US vice president will speak at the liberal organization’s conference next week, alongside MK Stav Shaffir, Senator Tim Kaine
US Vice President Joe Biden will address J Street’s annual gala next week in Washington, DC, the organization confirmed Monday.
The speech will mark the second time the vice president has addressed the organization’s annual conference, having first spoken at the progressive pro-Israel lobbying group’s conference in 2013.
Biden will speak at the gala dinner on April 18, the second night of the two-day conference, according to a report in the Washington Post.
On its Facebook page, J Street wrote, “Confirmed: Vice President Joe Biden at J Street’s 2016 National Gala.” The schedule for the event on the J Street website had not yet been updated to include Biden’s speech.
Other speakers at this year’s J Street conference include Israeli Knesset member Stav Shaffir, also addressing the event for the second time, US senator Tim Kaine, and New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.
Billed as an alternative to the traditional pro-Israel lobby in the US, J Street was founded eight years ago with the motto “pro-Israel, pro-peace” to lobby for American government support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Biden’s speech in 2013 was seen as a major boost to the reputation of the organization. The vice president remains the highest level US official to have addressed the conference.
Last month, Biden told the rival AIPAC lobby conference that Israelis and Palestinians must revive their will for peace, earning thunderous applause for his emotional expressions of affection for Israel and scattered boos for criticism of its government’s settlement activities and policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
He said that during his visit to Israel earlier last month, “I condemned [Palestinian terror] attacks, not just those that happened when I was there, all of them. And I condemned the failure to condemn these atrocious acts of violence. No leader has the right to tolerate terrorism.”
A fatal stabbing attack, in which US citizen Taylor Force was killed, took place within miles from where Biden was speaking during a March trip to Israel. Addressing the attack, and a wave of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming across Israel, the next day, Biden pledged “total, unvarnished commitment” to the security of Israel but also said that violence cannot be stopped “just by physical force.”
As reported by The Times of Israel