Liberal J Street’s gathering sets off debate on U.S. relations

A Washington conference hosted this week by a new liberal Jewish advocacy group has sparked a diplomatic row and proxy battle over the Obama administration\'s stance on Israel at a time of simmering tensions between Washington and Israel\'s right-leaning government.

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Jewish Journal

October 25, 2009

From WashingtonPost.com:

A Washington conference hosted this week by a new liberal Jewish advocacy group has sparked a diplomatic row and proxy battle over the Obama administration’s stance on Israel at a time of simmering tensions between Washington and Israel’s right-leaning government.

J Street, an advocacy and lobbying firm created 18 months ago, is holding its first annual conference beginning Sunday, with participation from about 150 Democratic members of Congress, many current and former Israeli politicians and U.S. national security adviser James L. Jones, who will be giving a keynote speech Tuesday.

Read the full story at WashingtonPost.com.

Learn more about J Street here:

Give J Street a Chance
by Rob Eshman

The people trying to discredit J Street, the new left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, are using many of the same tactics Barack Obama’s opponents used to try to derail his presidential campaign. I have one question for them: How’d that work out?

J Street got a big boost this week as the subject of a top story in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the country’s largest Jewish weekly. J Street’s founding director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, landed his full-on portrait inside the magazine. Read more.