WASHINGTON (JTA) — Seven retired Israeli diplomats and military officers met with high-ranking U.S. officials to press for greater U.S. engagement in brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The seven, including Gen. Natan Sharoni, a former chief of planning; Gen. Nehemiah Dagan, a former chief education officer; and Gen. Shlomo Gazit, a former intelligence chief, as well as former ambassadors and top military and peace talks advisers, met Tuesday with senior officials at the White House National Security Council and at the State Department.
The group, sponsored by J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, also conducted briefings in Congress. It pushed back against suggestions from some conservatives that President Obama’s call on the sides to base negotiations on the 1967 lines, with land swaps, would leave Israel with indefensible borders.
Speaking of the 1967 Six-Day War, Dagan told The Washington Jewish Week, "We were small and we won. The borders are defensible."
