J Street says it’ll withdraw support for IDF’s Gaza op sans ‘meaningful changes’

The dovish Mideast lobby J Street says it will withdraw support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza against Hamas unless major changes are made.

“If we do not see evidence soon that the government of Israel is, in fact, making meaningful changes to its conduct of the war and its attitudes regarding post-war arrangements, then J Street will no longer be able to provide our organizational support for the current military campaign,” J Street says in a statement.

“While J Street maintains support of Israel’s right – and the country’s moral obligation – to respond to this attack, to defend itself and to ensure that Israeli civilians never again come under threat from Hamas’s terror stronghold in Gaza, it is very concerned with the actions of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government since fighting resumed last week.”

“Since fighting restarted last week, Israeli forces have resumed large-scale bombing and again cut or significantly reduced vital aid flows. Areas designated as ‘safe’ for civilians have been bombed, and rising levels of disease, hunger and death have become both strategically and morally unacceptable,” the left-wing pro-Israel group adds.