Internal American Politics | The American Task Force on Palestine

J Street fills gap in Washington map
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

On the street map of Washington DC there is a strange omission. Most streets are designated by either a number or a letter. But look as hard as you want there is no J Street. Seemingly, a hand-written capital I or J were seen as being too similar; a recipe for confusion. This exception is seen by the head of the new liberal and decidedly dovish Israeli lobby group in Washington as a useful metaphor. "Just as there is no J Street on the grid in Washington DC," says Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street's Executive Director, his organisation "is looking to fill a similar gap in the political map".

Driving up J Street
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Michelle Goldberg - (Opinion) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Security guards blocked the doors to several of the panels at J Street's first annual conference this week – because the rooms were so packed it would have been illegal to let any more people in. A discussion entitled "The need for a regional comprehensive approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict" was so popular that the organisers decided to repeat it. (One of the speakers, Jordanian ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, remarked that it was the first time in decades of panel participation that he'd been asked for an encore.)

J Street, Now a Player, Inches Toward the Center
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Three days in October catapulted J Street from the sidelines of the Jewish community to the centerfield of major organizations. After winning, in its first national conference, the stamp of approval from the Obama administration and from many in Congress, J Street is ready to cash in on its initial success. But for J Street, the transformation from being the new kid on the block to becoming a serious player in the pro-Israel advocacy field also entails some growing pains.

The J Street Challenge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

J Street’s coming out party was an exuberant, over-subscribed success. Now come the challenges. And they come from all directions. The scope and depth of attendees at J Street’s first-ever conference — from participants who lined the walls of packed rooms to well-placed speakers from the American and Israeli governments — proved that the new, scrappy liberal lobby is a force to be reckoned with.

Israel is unlikely to yield
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Top aides of the Obama administration have this month been quietly stoking the peace process fire, raising expectations that the American president, whose popularity remains relatively high, may now be willing to go beyond gentle rapping Israeli knuckles. The ball started rolling when Barack Obama's National Security Advisor General James L. Jones addressed the Fourth Annual Gala of the American Task Force on Palestine on October 15.

Does J Street arrival signal a split in America's Israel lobby?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Since the 1950s the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has been the mainstream voice of the Jewish-American community and its efforts to strengthen support for Israel in Washington. Along comes J Street, a young upstart founded last year, in part as an answer to AIPAC – perceived by many progressive American Jews to have a clear right-wing tilt, and hardly representative of those want to see a much more aggressive push towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

J Street confab shows generational divide on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

After all the arguing in recent weeks over J Street, one thing was clear at the inaugural conference of the self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group: Even among the 1,500 delegates who attended the parley, there are crucial disagreements over what’s best for Middle East peace.

Jones Signals White House Support for J-Street Cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Independent
by Spencer Ackerman - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

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.”

San Francisco protestors call Olmert 'war criminal'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
October 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Pro-Palestinian protestors disrupted Ehud Olmert's speech in a San Francisco hotel on Thursday night, exactly one week after the former Israeli premier was verbally attacked at the University of Chicago over alleged war crimes committed by the Jewish state during the Gaza war. "You are a war criminal and a murderer," one of the protestors shouted at Olmert during the speech before being removed from the auditorium by security officers. Another protestor shouted, "You are a war criminal. San Francisco should be ashamed to have a war criminal here."

'Making Sense of the Arab-Israeli Nightmare'
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In Washington Report On Middle East Affairs - September 1, 2008 - 12:00am

IN A JUNE 27 panel entitled “Making Sense of the Arab-Israel Nightmare” held at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, speakers discussed the lessons to be learned from past administrations and prospects for the Bush administration in its final months, as well as prospects for the next administration. Ghaith al-Omari, a former policy adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Daniel Levy, former senior policy adviser in the Israeli prime minister’s office, and Aaron Miller, author of The Much Too Promised Land, addressed the Arab-Israeli conflict largely as an inherited problem.

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