J Street still strong at national summit

The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks may have broken down, and the gap between the parties might be wider than ever, but that’s no reason not to try, try again — and it’s still up to the United States to take the lead.

That was the message opening night at J Street’s national summit June 7 in San Francisco, delivered by three big-name speakers with intimate knowledge of the troubled region.

“There’s so much bad blood between the Israelis and the Palestinians that, without the United States, we won’t move forward,” Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, told a crowd of about 600 gathered at Congregation Emanu-El to kick off the two-day summit.

Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, agreed but also blasted this and previous U.S. administrations for what he said was a “lack of parity” in its dealings with the parties — by which he meant its catering to Israel.

Read more at jweekly.com.