Students Explore Middle East Conflict at J Street Conference

By Miriam Berger, Assistant Features Editor

Emily Hoffman Wesleyan Students (left to right) Jen Liebschutz, Miriam Berger, Howard Tovochnik, and Micah Weiss participated in the J Street talks.

This fall break eight Wesleyan students gathered in Washington, D.C. to counter the claim that one voice can represent all American Jews and their connection to Israel and the Middle East.

J Street, which describes itself as “the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement,” held a three-day conference for 1,500 participants, including 250 college students, to hold open, progressive dialogue regarding the complex issues and considerations that inform participants’ political, religious, cultural, or moral relations with Israel.

“I came because I wanted to learn more about Israel and it seemed like a sensible organization with sensible solutions,” said participant Jen Liebschutz ’11. “Seeing so many people of widely varied backgrounds and ages caring about this issue made me feel strongly that this conflict is something worth devoting my attention to.”

Formed only 18 months ago, J Street is intended as an alternative to the established pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel and Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which also holds political conferences regarding Israel’s interests in American foreign policy. Although J Street also identifies as pro-Israel, the organization promotes a new direction for Middle East peace and security. J Street represents Americans who recognize the right of Palestinians to a sovereign state, and associates itself with social justice, environmental, and human rights organizations.

“J Street and likeminded organizations are providing a crucial space for forward-looking officials to pursue peaceful solutions,” said participant Dan Fisher ’10.

The Wesleyan group attending this first annual J Street conference came from different backgrounds and religious affiliations, all hoping to champion the need for a comprehensive and diplomatic solution to regional conflict in the Middle East.

“I have never heard any group or institution talk about a middle path to the conflict,” said J Street Campus Liaison Emily Hoffman ’10. “I was happy overall that most of the participants that I met weren’t immediately throwing themselves behind J Street and, like myself, were thinking critically about what we heard.”

J Street U, the university campus branch of the organization, held several informative panels for students throughout the weekend to explore recent developments in the Middle East and strategies for organizing on college campuses, as well as to evaluate the economic and psychological effects of boycotts and divestment. Panelists ranged from members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, to directors of grass roots campaigns and established Jewish social justice organizations.

Participants spent the weekend immersed in the complexities of several obstacles currently facing the region: the West Bank settlements, Israel’s social and domestic challenges, the state of human rights in Israel, the need for a regional approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, elements to Palestinian economic development, and the success of diplomacy with Iran.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the level of engaged sophistication about it,” said J Street Campus Liaison Micah Weiss ’10. “ J Street participants did a great job in keeping the complexities and gray areas in the Israel/Palestine conversation.”

Following the student-centered weekend events, a general conference of professionals, intellectuals, academics, and activists convened Sunday night through Tuesday. For a highly subsidized cost, J Street included students in their discussion.

In addition, student participants attended two plenary sessions. The first, a town hall meeting between J Street founder Jeremy Ben Ami and President of the Union for Reform Rabbi Eric Yoffie, discussed contentious issues such as the Gaza war and the recent Goldstone report on human rights violations during these hostilities. In the second event, four Congressmen, moderated by former CNN correspondent Bob Franken, discussed both positive and negative aspects of the lobbying system.

“It really highlights the power of money in politics,” said Hoffman. “The threat of losing campaign money affects politicians’ decisions so much. Practically it makes sense, but it takes out some of the moral legitimacy.”

This second event, as well as the conference itself, generated much publicity in the days and weeks prior to its occurrence. J Street cancelled a concurrent poetry session out of worry that it would be overly controversial; in addition, many members of Congress who had originally planned to attend, relented following extreme political pressure for being associated with the open and progressive J Street approach.

The J Street U events concluded on Wednesday with a lobby day on Capital Hill. Some left the conference, however, unsure of what should be done.

“It was really good that they presented everything in its full complexity, or tried to at least,” Hoffman said. “At the same time, for me it made it hard to come away with the sense that this is what we need to do, for there is no consensus.”

Others left more secure that J Street’s inclusive position will garner more support in the future.

“I think that future conferences will be even larger, as J Street’s message reaches and resonates with more people,” Fischer said. “The majority of American Jews support the establishment of a Palestinian state, both for humanitarian reasons and because they care about Israel’s future as a democratic and secure state.”