israel to allow a freer flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“We have a good group of countries who can help with the humanitarian needs, which is food, sanitation, some other things. It’s very difficult to deal with Hamas,” said Trump. “Hamas has become very difficult to deal with in the last couple of days, because they don’t want to give up these last 20 [hostages], because they think as long as they have them, they have protection. But I don’t think it can work that way.” 

Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, and Israel believes at least 27 of them are dead. The most recent ceasefire proposal would only have seen the release of about half of the living hostages. 

Trump also said Iran played a role in the failure of ceasefire talks, saying Iran “interjected themselves in this last negotiation.” 

“I think they got involved in this negotiation, telling Hamas and giving Hamas signals and orders. And that’s not good,” Trump said. “For a country that just got wiped out, they’ve been sending very bad signals, very nasty signals. And they shouldn’t be doing that.”

In Israel’s effort to conduct a pressure campaign on Hamas to oust the terror group and release the remaining hostages held in Gaza, it has found itself instead on the receiving end of another global pressure campaign.

Facing mounting pressure amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel over the weekend announced a series of measures aimed at alleviating the widespread malnutrition and security issues in the enclave, including temporary ceasefires, aid airdrops, facilitating a massive increase in Gaza’s water supply and establishing designated humanitarian corridors — even as the IDF called claims of starvation in Gaza “a false campaign promoted by Hamas” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that there was starvation in Gaza.

The crisis hit a fever pitch over the weekend as opposition to Israel’s efforts and limits on aid — first put into place in March as a pressure tactic to push Hamas to release the remaining hostages — surged to the highest levels of government around the world. 

Dozens of countries called for an end to the war, a restoration of the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages. The shift in the political dynamic extended to Capitol Hill, where Democratic legislators, including many who have been strong supporters of Israel, expressed their concerns over Israel’s approach to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

That backdrop led to a late-night announcement from the IDF’s on Saturday: “In accordance with directives from the political echelon and following a situational assessment held this evening, the IDF has begun a series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”

On Israel’s most-watched news channel, Channel 12, journalists Almog Boker and Amit Segal described the move as a victory for Hamas after a successful propaganda campaign that captivated global opinion.

But not everyone agreed. On the same network, anchor Yonit Levi said, “It’s time to understand that this is not a failure of public diplomacy, but a moral failure.”

Domestically, the resumption of aid has the potential to cause divisions within Netanyahu’s coalition, whose right-wing members have in the past threatened to leave the coalition over moves that have been seen as concessions to Hamas.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — both vocal opponents of allowing aid into Gaza — were excluded from a phone call on Saturday during which the decision was taken to increase aid. According to Ben-Gvir, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office claimed he had been left out to avoid forcing him to violate Shabbat — which Ben-Gvir denied, saying he was “available on Shabbat for any event or important security consultation.”

Smotrich, for his part, reportedly said overnight that he will not quit the government over the decision.

Addressing the move on Sunday during a visit to an Israeli Air Force base, Netanyahu defended the decision, calling it a continuation of existing policy. He said that while continuing efforts to defeat Hamas and release the hostages, “we will need to continue to allow the entry of minimal humanitarian supplies. We have done this until now.”

Amid the cacophony of criticism, Israel has largely stayed in the good graces of the White House. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that “Israel is gonna have to make a decision” about what to do with Hamas. “I know what I’d do, but I don’t think it’s appropriate that I say it.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee slammed the United Nations, The New York Times and Hamas for the humanitarian crisis, saying that their “lies & propaganda destroyed cease-fire deal, tried to discredit safe and functioning GHF effort, emboldened Hamas & will result in this complete balagan! Most sad for hostage families-grief prolonged.”

The U.N. World Food Program, which has not shied away from criticizing Israeli government actions, praised the influx of aid, saying the agency has “enough food in – or on its way to – the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months.”

But while the most immediate concerns are being allayed, Israel will have to face another crisis of its own making — attempting to restore its standing with many of its traditional allies.  

Indeed, when Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a pro-Israel stalwart, is sounding an alarm about his own frosty relationship with the Israeli government, it’s a glaring red flag about the state of Israel’s public diplomacy.

For European leaders who are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Jewish state’s moves to pause military activity to allow a freer flow of humanitarian aid and begin airdrops of aid are “steps in the right direction,” the German foreign minister said on Sunday.

But the aid crisis is inextricably linked, observers say, to a much larger and even thornier issue — a deal to end the grinding 21-month war with Hamas and a release of the hostages. Until such a deal is struck, the pressure from Europe, and from some inside Israel, likely won’t ease. And it could worsen, with some experts warning that European sanctions on Israel aren’t out of the question.

Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, said that the aid airdrops are “a result of international pressure and not sudden altruism.”

However, Shek said, they are “like Tylenol for a cancer patient. Surgery is needed, meaning the end of the war.” 

A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he is “prepared to increase the pressure if progress [on a ceasefire and humanitarian aid] is not made.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced last week that his country would recognize a Palestinian state. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot argued that the move “proves [Hamas] wrong. It supports the side of peace against that of war,” because “Hamas has always rejected the two-state solution.” 

The terrorist group praised France’s “positive step in the right direction.” 

England and Germany declined to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state, but their leaders released a statement with Macron focusing on the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and calling for “the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food [to be] met without further delay” and for Israel “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid.” 

Israel has argued that it is not restricting the flow of aid into Gaza, but that the U.N. refuses to cooperate with the U.S. and Israel supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute it.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he is “unequivocal” in his support for a Palestinian state, but that recognition must come as “part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility.” 

The IDF noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”

Israel initiated on Sunday 10-hour “pauses” in the coming days in areas of Gaza in which there are no IDF ground troops, daily until further notice, “aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation.” 

In addition to 28 airdrops on the first day, the IDF established corridors to allow the safe movement of U.N. convoys of food and medicine. The military also noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”

Starmer, however, said after the airdrops were announced on Saturday that “Israel must allow aid in over land…The situation is desperate.” 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.” 

Starmer reportedly plans to ask President Donald Trump to return to ceasefire talks with Hamas, during the president’s visit to Scotland on Monday. A source in his office told The Guardian over the weekend that Starmer will “discuss further with [Trump] what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long.” 

The U.S. and Israel withdrew their teams from the negotiations in Doha, Qatar, last week, after Hamas rejected a ceasefire and hostage deal by making new demands in areas that had previously been resolved. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said that Washington was looking for “alternative options,” which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later echoed.

Germany similarly remained concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.” 

Merz and Netanyahu spoke on the phone on Sunday. Following the call, Merz said he asked Netanyahu “to do everything in his power to bring about an immediate ceasefire and called on him to allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to reach the starving civilian population in Gaza without delay.” 

Israel is taking a different approach to each major European capital and its statements and actions on Israel, a Foreign Ministry source told Jewish Insider.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the French charge d’affaires for a demarche by Director-General Eden Bar-Tal on Sunday. A statement from the ministry said that France “chose to harm Israel in its most difficult hour…France directly harmed the negotiations to return the hostages and for a ceasefire and all future diplomatic negotiations.”

Soon after Macron’s announcement on Thursday, Netanyahu said that it “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.”

If the war continues, Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”

Though Berlin has continued to make critical statements, the Foreign Ministry source indicated that Jerusalem still views Germany as a largely supportive country. 

The source noted that while there was significant domestic pressure over Germany’s Israel policy, it has not backed down, such as last week when Berlin declined to join a letter of 28 countries calling to end the war immediately. 

In addition, Germany did not support moves to reexamine Israel’s “association agreement” with the EU, which could result in a chill in relations between Israel and its largest trade partner. Changes in the association agreement would require consensus from all 28 EU member states, several of whom would be unlikely to support downgrading ties with Israel.

Wadephul and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have met three times since the former entered office three months ago. In one of the meetings he said that Germany would not cut off arms sales to Israel. 

Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies, said that the aid drops would likely be enough to stop Germany from taking action against Israel.

“I find it hard to believe that Germany, who we have very close ties with, would do something like [downgrade the association agreement] unless Israel has totally cut off humanitarian aid … For German public agreement, you need aid flowing into Gaza,” he added.

Shek was skeptical that Germany would follow Macron in recognizing a Palestinian state, but said “even Germany is showing signs of impatience and urgency,” and that there are other steps that Berlin could take.

The former ambassador also said he thought that canceling the EU-Israel Association Agreement was unlikely, because Hungary and Eastern European states would not support it. However, he said that the Brussels bureaucracy could slow-walk agreements and cooperation with Jerusalem in areas that often depend on EU grants such as scientific research and culture.

If the war continues, Shek warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”

That being said, Shek and Navon doubted that the latest moves from Europe actually constituted pressure on Jerusalem. 

Shek dismissed angry Israeli reactions to Macron’s “recognition of a virtual Palestinian state state that doesn’t exist … Those reactions are only aimed at the Israeli voter and have no value in international relations.” 

“We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it,” said Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies. “The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”

Navon noted that other G7 countries were not on board with Macron’s initiatives, even those with left-wing governments like the U.K. and Canada.

“Macron has brought relations with Israel to the low of the early to mid 1970s … when France was graded as hostile in Israel’s foreign policy,” Navon said. “It will take years to repair after [Macron].” 

Navon said that Israel needs to be more proactive in communicating what is happening in Gaza: “We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it. The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”

In addition, Navon said, “Netanyahu needs to get his act together and tell his ministers to shut up or take away their phones.”

He referred to remarks by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu in a radio interview last week that “the government is racing ahead to wipe out Gaza … All of Gaza will be Jewish.” 

“The prime minister has to have better control of rogue members of his government and party who are causing us terrible damage,” Navon added.

Shek, however, said the way to improve Israel’s relations with Europe and the rest of the world is to end the war in Gaza.

The former ambassador argued that the issue is not one of Israel doing a poor job at explaining the situation to the world: “If all of these countries have reached the conclusion that the war needs to end, then Israel needs to have a discussion with them to find out how they can contribute to a better reality after the war … We need to just get into a conversation about an exit strategy … which is something that the Israeli government has refused to do from Oct. 8, 2023, to this day.” 

It’s a scenario that has played out many times over since Oct. 7, 2023: Against the backdrop of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations, Israeli actions in Gaza draw widespread condemnation. World leaders call for a ceasefire. Amid that growing criticism, Hamas, sensing increased pressure on Israel, responds by escalating its demands or backing away from negotiations entirely.

This week is no different, with Israel’s launch on Monday of a ground operation in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, where it had not previously operated, the same day that more than two dozen Western countries released a joint statement calling for “unconditional and permanent ceasefire.” Hamas negotiators in Doha, Qatar, have reportedly spent the last two weeks dragging out ceasefire talks, over issues ranging from the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released to the areas where the IDF is allowed to operate.

In yesterday’s statement, the countries’ demand of Hamas is only for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the remaining 50 hostages, with no mention of disarmament or the terror group’s removal from power — key Israeli demands since Hamas’ brutal attacks on the Jewish state almost two years ago.

Hamas has since October 2023 faced limited pressure to acquiesce to Israeli and American demands. The terror group’s backers in Doha, where senior Hamas officials have long lived in opulence and security, have similarly faced little international pressure — even as Qatar plays a key role in negotiations. Israel has not been a perfect actor, and at times has walked away from the negotiating table. But Jerusalem’s refusals have been outpaced by Hamas’ intransigence, the latter of which has frustrated White House officials in both the current and former administrations.

At his final press briefing as secretary of state in January, Tony Blinken warned that Hamas benefitted from international pressure on Israel, saying, “Hamas held back [from agreeing to deals] at various points because it saw or hoped that public international pressure was mounting on Israel, and it could just wait it out and that pressure would get to a point where Israel would have to accede to all of Hamas’ demands.”

And in a Washington Post op-ed shortly after leaving the White House, Brett McGurk acknowledged that “throughout the ceasefire negotiations, Hamas consistently held back on a commitment to release hostages and aimed to ensure that it remains in power after the war ends.”

What’s more, McGurk wrote in his op-ed, Israel faced demands in the weeks and months after the onset of the war “that the only way to stop the fighting was for Israel to accept all of Hamas’s terms. Calls to restrict weapons shipments to Israel, or to increase pressure on Israel (rather than on those who kept attacking it), or to back U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding ‘unconditional’ ceasefires with Hamas, discounted this regional equation and the intent of Israel’s adversaries.”

There is a popular adage that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For nearly two years, Israel, Hamas and the international community have fallen into an endless cycle of talks, official statements and Hamas backtracking. Far from getting a different result, the world has seen more of the same: the continued captivity of the hostages, deepening global ostracization of Israel, ongoing death and destruction in Gaza and a Hamas that feels emboldened to up its demands.

The IDF entered the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, amid stalled hostage and ceasefire negotiations in Doha, Qatar.

The maneuver in Deir el-Balah began a day after an evacuation order from the central Gaza city, built on the Mediterranean coast around an UNRWA refugee camp. Israeli officials believe some of the remaining 50 hostages may be being held in the area. In June 2024, the IDF freed four hostages, Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov in a raid in adjacent Nuseirat. 

Deir el-Balah has been relatively unscathed during the war that began after the Hamas terrorist attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The April 2024 incident in which the IDF killed World Central Kitchen aid workers whom it had mistakenly identified as terrorists took place near Deir el-Balah.

Before the latest operation in the Gaza war began in May, a senior defense official told Jewish Insider that the plan was to start from Gaza’s perimeter and work its way to the center, which the military now appears to be doing.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that relatives of the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza — 20 of whom are thought to be alive — were “shocked and alarmed” to learn of the maneuver and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other senior officials tell the Israeli public “why the offensive in the Dier al-Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk.”

“We have received no official, organized updates or satisfactory answers on this matter,” the forum added. “The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages, both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake.”

Despite optimism in Jerusalem and Washington in recent weeks about the prospects for a 60-day ceasefire in which half of the remaining 50 hostages would be released, talks have been on hold for the past week. Hamas representatives in Doha, Qatar, are reportedly unable to contact the terrorist group’s leaders in Gaza. 

The Word Health Organization said Tuesday that the IDF hit the residence compound belonging to local staff members and its main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday. The organization also said that two of its staff and two family members were detained, three of whom were later released. The WHO demanded the immediate release of the staff member who remained in detention.

In a statement released Tuesday, the IDF said troops identified shots being fired toward them in the Deir al-Balah area, and responded toward the area from which the shooting originated. The army highlighted that, “Prior to the start of IDF activities in the area, the IDF warned the civilian population to evacuate from the area for their safety, and was in contact with the international organizations working in the area.” 

It also noted that the troops detained several individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism and after questioning in the field, the majority were released and evacuated from the area in coordination with the international organizations. 

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said during a multi-arena situational assessment on Monday that “the IDF must be prepared for a continued wide-scale and comprehensive campaign, while managing a complex and challenging reality that requires multi-arena operations.”

“The war in the Gaza Strip is one of the most complex the IDF has ever known,” Zamir said. “We have achieved significant accomplishments – Southern Command continues to lead with regular and reserve brigades operating every day in both offense and defense.”

Also Monday, 25 countries — including most of the European Union, the U.K., Canada and Australia — called for an end to the war in Gaza and for the flow of humanitarian aid.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous,” the countries said, apparently referring to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that was installed as part of an effort to thwart Hamas’ practice of stealing and hoarding humanitarian aid.

The countries called for the hostages to be released immediately and expressed concern about the undermining of a two-state solution.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the statement, “as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas,” which welcomed the international statement.

“All statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas, which started this war and is prolonging it,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

The statement also argued that “Hamas is busy running a campaign to spread lies about Israel. At the same time, Hamas is deliberately acting to increase friction and harm to civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid.” 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the 25 countries’ statement “disgusting” in that it “puts pressure on Israel instead of [the] savages of Hamas. Gaza suffers for one reason: Hamas rejects every proposal. Blaming Israel is irrational.”  

ASPEN, Colo. — Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog and other pro-Israel speakers received a warm reception from the crowd at the Aspen Security Forum this week, as they discussed continued efforts to free the hostages in Gaza and Israel’s strikes on Iran.

But Herzog told Jewish Insider, on the sidelines of the conference after his panel on Wednesday, that he’s been disappointed by the response to the strikes from Democratic lawmakers in Washington, which has been overwhelmingly negative.

It’s a response that also stands in contrast to Herzog’s description of the transition he observed in the Biden administration’s thinking on Iran: from pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran that Herzog said would have been weaker than the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to, by the time President Joe Biden left office, active discussions of strikes on Iran.

“I must say, I was disappointed by the response of some senior people on the Democratic side,” Herzog told JI. “I’m saying it carefully because I never interfere in domestic politics here, but from a strategic point of view, I was disappointed by the response of some senior Democrats to the war on Iran.”

Herzog said that maintaining bipartisan support for Israel was the central goal of his ambassadorship and that he engaged with nearly everyone, including critics, with the exception of the most extreme voices. He said he expected U.S. leaders on both sides of the aisle to realize that the strikes offered a “unique opportunity” to counter a “malign actor” and “changed the strategic landscape in the Middle East.”

“People who either criticize it on procedural issues or people who say, ‘[It] wasn’t the right timing because they were talking to each other about a deal’ — there’s never a right time. Never,” Herzog said, emphasizing that the strikes had not, as critics warned, spiraled into a protracted war similar to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Herzog said Israel must “put a lot of work into maintaining that dialogue with both sides of the aisle, explaining our common interest, away from domestic politics here … and exploring the new opportunities that have been created in the Middle East.”

Herzog said that Israel has been preparing for an attack on Iran for decades, but the specific planning for what became Israel’s Operation Rising Lion and the U.S.’ Operation Midnight Hammer began in earnest in November 2024, after the second Iranian strike on Israel and Israel’s elimination of Iran’s air-defense systems. By that time, U.S. nuclear talks with Iran, which Herzog criticized as misguided, had been long stalled.

He said the fall of the Assad regime in Syria the following month provided a further opportunity to take action.

“If you look at the journey the Biden administration took from the initial days when they were rushing to a deal with Iran, to the last few months of the Biden administration where they were talking to us about military options against Iran, they went a long way,” Herzog recounted.

Herzog said he believes that the Biden administration underwent “disillusionment with the possibility of reaching a good deal with Iran,” as Iran made unrealistic demands, such as removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ terrorism designation. And he said Iran’s supply of weapons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the talks “much more difficult.”

“I just could see that movement with time, to the last phase of Biden’s presidency, when, after we turned the tables on the Iranian axis and opened that huge opportunity, we actually started looking with them at the military option,” he said. “It was too late in the day [to carry out the strikes before Biden left office], but it was a very interesting journey that I noticed.”

Looking at the rising isolationist sentiments on the Republican side of the aisle, Herzog said he’s been monitoring the issue and has “been concerned about it,” but also argued that such voices aren’t dominant in the Trump administration’s decision-making.

“It’s like a swing of a pendulum because the U.S. ultimately decided to follow Israel and strike Iran, and this is really historic, in that it’s a first-of-its-kind coordinated offensive operation. … This is the first time that we are coordinated in our offensive operations, that’s a very big deal for a long time to come in my view,” Herzog said.

He said he sees the pendulum swinging against the isolationists in the administration’s recent moves to provide additional support to Ukraine and take a tougher stance toward Russia as well.

“So all in all, I don’t think that the administration is following this isolationist trend, but I do follow it and I am concerned about it,” Herzog said. “I do believe that the world needs American leadership, [an] American dominant role. The world needs America to be a force of good, as it has always been, and that’s what we’d like to see.”

Herzog — reflecting on the panel he spoke on, “Israel at a Crossroads” — said that the U.S. and Israel need to be closely coordinated and in lockstep on the path forward on Iran, including the limits of a diplomatic deal and the red lines that would prompt further military action to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear program, as well as ways to capitalize on Iran’s weakness throughout the region and prevent it from rebuilding its proxy network.

“We managed to surprise the Iranians, hit all the main centers of gravity and take them completely off balance. But challenges are still ahead of us because we have to assume that Iran will seek to rebuild those threatening capabilities,” Herzog said. “We should not rest on our laurels.”

He also emphasized that the strikes and the degradation of Iran’s proxies had “created the conditions for a different Middle East.”

Asked about the Israeli government’s policy on Syria — which shifted in the span of a week, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actively discussing normalization and diplomatic paths with President Donald Trump in the White House to Israel bombing key Syrian government sites in recent days — Herzog described the new Syria as a “mixed bag” with both risks and opportunities, and said that it may be too early to judge.

“On one hand, I believe that this new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, a.k.a. Mohammad al-Jolani, doesn’t want, he doesn’t seek war with Israel, and he sends across messages, and that’s what he told the Trump administration,” Herzog said, adding that Israel had started a dialogue through the U.S. on what Herzog termed a formal or informal non-aggression agreement and the demilitarization of southern Syria.

“On the other hand, we should not forget the background of al-Sharaa and the people surrounding him or subordinate to him,” Herzog said. “They all grew up in the school of jihadism.”

He criticized al-Sharaa for what he said was an effort to “subjugate [Syrian minorities] so they become part of his Syria, his vision of Syria” rather than allowing for a federalist system. Herzog said the Israeli strikes “sent a very strong message … that we will not tolerate the scenes of humiliating the Druze and endangering their lives,” and aimed to block the Syrian army from conquering Druze areas and carrying out atrocities.

“What we’ve seen, first with the Alawites and now with the Druze, is very troubling,” Herzog said. “We in Israel, our concerns are about, first, the security situation in southern Syria, and second about the state of minorities, especially the Druze, because not only are they close to our border, [but] because we have an important Druze community in Israel. They are our brothers in arms.”

He added that it’s unclear to what extent al-Sharaa himself is in control over Syrian government forces’ actions.

The Israeli ambassador also reflected on the ways that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel seemingly activated a global wave of antisemitism.

“You’re hit hard, you’re bleeding, and all your enemies smell the blood and rise to hit you,” Herzog said. “That pertains to all of our enemies in the region, the Iranian axis, but also pertains to anti-Israel, antisemitic forces here in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

He said that Israel has “gone a long way” against its military adversaries in the Middle East, “really turned the tables on Iran and the Iranian axis” and “created the conditions for a different Middle East.”

“But,” he continued, “we still have a long way to go against these anti-Israel, antisemitic forces. That’s an open front.”