Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a prerecorded address to J Street’s annual conference, a signal of the determination among progressives to place the Palestinian issue at the forefront of US policy,
There have been reports that Biden, while eager to roll back Trump’s marginalization of the Palestinians, is not enthusiastic about returning to the Obama-era focus on getting to a peace deal unless the initiative comes organically from the Israelis and Palestinians. Foreign policy progressives, led by J Street, are determined to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace an administration initiative.
The J Street conference, which will be held virtually Sunday and Monday, will feature leaders of Israeli parties advocating for Palestinian engagement and top progressive Democrats in Congress. Also, senior administration officials, including UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Cedric Richmond, the top Biden official directing outreach to minority and special-interest groups.
The conference also will feature an award for former President Jimmy Carter, a sharp critic of Israel’s Palestinian policies. J Street confirmed this week that it was backing a bill in Congress that would seek oversight to ensure that Israel is not spending US assistance on detaining Palestinian minors, destroying Palestinian homes or annexing territory.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that the Biden administration is committed to expanding the Abraham Accords, the Trump-brokered normalization agreements last year between Israel and four Arab states. The Huffington Post reported this week that Rep. Michael McCaul, the senior Republican in the US House of Representatives, told AIPAC last week that the Trump administration had a policy of marginalizing the Palestinians.