Friends,
I just returned from leading a J Street delegation of senior American policymakers to Israel and the West Bank — and we weren’t the only delegation there.
AIPAC sponsored two trips: one for freshman House Democrats, another for Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson was also visiting — hosted by an Evangelical Christian group devoted to deepening U.S. support for illegal West Bank settlements.
On the surface, these trips have a lot in common: briefings with security officials, a stop at the Western Wall, deeply moving meetings with hostage families, and visits to communities attacked on October 7.
But what matters isn’t the similarities — it’s the differences.
On a J Street trip, we don’t only meet Israeli leaders. We meet Palestinians: political leaders, nonviolent peace advocates, and families living under constant threat of settler violence and home demolitions.
We tour West Bank communities marked by checkpoints, razor wire, and machine guns — the sharpest edges of the occupation. We meet settler leaders, so participants can hear their views firsthand.
We sit with aid workers trying desperately to get food and medicine into Gaza — and with Palestinians whose relatives are desperate to get out.
I see the impact in our participants’ eyes: the tears, the shock, the words I hear again and again — “I’ve been to Israel before, but I’ve never seen this.”
Hebron: Two Delegations, Two Realities
Last Wednesday, both our delegation and Speaker Johnson’s visited Hebron — the West Bank’s largest city, steeped in religious and historical significance. It’s also home to 600–800 settlers and an equal number of soldiers protecting them, while tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.
A congressional staffer once told me Hebron was “the most emotionally intense moment I’ve had in this job.” No one leaves without feeling outrage, no matter their politics.
Speaker Johnson’s group stood outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, smiling for photos. No one suggested walking a few hundred yards to see militarized checkpoints, or the once-bustling Old City now a ghost town. They didn’t see the wire netting Palestinians use to stop settlers from dumping trash and stones onto their homes.
When they left Hebron, they turned left — back to Jerusalem. We turned right — to the South Hebron Hills.
There, in Bedouin villages denied water, electricity, and basic rights, residents face constant harassment and demolitions. In Umm al-Khair, we sat in a mourning tent for Awdah Hathaleen, a beloved community leader and peace advocate, shot and killed just a week before. His camera footage appears to show the shooter — a settler sanctioned by the Biden administration — acting without any fear of accountability.
Our participants left determined to deter settler violence and push back on annexation. Speaker Johnson, who saw none of this, reportedly pledged to stop the U.S. government from even saying “West Bank.”
Confronting the Full Reality
We visited the Temple Mount, where Itamar Ben-Gvir had just staged illegal prayers to inflame tensions. We stood at an overlook east of Jerusalem, where a massive settlement plan — decades in the making — is poised to sever the West Bank in two. The decisive planning committee meeting was taking place during our visit.
Yes, the moment is bleak. But that’s exactly why this work matters more than ever.
Trip by trip, meeting by meeting, one leader at a time — we’re changing how U.S. policymakers understand the realities on the ground, and giving them the courage to chart a different course.
No one should lead a trip to the region — especially for elected officials — without confronting the whole truth. Anything less isn’t education. It’s tourism with a security briefing.
There’s still time to choose a better path — but only if we have the courage to face reality as it is.
Yours,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
