By Mathew Andreini                                                 

     Last Tuesday, members from various religious and secular groups across the Western New York area gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst to hear author Dan Fleshler speak about his new book, Transforming America’s Israel Lobby: The Limits of its Power and the Potential for Change. The full speech can be found here.

The WNY Peace Center co-sponsored this event in cooperation with Congregation Havurah in an effort to promote an open dialogue concerning the United State’s policy towards Israel. According to his Huffington Post blog, Dan Fleshler is “a media and public affairs strategist from New York City who spends much of his free time trying to convince the American Jewish community to support Israel’s peace camp and an end to Israeli settlement expansion.”

     The focus of Fleshler’s speech was establishing a pro-peace movement within the United States that supports a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Fleshler separates himself from groups like AIPAC in order to “build a lobby for the rest of us, a political block of Americans of all faith groups . . . who see no contradiction between being pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian and pro-American.”
    

     Dan Fleshler’s arrival came only one day after a meeting between President Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. During this conference Obama pushed to end the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward,” President Obama said. While Netanyahu failed to address this issue it still gives hope to moderates such as Dan Fleshler that the United States is able to separate itself from previous administration’s unwavering support of Israel in an attempt to achieve peace for all involved.