This is my last day of blogging from the J-Street Conference. Tomorrow morning the other 1,500 attendees will be going to lobby their congresscritters. And I'll be back on the health reform beat.
Meanwhile, below the fold is thelivestream of the J-Street conference plenary session: "Why Two States? Why Now?" featuring:
Introduction: Representative Robert Wexler (FL-19)
Keynote Speaker: General James L. Jones, U.S. National Security Advisor
Israeli Interests:
Bernard Avishai, Business Consultant; Author
Ami Ayalon, Former Member of Knesset (Labor); Former Head of the Shin Bet
Haim Ramon, Former Member of Knesset (Kadima); Former Vice Prime Minister
American Interests:
Martin Indyk, Director of Foreign Policy-Brookings Inst & Fmr U.S Ambassador to Israel
Mel Levine, Former Member of Congress (D-CA)
Moderator:
Richard Wolffe, Author, Renegade: The Making of a President; Former Senior White House Correspondent, Newsweek
(continued below fold)
The big news is that the conference was scheduled to have about 1,000 attendees and is now over 1,600. Several session I tried to get into has hotel security not letting more folks in, not because of protester but because of the fire marshall room capacity rules.
Right wing Jews of the so called mainstream organizations that have tried to dismiss or ignore or condemn J-Street have failed. The large majority of American Jews do support Israel AND ALSO insist that that means, a real two-state solution with an end to settlements/occupation, having a rising organized voice. It means not having knee-jerk support of any and all polciies of the governement of Israel, or just silence when we disagree.
It is the coming out party of a movement that has been brewing for years. It represents the end of the 22% of Jews who are Republican/Neocons media message monopoly, and the beginning of the 75% of Jews who support the J-Street message and do not support the AIPAC message and do support Obama to make strong active push by America on BOTH sides (which means real pressure on Israel for the first time) to make peace, being organized and heard.
And here are some Israeli voices supporting J-Street's efforts to provide a real voice among American Jews to support real peace.
Below is a fullpage Ad that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post, other mainstream American print media, American Jewish media, and Haaretz:
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Also sending supportive congrats to the J-Street conference and movement were Israeli President PeresPeres and the
">head of Kadima the largest opposition party, Tzipi Livni. Earlier, a long list of Israeli notables including retired Generals heads of security, as well as current and former leading politicians signed their support of what J-Street is doing; that list can be found here
Okay. Finally. Here is the livestream of the conference plenary with Gen Jones & Wexler, et al:
From JStreet.org / Jewcy.com. Used with permission.
Organizations supporting and participating in this conference:
J-Street: http://www.jstreet.org/...
J-Street Education Fund: http://www.upzshalom.org & http://www.jstreetu.org
ALLEPH - Alliance for Jewish Renewal: http://www.aleph.org
Alliance for Middle East Peace: http://www.allmep.org
Ameinu: http://www.ameinu.net
Americans for Peace Now: http://peacenow.org
Btit Tzedek V’Shalom: http://www.btvshalom.org
Center for World Religions, Diplomacy & Conflict Resolution: http://crdcgmu.wordpress.com
Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations: http://www.csjo.org
Foundation for Middle East Peace: http://www.fmep.org
Israel/Palestinian Center for Research and Information: http://www.ipcri.org
Israel Policy Forum: http://www.israelpolicyforum.org
Jewish Peace Lobby: http://www.peacelobby.org
Masa – Israel Journey: http://www.masaisrael.org
MePeace (Network for Peace): http://www.mepeace.org
Meretz USA: http://www.meretzusa.org
New Israel Fund: http://www.nif.org
The OneVoice Movement: http://www.onevoicemovement.org
Peres Center for Peace: http://www.peres-center.org
Rabbis for Human Rights of North America: http://www.rhr-na.org
Shalom Center: http://www.theshalomcenter.org
Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring: http://www.circle.org
Wishing all Peace and Health.
I will be back to health reform shortly.