Ze Future

Any kid knows that to see one's future, look at the parents.

It has been non-stop since returning to London Saturday. So I roll with it : Parents swimming dinner-party; Jeremy Ben-Ami reception; Sunday brunch with the neighborhood and Rusty. Oh, and I meet the Asst Treasurer of Diageo, the largest drinks company in the world.

Ben-Ami is interesting.  His family connection to Israel goes back 130 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva.  His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.

Ben-Ami served as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton in the late-90s and has worked on seven Presidential and numerous state and local campaigns.  He was Howard Dean’s National Policy Director in 2004 and helped manage a Mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. The Jerusalem Post recognised him as one of the world's top-50 influential Jews.

In 2008, he founded non-profit PAC J Street, which argues "a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy." 

Tonight  he debates Israel and the US in the Middle East at Cadogan Hall, moderated by Roger Cohen of the New York Times.