Suisman presents the Arc at J-Street’s first national conference

Large crowd attends panel on economic development as a pathway to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Washington, October 2009–Doug Suisman presented the Arc project for a Palestinian state to an overflow audience at the first national conference held by J-Street, the highly visible new lobbying group that describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace”. There were more than 2500 attendees at the conference, whose plenary session was addressed by General James Jones, President Obama’s national security advisor. In one of the many panels that followed, Suisman addressed an audience of more than 400 from a dais that included Bassim Khoury, Minister of National Economy for the Palestinian Authority, and Ron Pundak, Director General, Peres Center for Peace. Suisman’s visual presentation included the first public showing of proposed West Bank “demonstration projects” which would bring immediate benefits to Palestinians, while creating the first building blocks for eventual realization of the Arc.