If all it did was drive the "Israel can do no wrong" nuts batty, J Street's 2nd annual national conference would be worth the wait

by Ken

I don't know how many conference-going types we have among our readers, but this is one they might want to put on their schedules, and while the conference itself isn't till February, until October 10 there's a $100 early-bird registration discount.

We're talking about the Second Annual National Conference, February 26-March 1, in Washington, of J Street, the breath-of-fresh-air lobbying organization that has made it possible for American Jews to support Israel without associating themselves with the raging sociopathic thugs and cretins of the traditional Jewish lobbying groups. The measure of the success of last year's First National Conference was the way it caused the Thug Jewish lobby to freak out.

Here's J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami:

When J Street held its first national conference last October, right-wing political operatives launched a coordinated campaign to scare members of Congress out of attending.

Their campaign backfired as more than 1500 people turned out at the conference, 20 organizations participated, 148 members of Congress served on our Host Committee, and over 150 media from over 19 countries covered the event. [1]

Our movement made a powerful statement that the voice of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans would be silent no more and that neoconservative smear campaigns would not win the day.

Now, with Israeli-Palestinian talks on a knife's edge, the same cast of characters is at it again. Far-right publications, Tea Party political candidates, and even the #2 Republican in the U.S. House Eric Cantor are attacking J Street in a concerted effort to silence our voice and undermine serious efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution. [2]

With your help, their campaign will backfire again - and our second conference this coming February will be an even bigger success. . . .

We stand at a real crossroads of history in the effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Within the reach of the leaders of Israel, the Palestinians and the United States is a negotiated solution to the decades-old conflict and a real chance of achieving two states for two peoples and peace and security for the broader region.

The far-right is desperately afraid of the talks and the concessions necessary to achieve peace - and they're really worried that we're creating the political space that will make it possible.

A huge turn-out at our second national conference in February of 2011 will demonstrate the depth of support that exists across America for strong leadership to end this conflict now. With your support, we can turn back the neoconservative attacks and pave the way for real leadership to end this conflict now. . . .

We're calling this year's conference "Giving Voice to Your Values" and if there were ever a time to stand up for your values on this issue, this is it.

Together with hundreds and thousands of activists and in partnership with dozens of organizations, we'll take a strong stand for diversity and tolerance, peace and compromise, compassion and justice for Israel and the Palestinians.

Join us as we strategize, learn, challenge, question, advocate and mobilize. Learn how to connect what you're doing in your community with what is going on in the halls of power here and the streets of the region.

Turning out in force and demonstrating that we will not be silenced is the perfect answer to those who attack us. Together, we will make it clear that the dynamics of American politics on Israel are changing.

"COMEDY TONIGHT" COMING UP AT 9PM PT:
CAN'T SOMETHING BE DONE ABOUT BOB WOODWARD?

Villagers who ought to have something better to do with their time spent much of their day today buzzing about a rumor, traced back to none other than that Village yenta Bob Woodward, that plans are afoot to nudge Vice President Joe Biden off the ticket in 2008 in favor of . . . Secretary of State Hillary Clinton! Naturally the White House is jumping up and down screaming that there's nothing to it.

The question that pops into my head is the one I've already posed: Can't something, you know, be done about Bob Woodward? Hasn't he long since outlived his usefulness?

(Actually I wonder about another question: Isn't Bob Woodward embarrassed to be, well, Bob Woodward? But that gets kind of metaphysical, and probably beyond the purview of this space. Still, I wonder.)

Meanwhile we'll have breaking news at 9 PT regarding remarkable breaking news involving the vice president, the secretary of state, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

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