Washington's missing J street Washington DC's core has a lettered street name system. And if you take a look at a map, you'll find that it's missing the J. However, K-street, the location of many of Washington's big lobbyists has a new and exciting challenger in J Street.

As I mentioned in a previous post written just after a visit to Israel and Palestine, I think the real obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the conflict is the internal divide between the progressive, wise, intelligent parts of both Israeli and Palestinian society and their violent, fundamentalist counterparts. I certainly haven't done large representative samples, but in my conversations with people on both sides of the conflict, I've found that the positions of both Israel's and Palestine's progressive elements are not so irreconcilable. J Street is a tremendously exciting example of leadership from Jewish Americans to represent the substantial portions of the Jewish diaspora who do not support the settlements, believe in a two-state solution, and favour an engaged, non-violent approach to regional conflicts.

I know I have taken a very critical view of what's happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories (including a couple posts ago). This has been hard not to do after that intense week there in 2006 and what I've read about the history and current state of the conflict since. However, I do think that there is a real possibility for a resolution of this conflict, and this type of leadership from an incredible group of very experienced Israeli and Jewish-American leaders is the type of thing that could shift the structure of the Israel lobby in the US. Uniting the forward-looking elements of Israeli society can give voice to those millions in Israel and the diaspora for whom Israel is a land the promises much more than this current state of fear and violence.  ¶ 2:31 PM