The trip itself was organized by Encounter Israel, an American Jewish, nonpartisan educational organization cultivating more informed and constructive Jewish leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to see what we know.” So, particularly at this point in time of political transformation in Israel with its possibility for starting anew in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, permit me to share some observations arising from my trip this past June to the West Bank that was undertaken with a delegation of American Jewish leaders committed to conjoin the Palestinian narrative with the official Israeli viewpoint that had heretofore defined our collective understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Or to quote Rabbi Heschel: “Our sight is suffused with knowing, instead of feeling painfully the lack of knowing what we see.

Israel is probably the greatest political miracle of the 20th century and regardless of political turmoil and internal strife, it remains a country with an unabated capacity for wonder and reinvention. The views appearing in this piece are personal to the author and are not attributable to HIAS, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, or Fredrikson & Byron. He is also the Chair of HIAS, the Jewish community’s agency dedicated to the protection, dignity, and welfare of refugees and forcibly displaced persons. He is an immigration attorney at Fredrikson & Byron, located in Minneapolis. Robert Aronson is a congregant of Adath Jesherun Congregation.

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