Watchwords: Thursday, August 6
The Board of Peace moved its own withdrawal terms toward Israel, and eight Arab and Muslim governments declared Israel in breach anyway.
The week isn’t free of deranged claims and libels. Maybe next week? For now:
Eight Arab and Muslim foreign ministers declared Israel in breach on Thursday. Hamas signed the American 15-point roadmap for Gaza on July 30. Israel did not. That text ties Hamas handing over its heavy weapons to an Israeli pullback in stages, and it requires Israel to stop military operations once the deal starts. Netanyahu rightly will not move at all. Israel holds over 60 percent of the Strip, the plan asks it back to the 53 percent it held in October, and he told the country "we did not agree to it. It was not our draft." The Board of Peace — the American-run panel that brokered the roadmap — sent envoys to him on Monday, then issued a statement putting withdrawal after disarmament and dropped the word "full" from its own terms. On Thursday Türkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE called Israel's strikes a clear breach of international law and of the peace plan. Qatar helped write the roadmap, signed that finding, and has blamed Israel for the delay.
In this Watchwords: the week's deployable language — what to say when a reporter asks why Israel won't sign a deal Hamas already signed, how to answer a donor watching eight British Jewish charities go under statutory inquiry, the claims you'll field on Ceuta and the Miller judgment, and the traps that lose the room. Members read the full brief.
The Jewish State — Mitzpe's eight-session live course on Israeli history from the Mandate to October 7, taught the way the brief reads. Cohort 1: eight Sundays from Oct 11. mitzpe.org/the-jewish-state