J Street trip to Israel was inspiring

I recently went on the J Street-sponsored National Leadership Mission to Israel, April 30-May 8.

J Street is a pro-Israel, pro-peace political action committee and educational organization that believes a two-state agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians is an existential requirement for Israel, and that an active American presence is essential to getting the two sides into productive talks.

To list but a few of our meetings, we met with President Shimon Peres on the eve of the national Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) event, which we all later attended, and he spoke gravely of the mortal dangers facing the state.

We met with Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor of Likud who stated that a two-state solution was Israeli policy; with Kadima head Tsipi Livni who was impatient with the inaction of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government; with spokespersons for the Israeli Defense Force; with journalists, businessmen, mayors, and human rights groups.

We met with members of the Independence Hall Movement, a loose confederation of scientists, philosophers, artists, and Israel Prize winners who have been struggling against the recent spate of anti-democratic laws moving through the Knesset. They welcomed the broadening of the dialogue in America that J Street represented to them.

We met with Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, who has gathered an impressive list of former security and military leaders’ names behind his two-state peace initiative.

So at the same time that there appears to be little government appetite for engaging the Palestinians, many non-official initiatives have emerged from essential and respected sectors of Israeli society.

We saw the rockets that had rained down from Gaza and the security situation on the Lebanese border. We toured many settlements on the West Bank, and attorney Danny Seidman showed us where Jewish Israelis have moved into Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

These actions are changing the facts on the ground in a way that makes a two state solution to the conflict ever more difficult to envision.

We also spent a great deal of time with the Palestinian side of the equation. Our group was given the opportunity to try to understand the experience of the Palestinians living under Israeli military rule.

We met people separated from their land and shops by the security fence; people whose delivery of water and electricity were uncertain; people who needed passes to travel and had to wait at checkpoints which we were privileged to experience. We stayed overnight with gracious host families.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad hosted us in Ramallah. In just a few years, this impressive manager has made transparent the Palestinian finances, overseen the development of a national police force that keeps law and order and works to stop terror.

The West Bank has enjoyed an 8 percent economic growth rate in the face of the challenges arising from the occupation. We met with a successful group of Palestinian entrepreneurs who are eagerly awaiting a relaxation of the economic constraints.

For example, the CEO of the Palestinian cell phone company stated that Israel does not give them enough bandwidth to offer Internet over their phone service.

On the day we were to leave, we met with PA President Mahmood Abbas. He appealed with us to tell our government that the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is a favorable development.

All the members of the new government will be non-partisan technocrats and Abbas himself will set policy and negotiate with Israel until Palestinian elections will be held within one year. His policy of no terror will continue in the West Bank; and Hamas has agreed to stop any attack from Gaza.

Thus the security situation should actually improve. For the first time in years, Abbas can negotiate for a united Palestine.

In response to a question from our group, Abbas stated that if Israel agreed to negotiate on the basis of the 1967 cease fire line with equal land swaps and would agree to a 60-90 day moratorium on settlement expansion, he would withdraw going to the United Nations for a declaration of statehood. A New York Times reporter covered this meeting.

It was a maddening and exhilarating trip, alternately gloomy and hopeful. There is a growing feeling among some in Israel that the status quo is unsustainable, and that time is running out to achieve a two-state solution, and that if the two-state enterprise fails, then Zionism fails.

Yet many others laugh or shrug when asked when there will be peace —they say they know what it will look like but do not expect to see it in their lifetime.

I came away inspired by those hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians who have not given up, who still dream of and work for the day when two peoples will live side by side, having made difficult compromises for a brighter future.

Milwaukeean Max Samson does not speak for J Street, although he is a member of its finance committee. He is a father, businessman, puppeteer, member of Congregations Shir Hadash and Shalom, and a long time activist for peace, justice, and joy.