rssJones Signals White House Support for J-Street Cause
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 4:07 pm
- 16 Comments
National Security Adviser James Jones (WDCpix)
Granting recognition to a new American Jewish lobby group pressing for peace between Israel and the Arab world, ret. Gen. James Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, said that resolving the 60-year conflict was the crisis that the Obama administration would prioritize if it could “solve any one problem.”
Jones sharpened the Obama administration’s conception of an end-state to the conflict during a keynote address to the first annual conference held by J Street, the year-old “pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby,” calling for a “secure, Jewish state of Israel” side by side with a “viable, contiguous state of Palestine” that “ends the occupation began in 1967 and unleashes the full potential of the Palestinian people.” No previous U.S. administration has emphasized the essentially Jewish character of Israel or the need for Palestinian territorial contiguity, both of which speak to deep-seated concerns of both sides in the conflict.
The formulation streamlines one unveiled by Obama at the United Nations General Assembly in September and was one Jones recently used in a keynote address to the American Task Force on Palestine, a Palestinian lobby group also seeking a two-state solution, on Oct. 16. And that reflects an emerging strategy of the Obama administration: to cultivate ties with groups within the American Jewish and Arab-American communities to support a two-state solution, at a time when few believe the prospects for peace look bright, to demonstrate both to a skittish Congress and to the international community that there is a robust American political constituency for ending the conflict. Calling himself “honored” to keynote the first J Street conference, Jones pledged founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, a former Clinton White House staffer, “You can be sure this administration will be represented at all future conferences.”
Image by: Matt Mahurin
[buttons] That strategy has grown controversial, as more conservative elements of the American Jewish community — and even the Israeli government — who view Obama’s quest for peace with skepticism have attacked J Street as inauthentically Jewish and insufficiently pro-Israel in advance of the conference. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, declined an invitation to attend the conference, saying last week that J Street took positions that “hurt Israeli interests.” Also last week, Lenny Ben-David, a former official at the Israeli embassy in Washington and with the largest Israel lobby group, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, circulated an assault on J Street for accepting money and partnership from Arab-Americans, which he intimated were anti-Israel. And during the same time, Michael Goldfarb, a blogger for the Weekly Standard and a communications director for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, called members of J Street’s honorary congressional “host committee” to accuse the group of insufficient support for Israel, getting 12 out of 160 members of Congress to withdraw their membership.
J Street said it expected the attacks, as it emerged in April 2008 specifically to challenge the more traditional Israel lobby groups — referred by some in the American Jewish peace community as the “status quo lobby” — by providing a more explicitly vocal presence in the American Jewish community for peace. One of J Street’s founders, Daniel Levy, said he believed the presence of Jones and the retention of 148 members of Congress on the host committee show that it has attracted political strength in its year-long existence.
“The smear campaign” represents “business as usual” for many right-wing American Jewish organizations, said Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator. “It represents a frustration that [J Street] has clearly gained traction, has a following and is going to keep growing. It has legitimacy with Israel, it has legitimacy with the American Jewish community, and it has legitimacy in the corridors of American political power” including with the Obama administration, “with the presence of Gen. Jones.”
The conference, held at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington, attracted 1,500 attendees from around the country and Israel. Speakers included current and former members of the Israeli parliament, including former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami, Security-Service Chief Ami Ayalon, former Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, all members of the peace camp in Israeli politics. J Street spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said the gathering, which began Sunday night and ends Wednesday, “feels very historic” and might be “the largest gathering of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement” in the United States to date.
Jones echoed J Street’s view of Israel’s interest in ending the conflict in his address. “I’m here to tell you, without equivocation, Israel’s security and peace in the Middle East are inseparable,” he said. He called on Israel and the Palestinians to “relaunch negotiations without pre-conditions,” urged Palestinian leaders to “combat incitement” against Israel” and urged Israeli leaders to “stop settlement growth [and] dismantle outposts” for settlement in the West Bank.
On diplomacy with Iran, an urgent concern for many in the American Jewish community, Jones said that in the wake of the revelation of Iran’s undisclosed nuclear facility at Qom, there was an emerging “consensus around the globe moving in our direction” that Iran must reassure the international community that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon or face internationally enforced penalties. “Nothing is off the table,” Jones said.
Another speaker, Robert Wexler, the Florida Democratic congressman who recently announced his resignation to direct a non-governmental organization seeking peace and Palestinian economic development, said it was “logical” that if Obama could make progress on nuclear diplomacy with Iran, a reassured Israeli leadership would “take greater risks for peace” with the Palestinians and the Arab world.
Calling it a “great honor” to address the J Street conference, Jones concluded by saying that by securing a lasting peace with the Palestinians — and thereby removing an excuse for radicalization in the region that threatens U.S. interests — “we will strengthen the unshakable bond between the U.S. and Israel that has endured for 60 years.”
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by attackerman: What Gen. Jones’s speech to #jstconf09 means for American Jewish politics and the peace community more broadly: http://bit.ly/ZmkxE...
Pingback posted October 28, 2009 @ 2:18 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Nation, attackerman, Daniel Sieradski, Conover, Christa Blackmon and others. Christa Blackmon said: The potential of @jstreetdotorg gets me so excited and so does this article about the #jstconf09 by @attackerman http://bit.ly/ZmkxE Squee! [...]
Comment posted October 28, 2009 @ 5:28 am
OPEN LETTER TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT
October 27, 2009, 4:45PM
Did you order the killing of the 900 civilians, in Gaza, in January, in self-defence or did you kill them to save others?
Did you kill these non-combatants in order to terrorize the civilian population?
Were you aware that to kill civilians, except in self-defence, is a war crime?
Did your troops use banned white phosphorus as a chemical weapon to injure and kill?
If your soldiers are alleged by an independent enquiry to be guilty of war crimes, will they be handed over voluntarily to the ICC for trial?
In which event, will Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, the ministers directly responsible, be voluntarily be handed over to the authorities in The Hague, or will it be left to other governments to arrest them ?
Pingback posted October 28, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
[...] [...]
Comment posted October 29, 2009 @ 1:27 am
The Obama Admin is facing an uphill battle on this front. With the far -right Netanyahu government emboldened by its victory in facing down Mr. Obama's demand to freeze settlements and the intransigent opposition to peace by neo-cons in America, Israel and Canada – which seems to be more pro-Israel than AIPAC, and the demoralized and ineffective government of Abumazen and the Admin. refusal to talk to Hamas the prospects for peace are becoming increasingly grim.
Comment posted October 31, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
You mean the Israeli's are going to invite IAEA inspectors to their nuclear plants and sign up to the NPT like Iran?
The double standards are preventing peace as most can see and putting Blair the war criminal as peace envoy is really rubbing the Arab nose in the shit.
Comment posted November 2, 2009 @ 11:13 am
You know, all this is such a crock. This administration is so deep in Israel's pocket, Bush's administration is beginning to look like the radical peacemakers for an independent Palestinian state. Disgusting.
Comment posted November 6, 2009 @ 5:27 pm
EMPIRE PRE-EMPTIVE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ATTACK
[No Grand Aspirations]
Now, The Russian Federation is a member of The [BRIC] Sphere of Influences, Brazil, The Russian Federation, India, and The Peoples Republic of China: Sphere [1] One: Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela, the [21st] Century Global Community Geo-Affairs System. The Russian Federation under the tandem leadership of President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin have [NO Grand Aspirations], beyond continuing providing a between standard of living for the Russian People and ensuring their future is a bright one, as the Matthew Yglesias Blog. [www.ThinkProgress.Org.], wrote, and we quote, [it appears that rather than “grand aspirations,” Putin has just about the most banal aspirations of all—under his rule Russia will seek to influence events in much smaller and weaker countries that are in its immediate geographic vicinity.] end quote. The Russian Federation is working with and the senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], a tent or umbrella of protection, without domination, a voting block among other voting blocks.
[Wind of Change]
The question then arises why the voicing of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against The Russian Federation by the American-Israeli Empire in conjunction with a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Shi-ite Persia Republic of Iran and the answer is a simple one the rapid decline of the Empire. The fall of the Empire will occur no later than [2020] one decade, [10] ten years, from now. At present the government of Israel has total and complete control of the Empire thru the [SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP] between (ADL & AIPAC/AZC), Anti-Defamation League & American Israel Public Affairs Committee/American Zionist Council, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and the (544/DC), which mean nothing after the collapse of the Empire. Israel is in a time frame bind, as much as the Non-Israeli Jew’s living on the North American Continent, Israeli loses the Senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], and the Non-Israeli Jews on the North American Continent will be put into a state of Limbo, within the shifting vortex winds of change upon the North American Continent. And a pre-emptive attack would place the American-Israeli Empire at the pentacle of power with control of markets and resources [Oil, Gas, & Minerals] running from the Arctic, to Africa and the seas off the southern coast of the Islamic Crescent.
[Setting the Stage]
Therefore the stage is being set with statements such as, with Poland shaping up to be the New Germany in another round of Empire-Russian geo-political chess, it’s useful to remember that time after time, The Empire has extended its hand to Moscow only to have it slapped away. Putin clearly has grand aspirations for his burgeoning [CSTO] Collective Security Treaty Organization, but Moscow had better understand the stern language of the Media Messiah Imperial President will be matched by resolve and the backing of the [MIC] Military Industrial Complex of the Empire, which is moving quickly to strengthen offensive military ties between Poland and the Empire against The Russian Federation. As the Russia Federation and its allies in the [CSTO] are to merge their joint troops in Central Asia forming the third regional [CSTO] military force after the European force formed by Russia and Belarus and the Caucasian force formed by Russia and Armenia.
[CSTO & CRRF]
A vastly huge regional security alliance force capable of waging a large-scale war, the European collective force alone, includes all Belarusian military with the entire Western Russian Federation Forces; and was expanded in [1992] to include; [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan], as a purely military structure to ensure security in the Central Asia Region against an invasion from an Empire War of Resources and Markets Surge, under a new security strategy uniting the [CRRF] Collective Rapid Response Forces, a military organization on par with [NATO] The North American Treaty Organization in all respects, with the [CSTO] greatly enlarging its military capabilities in Central Asia by forming a strong, joint armed force, the member countries have contributed units in the magnitudes of higher-than-brigade scale to its organizational force structure, including armored, artillery and navy units creating a powerful military block to balance [NATO] in the Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region. This in response to the expected pre-emptive nuclear attack upon both The Russian Federation and the Shi-ite Persian Republic of Iran by the Empire, brought on by an anticipated, Empire Surge in its Wars or Resources and Markets into the energy-rich region. [Central Asian nations prepare for “big war” http://WWW.RussiaToday.Com, and as reported by as Kommersant newspaper CSTO spokesman Vitaly Strugovets told Kommersant.], and this is exactly what makes the continuation of the Empire, a danger to the entire Global Community of Nations.
HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
Comment posted November 6, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
EMPIRE PRE-EMPTIVE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ATTACK
[No Grand Aspirations]
Now, The Russian Federation is a member of The [BRIC] Sphere of Influences, Brazil, The Russian Federation, India, and The Peoples Republic of China: Sphere [1] One: Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela, the [21st] Century Global Community Geo-Affairs System. The Russian Federation under the tandem leadership of President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin have [NO Grand Aspirations], beyond continuing providing a between standard of living for the Russian People and ensuring their future is a bright one, as the Matthew Yglesias Blog. [www.ThinkProgress.Org.], wrote, and we quote, [it appears that rather than “grand aspirations,” Putin has just about the most banal aspirations of all—under his rule Russia will seek to influence events in much smaller and weaker countries that are in its immediate geographic vicinity.] end quote. The Russian Federation is working with and the senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], a tent or umbrella of protection, without domination, a voting block among other voting blocks.
[Wind of Change]
The question then arises why the voicing of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against The Russian Federation by the American-Israeli Empire in conjunction with a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Shi-ite Persia Republic of Iran and the answer is a simple one the rapid decline of the Empire. The fall of the Empire will occur no later than [2020] one decade, [10] ten years, from now. At present the government of Israel has total and complete control of the Empire thru the [SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP] between (ADL & AIPAC/AZC), Anti-Defamation League & American Israel Public Affairs Committee/American Zionist Council, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and the (544/DC), which mean nothing after the collapse of the Empire. Israel is in a time frame bind, as much as the Non-Israeli Jew’s living on the North American Continent, Israeli loses the Senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], and the Non-Israeli Jews on the North American Continent will be put into a state of Limbo, within the shifting vortex winds of change upon the North American Continent. And a pre-emptive attack would place the American-Israeli Empire at the pentacle of power with control of markets and resources [Oil, Gas, & Minerals] running from the Arctic, to Africa and the seas off the southern coast of the Islamic Crescent.
[Setting the Stage]
Therefore the stage is being set with statements such as, with Poland shaping up to be the New Germany in another round of Empire-Russian geo-political chess, it’s useful to remember that time after time, The Empire has extended its hand to Moscow only to have it slapped away. Putin clearly has grand aspirations for his burgeoning [CSTO] Collective Security Treaty Organization, but Moscow had better understand the stern language of the Media Messiah Imperial President will be matched by resolve and the backing of the [MIC] Military Industrial Complex of the Empire, which is moving quickly to strengthen offensive military ties between Poland and the Empire against The Russian Federation. As the Russia Federation and its allies in the [CSTO] are to merge their joint troops in Central Asia forming the third regional [CSTO] military force after the European force formed by Russia and Belarus and the Caucasian force formed by Russia and Armenia.
[CSTO & CRRF]
A vastly huge regional security alliance force capable of waging a large-scale war, the European collective force alone, includes all Belarusian military with the entire Western Russian Federation Forces; and was expanded in [1992] to include; [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan], as a purely military structure to ensure security in the Central Asia Region against an invasion from an Empire War of Resources and Markets Surge, under a new security strategy uniting the [CRRF] Collective Rapid Response Forces, a military organization on par with [NATO] The North American Treaty Organization in all respects, with the [CSTO] greatly enlarging its military capabilities in Central Asia by forming a strong, joint armed force, the member countries have contributed units in the magnitudes of higher-than-brigade scale to its organizational force structure, including armored, artillery and navy units creating a powerful military block to balance [NATO] in the Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region. This in response to the expected pre-emptive nuclear attack upon both The Russian Federation and the Shi-ite Persian Republic of Iran by the Empire, brought on by an anticipated, Empire Surge in its Wars or Resources and Markets into the energy-rich region. [Central Asian nations prepare for “big war” http://WWW.RussiaToday.Com, and as reported by as Kommersant newspaper CSTO spokesman Vitaly Strugovets told Kommersant.], and this is exactly what makes the continuation of the Empire, a danger to the entire Global Community of Nations.
HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
Pingback posted January 26, 2010 @ 9:33 am
[...] Security Advisor James Jones has made it clear that he sees the Israel-Palestinian issue as absolutely central; it’s not our only problem in the Middle East, but it tends to affect most of the others and [...]
Pingback posted January 27, 2010 @ 8:07 am
[...] Security Advisor James Jones has made it clear that he sees the Israel-Palestinian issue as absolutely central; it’s not our only problem in the Middle East, but it tends to affect most of the others and [...]
Pingback posted January 30, 2010 @ 1:32 am
[...] Security Advisor James Jones has made it clear that he sees the Israel-Palestinian issue as absolutely central; it’s not our only problem in the Middle East, but it tends to affect most of the others and [...]
Pingback posted April 17, 2010 @ 5:15 am
[...] Security Advisor James Jones has made it clear that he sees the Israel-Palestinian issue as absolutely central; it's not our only problem in the Middle East, but it tends to affect most of the others and [...]
Comment posted August 5, 2010 @ 2:12 am
Did you order the killing of the 900 civilians, in Gaza, in January, in self-defence or did you kill them to save others?
Comment posted February 19, 2011 @ 8:34 am
Thanks for the post. This keeps me informed about the topic.
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