I was there, and basically share Scott’s assessment, though Mike Dougherty is undoubtedly correct as well.  I see J Street as playing a very complicated game, in short to capture the Jewish center for Obama’s broader foreign policy agenda (not just Israel-Palestine) with few illusions about how dire the situation is.  Everyone at the conference was saying we are approaching the tipping point as far as saving the two-state solution, which as a general rule means we passed it some time ago.  The solutions preferred by the leadership of J Street are certainly as impracticable as those urged by South African Liberals in the 80s, but like them I think they know this perfectly well.

UPDATE: Here’s another quick take I contributed to Mondoweiss, and over the weekend I should be writing an extended essay account for multiple publications, stay tuned.

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