(A7) American pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC attacked left-wing Middle East lobby group J Street, which held its annual conference on Sunday.
“Not a word of praise for Israel. Not a single recognition of Israel’s achievements or value. Not a single embrace of the Israeli people,” AIPAC wrote on Twitter. The organization added that in his 19-minute speech about the lobby, J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami made one thing clear: “J Street is many things, but it’s not pro-Israel”.
Not a word of praise for Israel.
⁰Not a single recognition of Israel’s achievements or value.Not a single embrace of the Israeli people.
In a 19-minute speech about @Jstreetdotorg, @JeremyBenAmi says what we’ve been saying:
J Street is many things, but it’s not pro-Israel. https://t.co/COE6l1oXYn
— AIPAC (@AIPAC) December 4, 2022
Among the lobby’s guests was former Meretz MK Yair Golan, who in his address to the conference, called out the Trump administration for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal: “It was a grave mistake the previous admin made to pull out of the JCPOA. I can assure you, a few days after the agreement was signed, we gathered together (all prominent figures in the Israeli security establishment) and we agreed the agreement was good for Israel,” Golan stated.
The most high-profile speaker at the conference was American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told the conference that the Biden administration “will object to any move to annex the West Bank. We have to allow the Palestinian youth to at least imagine a better future.”
“We fully respect the democratic choice of the Israeli people and congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu, and welcome his commitment to work for the benefit of all residents of the State of Israel, without exception,” the Secretary of State stated.
Blinken insisted that the Biden administration will judge the new government in Israel “By its policy and not by the identity of specific characters.” He emphasized that the United States would demand that the new government “continue to work with us and advance our shared values, just as we have with previous governments.”
Blinken continued to say that “normalization between Israel and its neighbors is not a substitute for building peace between Israelis and Palestinians” and insisted that Israelis and Palestinians do not share the same level of freedom and that he supports equal treatment for violence in the West Bank, no matter if it comes from Israel or the Palestinians
