J Street Seattle Calls on Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign to Reconsider Bus Ads

December 21, 2010

J Street Seattle co-chairs Rainer Waldman Adkins and Michelle Mentzer issued the following statement in response to the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s bus advertisements:

“J Street Seattle calls on the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign to reconsider its advertising campaign that will run later this month. The ads accuse Israel of utilizing U.S. aid to commit war crimes. This only serves to inflame tensions and promote division and confusion, rather than to point the way towards a productive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the viability of a two-state solution hangs in the balance, we believe that those who seek peace must focus their energies on supporting the bold, assertive American leadership necessary to end the conflict, rather than perpetuating the cycle of mutual accusation. We urge those committed to a resolution of the conflict to concentrate their activism on building a broad, diverse and effective movement for Mideast peace, based on support for the state of Israel and a Palestinian state living side-by-side in safety and security, offering a future of hope for both peoples.”

J Street Seattle is the local grassroots arm of J Street, the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans. J Street’s mission is two-fold: first, to advocate for urgent American diplomatic leadership to achieve a two-state solution and a broader regional, comprehensive peace and, second, to ensure a broad debate on Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.