Thoughts on the Conference

All in all, the first J Street conference was a success: 1500 people showed up, The Obama Administration sent the National Security Advisor to bless the event, three dozen members of congress attended the gala dinner, and conference attendees were enormously positive about the gathering.

Monday's notable event was a town hall meeting between Jeremy Ben-Ami and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Reform movement. Yoffie's stance is somewhere between J Street's and the center-right position often repeated by large institutional leaders of the Jewish community: he was sharply critical of settlement construction, the Goldstone report, and International Community's criticism of Israel. The Yoffie's and Jeffrey Goldberg's of the Jewish community seem to be key discursive links in the chain- they support a two-state solution and acknowledge J Street as legitimate, with some reservations.

Tuesday's best panel featured three Israelis: centrist politician Haim Ramon, former Shin Bet Admiral Ami Ayalon, and journalist Bernard Avishai.

Avishai talked about the need for peace for economic development, persuasively arguing that Israel's economy will be based around providing solutions for large companies.

Ayalon said that when he was head of the Shin Bet, the lowest year of Palestinian violence was directly related to Palestinian hopes for an belief in the peace process.

Ramon suggested that unilateral disengagement from the west bank may be needed in the future to ensure the demographic viability of Israel as a state with majority jewish population.

I haven't heard these viewpoints at an event with a National or super-public profile and audience. The conference is wonderfully unique is providing the American public access to these sort of ideas.

One JTA write-up of the conference quotes a certain 25-year-old from Washington...