Israeli warplanes have stopped dropping bombs on Gaza, at least for now, but there’s no ceasefire in the occupied West Bank. Since October 2023, and especially since this January, the intensity of Israeli military operations in the West Bank has escalated to a degree unseen since the Second Intifada. On January 21st, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “Operation Iron Wall”—a bombing campaign and ground invasion centered on the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Jenin houses a large Palestinian refugee camp populated by families expelled by Israeli forces in 1948. As such, it has long been an epicenter of Palestinian militancy, and has faced waves of Israeli ground invasions and sieges for decades. Now, Israel’s defense minister has said that the army is returning to Jenin to apply the “lessons” it learned in Gaza—which have included the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, the siege of a hospital, and, in a particularly brazen act, the simultaneous blowing up of 23 buildings on February 2nd.
To discuss Israel’s application of the “Gaza model” in the West Bank and its impact on Palestinians, Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke with journalist Azmat Khan and analyst Tahani Mustafa.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”
Articles Mentioned and Further Reading
“Israeli military operation turns Jenin refugee camp into 'ghost town,'” Ali Sawafta, Reuters
“Demolitions in Jenin signal Israel’s new approach in the West Bank,” Marcus Walker, The Wall Street Journal
“In West Bank raids, Palestinians see echoes of Israel’s Gaza war,” Raja Abdulrahim and Azmat Khan, The New York Times
“Two young children were getting ready for school. An IDF drone killed them,” Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz
“The civilian casualty files,” The New York Times
“Palestinian Authority’s raid on Jenin appeals to Israeli, Western interests,” Mat Nashed, Al Jazeera English
“Palestinian gunman kills Israeli soldiers as UN warns over W Bank operation,” David Gritten, BBC News
“The settler strategy accelerating Palestinian dispossession,” Dalia Hatuqa, Jewish Currents
On Sunday, Israel and Hamas entered into the first phase of what could become a permanent ceasefire. Under the agreement that led to the pause, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinians, many held without charge or trial, from its prisons in exchange for the release of 98 Israeli hostages by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The deal also allows Palestinians forcibly displaced from the north of Gaza to return to that area, promises a surge in humanitarian aid to a Palestinian population that was starving as a result of Israel’s siege, and leaves open the door for further negotiations resulting in a permanent ceasefire. But significant questions remain about the deal—foremost of which is whether it will lead to the permanent end of Israel’s bombardment and hermetic siege of Gaza, an assault experts have termed a genocide. To discuss why Israel agreed to stop its bombing after 15 months, whether the ceasefire is likely to last, and the future of Gaza’s governance, Jewish Currents senior reporter Alex Kane spoke to analysts Yousef Munayyer and Zaha Hassan.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”
Further Reading
“A long-awaited ceasefire has finally begun in Gaza. Here’s what we know,” Sophie Tanno, Lauren Kent and Christian Edwards, CNN
“Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable,’” Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
“Ben Gvir says he repeatedly foiled hostage deals, urges Smotrich to help him stop this one,” Times of Israel staff, Times of Israel
“UNRWA said preparing to shutter Gaza, West Bank operations ahead of Israeli ban,” Times of Israel staff, Times of Israel
“Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say,” Claire Parker, Loveday Morris, Hajar Harb, Miriam Berger and Hazem Balousha, The Washington Post
“The Pro-Israel Donor With a $100 Million Plan to Elect Trump,” Theodore Schleifer, The New York Times
On this episode of On the Nose—a recording of an online event for Jewish Currents members, co-sponsored by the Beinart Notebook—editor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks with Mahmoud Muna, Matthew Teller, and Juliette Touma, three of the editors of the new anthology Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture. This volume includes nearly 100 stories from people in Gaza, recorded both before and amidst Israel’s ongoing assault. In this conversation, the editors discuss the collection and the process of compiling it, and read some of the powerful testimonies it contains.
Thanks to Daniel Kaufman and Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).
Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:
Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture, ed. Mahmoud Muna and Matthew Teller with Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia
“Letter from Gaza” by Ghassan Kanafani, Marxists Internet Archive
“The Only Refuge I Could Offer” by Anonymous, Jewish Currents
“Exile from Gaza” by Zak Hania, Safa Al-Majdalawi, Amal Al-Majdalawi, and Mohammed Ghalayni (as told to Jonathan Shamir), Jewish Currents
“The Scenes in Rafah Are Straight From a Nightmare” by Zak Hania, Ahmed Totah, and Sameera Wafi (as told to Jonathan Shamir), Jewish Currents
“Even as We Are Trying to Help, We Are Being Attacked” by Jameel, Juliette Touma, and Mohammed Al Khatib (as told to Jonathan Shamir and Aparna Gopalan), Jewish Currents
“We Have Lost the Ability to Provide True Care” by Hammam Alloh, Yousef Al-Akkad, and Reda Abu Assi (as told to Maya Rosen), Jewish Currents
“Dispatches from Gaza” by Mohammed Zraiy, Khalil Abuy Yahia, and Rania Hussein (as told to Alain Alameddine, Maya Rosen, and Julia), Jewish Currents
Since October 2023, Palestine solidarity activists have faced a climate of McCarthyist repression, and all signs point to the incoming Trump administration escalating that campaign to silence the anti-genocide movement. Trump’s cabinet appointees and supporters have embraced plans to revoke visas of pro-Palestine student organizers, sue colleges to ensure they crack down on protesters, subject anti-Zionist students to FBI questioning, and more—all in the name of fighting antisemitism.
In this episode, associate editor Mari Cohen and senior reporter Alex Kane join Emma Saltzberg, US strategic campaigns director for Diaspora Alliance, and Dylan Saba, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal and a contributing writer at Jewish Currents, to discuss the possible shape of the Trump repression regime. We discuss the use of civil rights law to quash student protest, the Heritage Foundation’s unnerving “Project Esther” blueprint for suppressing the Palestine solidarity movement, and Congressional attempts to attack the nonprofit status of anti-Zionist groups. We also analyze the multiple right-wing approaches at play—including the distinct but sometimes overlapping “anti-discrimination” and “anti-terrorism” paradigms—and consider possibilities for mobilizing a broader liberal-left coalition to oppose these strategies.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”
Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:
“Trump DOJ civil rights pick blasted campus protests, opposed Antisemitism Awareness Act,” Marc Rod, Jewish Insider
“The Biden-Harris administration has failed to combat campus antisemitism,” Jonathan Pidluzny, America First Policy Institute
“Trump attorney general pick Pam Bondi: 5 things Jews should know,” Lauren Markoe, Forward
“The civil rights law shutting down pro-Palestine speech,” Alex Kane, Jewish Currents
“Linda McMahon meets with Senators, addresses approach to fighting antisemitism,” Emily Jacobs, Jewish Insider
“Project Esther,” The Heritage Foundation
“Evangelical Christians are politicizing the Jewish story of Esther,” Jane Eisner, The Washington Post
“Congressional Republicans launch 'fishing expedition' against progressive, Jewish, and Palestinian nonprofits,” Matthew Petti, Reason
“Virginia judge denies pro-Palestinian group’s bid to limit attorney general’s demand for documents,” Dean Mirshahi, WRIC ABC 8News
A Real Pain is a film starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Kulkin as two American Jewish cousins who take a trip to Poland to visit the childhood home of their grandmother. In this episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, contributing editor Maia Ipp, and author Menachem Kaiser—all of whom are grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—dissect the movie’s depiction of millennial neuroses, its relationship to other Holocaust films, and its grappling with the question of how to make meaning out of inherited memory.
Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”
Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:
“Selling the Holocaust,” Arielle Angel, Menachem Kaiser, and Maia Ipp, Jewish Currents
“(Re)Writing Remembrance,” Arielle Angel and Maia Ipp, Jewish Currents
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure, Menachem Kaiser
“If I were a Zionist, I'd be Z: How Generations of Jews have Abandoned their Children to Face the Reckoning Alone,” Natasha Gill, Substack