This past week, I attended AIPAC's Annual Policy Conference, a remarkable and unforgettable experience.  From the moment I first stepped foot into the Convention Center, I was taken aback by the epic magnitude of the event.  It was not just the enormous size of the architecturally beautiful Convention Center, but the number of people from all fifty states and from around the world, over ten thousand strong, who came to show solidarity and support for Israel.  I went down to Washington with a delegation from Write On For Israel, a high school program created by Linda Scherzer, a former CNN correspondent and a member of our synagogue, that teaches high school juniors and seniors how to effectively advocate for Israel.  While I did not go down to AIPAC with members of our synagogue, I was amazed by the number of our members in Temple Emanu-El's delegation, and their enthusiasm for AIPAC and the American - Israel relationship.  I was honored to have gone down to Washington with my Write On For Israel classmates and to be joined by members of our congregation and over ten thousand supporters of the US-Israel relationship.

On the first morning of the Policy Conference, President Obama addressed a crowd of over ten thousand supporters of Israel. Last week, there was an outcry in the media over Obama's statement that it was his intention to draw the boundaries of Israel in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians, based on the pre-1967 Six Day War with "mutually agreed land-swaps".  I recognized that this proposal is a similar message to those of Presidents Clinton and Bush in regard to the peace process, but I was reassured when Obama affirmed his position, that Israel will never return to the indefensible boarders it had before the Six Day War, and any boarders drawn in a future peace agreement will be mutually agreed upon by the Israelis and Palestinians and will reflect the current demographics on the ground.  I was filled with enthusiasm and pride when President Obama proclaimed America's steadfast commitment to Israel as the Jewish homeland.  He publicly described Hamas as a terrorist organization, and denounced the newly formed alliance between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and that any Palestinian effort to unilaterally gain statehood by UN resolution would be rejected by the United States.  His strong statement of commitment to the American-Israeli alliance was inspirational.  I was awestruck that I had the opportunity to be fifty yards away from the President of the United States as he declared his unswerving support for Israel, and I will never forget the intensity of the moment.

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