WEST HARTFORD – With all the uncertainty around the current peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, there are at least 21 people throughout the U.S. who have some hope. They are the members of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) leadership mission, who visited with officials in Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank earlier this month. Some of their Middle East counterparts seemed equally hopeful.

JCPA is the umbrella public-policy organization for all 125 Jewish Community Relations Councils across the U.S., and for an additional 15 national Jewish organizations.

Delegates to the JCPA mission from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Hartford included (l to r): Laura Zimmerman, Judy Singer, and Marilyn Steinmetz at Better Place Israel, a leading electric-vehicle services innovator in Herzliya.

Among the 12 participating U.S. delegations was the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Hartford, whose role is to foster awareness and consensus in the Jewish community and to represent the Jewish community to the non-Jewish community. The JCPA delegation included Laura Zimmerman, director of the JCRC of Greater Hartford, and associate vice president of public affairs of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford; Judy Singer, chair of JCRC of Greater Hartford and former member of the JCPA national board; and Marilyn Steinmetz, honorary board member of the JCRC of Greater Hartford.

The group traveled for five days in Jordan and Israel, hearing from top-level representatives of government, NGOs, think-tanks, and the media, on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“Our overall impression was positive,” says Zimmerman. “There’s a lot going on underneath that you don’t hear about in the media. You realize how many good people are there, working on achieving a positive outcome.”

Beginning in Jordan, the group first met with Prime Minister Samir Rifai, Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi, and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, and with Robert Beecroft, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, and Daniel Nevo, Israeli Ambassador to Jordan.

“They looked at us and said, ‘The stars are aligned for peace,’” Zimmerman says. “Netanyahu has the strength and backing to advance peace, Abbas has the backing, and the U.S. has the political will.”

Jordanian officials described collaborative projects underway with Israel, including diverting waters from the Red Sea to replenish the evaporating Dead Sea; nuclear power; and a railway system. “There’s a regional perspective between the two countries,” Zimmerman says. “With Iran, Turkey, and Israel as the Mid-East superpowers, Jordan sees Israel as being willing to work in partnership, while Iran and Turkey are seen as territorial.”

“We learned a tremendous amount about what’s going on on the ground and in the Palestinian territories and how the U.S. is helping the Palestinians prepare for statehood,” says Judy Singer, who also cites as trip highlights the Israel Democracy Institute’s panel discussion on the health of Israel’s democracy, and meetings with Supreme Court justices. “There are a lot of obstacles but everyone is working toward this goal.”

The JCRC members plan to use what they learned on the mission to advance Israel advocacy in the community. “I want to speak out about what’s going on, to let people understand that there’s hope,” Steinmetz says. “A lot of the hatred is disappearing because both sides have true leadership now. Both sides have their problems, but most Palestinians and Israelis want to live in peace already. They’re burned out and shell-shocked, and every time there’s hope, it’s been doused, so it’s very hard to believe that peace may actually be imminent.”

While much of the mission’s focus was the peace process, the group also visited Better Place in Herzliya, the cutting-edge electric-vehicle services provider working to end oil dependency throughout the world. In May, the JCRC will host a Connecticut-Israel technology summit to promote commercial collaboration and increase awareness of Israeli technological advances. So far, summit partners include Metro Hartford Alliance, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

“Every day, the life of every single American is made safer, easier, more efficient, and healthier by Israeli innovation and progress,” Zimmerman says. “Every American knows about the conflict there, but do people also know that Israel adds value to their lives every day? This is a way for our legislators and business community to learn about ways in which they can benefit from business collaboration with Israeli companies and institutions.”