The snippet below was written by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil and published at the Times of Israel.
WASHINGTON — US Vice President Joe Biden will address the upcoming J Street annual conference, the organization revealed Tuesday. Biden will deliver his speech on the third day of the four-day meet.Well, if J Street's 2011 conference is any indication of what we can expect this year then Joe Biden will be in good company.
“Secretary of State John Kerry has called on the American Jewish community to rally ‘a great constituency for peace,’” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami. “The Obama Administration has made the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top foreign policy priority. In convening this conference, we have a real opportunity and, in fact, an obligation to demonstrate the tremendous support that exists behind those efforts.”
Biden is not the only representative of the administration to come to talk up the current peace talks in front of what is considered to be a receptive audience. Martin Indyk, the US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, will also address the conference, serving as the keynote speaker for the gala dinner to be held on the same day as Biden’s address.
J Street has repeatedly emphasized that it views this year’s conference as unprecedented in the number and diversity of its participants, among whom are a number of members of Congress as well as representatives of six Knesset parties.
That year Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace and outspoken proponent of BDS, spoke at the J Street conference as did Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative and BDS advocate who took part in the Free Gaza Flotilla. Attorney Michael Sfard, an advocate for lawfare against Israel, also spoke at that conference.
For those of you who may be under the delusion that J Street is a pro-Israel organization, it isn't.
Pro-Israel organizations are not friendly with people who advocate for the boycott of, divestment from, and sanction of the Jewish state of Israel. Nor do pro-Israel organizations provide platforms for anti-Israel lawyers to advocate lawfare against Israel.
Thus Joe Biden, along with Martin Indyk, will be speaking at a meeting of anti-Israel activists and the sad thing is they probably don't even realize it.
Is anyone the least bit surprised?
