Another account in the Israeli press, about the Israel Policy Forum, and its realistic representative, Sam Lewis (who is tight with the idealistic MJ Rosenberg):
Here is another story from last Thursday. It happened in Tel Aviv, in the offices of the Council for a Beautiful Israel, on the banks of the Yarkon.
Sam Lewis, do you remember? The mythological American ambassador to Israel, who became part of the local landscape. Despite his age, Lewis is active to this day in the Democratic Party and has some influence.
Last Thursday, he met with fourteen Israeli figures as part of a panel discussion organized by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), an Israeli-American organization that leans toward the left. Present were: Ami Ayalon, Avi Gil, Etti Livni, Danny Rothschild, Shimon Shamir, Asher Susser, Alon Liel, Shlomo Gazit, Shlomo Brom, Ron Pundak, Colette Avital, Hirsch Goodman [husband of Times reporter Isabel Kershner], Orni Patrushka, Gabi Motzkin. A whole list.
Lewis told them that he was traveling from the meeting to Jerusalem for a meeting with presidential envoy George Mitchell.
He asked each of those present to write a special message to Mitchell, approximately two minutes long. Everyone obeyed. Afterwards, he asked a question: if Mitchell were to ask you now which way had more of a chance-the Israeli-Palestinian peace track or the Israeli-Syrian one-what would you answer? A vote was held. The results were 9-5 in favor of the Israeli-Syrian track.
Afterwards, he asked whether, in the opinion of those present, it was worthwhile to create, in one way or another, an engagement with Hamas. Here, too, a vote was held. A tie. Lewis went to Mitchell with this material. Who went with this material to Obama. “A fact-finding tour,” they call Mitchell’s trip to the region last week. It is interesting what facts he found.
