Jewish and Arab Groups Jointly Lobby Lawmakers for 2-State Push
A Jewish public policy umbrella and a Palestinian group that advocates for two states jointly lobbied Congress for Secretary of State John Kerry’s bid to restart peace talks.
Leaders of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the American Task Force on Palestine met Thursday with staffers for the foreign relations committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
“We are making the case together and trying to represent the win-win aspect of negotiations,” said Ben Suarato, a spokesman for JCPA.
“Usually meetings are with each community separately, but it’s a mutual concern and we thought it important to model that,” he said. “Both groups are supportive of the latest effort and are encouraged by an active U.S. role – which we need – and wanted to be able to say so and demonstrate that together.”
Kerry last month appealed to the Jewish community to openly back his efforts to restart talks, and in recent weeks a number of mainstream groups have made their support clear.
“We supported the two-state solution and the commitment of the U.S. government, the indispensable partner, to stay engaged,” said Ziad Asali, the president of the ATFP. “We thought it is useful to have a Palestinian and Jewish American statement that it is not a zero sum game.”
Republican leaders in the House have suggested that Kerry’s bid is premature and could be counterproductive.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO