On August 31, 2010, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Alexander Mashkevich spoke at the plenary meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem with an initiative to conduct the 4th Brussels conference in 2011. This proposal generated a strong public response. The conference is to be aimed at coordinating the efforts of international Jewish organizations to oppose the efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state, which have recently intensified.
The three previous Brussels conferences, which became the most representative forums of the Jewish world in the 70s and 80s, were dedicated to fighting for the freedom of Soviet Jews. They demonstrated an unprecedented unity in the Jewish world and influenced the freeing of Soviet Jewry greatly.
Alexander Mashkevich presented the members of the meeting with a call to conduct the conference, signed by an initiative group that consists of veteran members of the Jewish national movement in the FSU, as well as acting EAJC leaders.
Meetings were conducted between the EAJC leader and the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman and the Minister on Information and Diaspora Yuli-Yoel Edelstein. Members of the Israeli cabinet supported the proposed initiative, and underscored that a workgroup must be created to organize the 4th Brussels conference, uniting the authoritative representatives of Israel and the Diaspora.
As Alexander Mashkevich stated, "Unrelenting attempts to throw into question not only the right of the Jewish state to self-defense, but its very right to existence, are a most serious problem of the present day. The Israel has been a shield for the Diaspora for many years, and remains that way still – however, it is time for the Diaspora to become a shield for Israel."