I will go first with a comment on my friend David Harris’s blog.

In his otherwise excellent review of the need for humility in dealing with the unbelievable complexities of the Middle East, David touches on one topic worth a couple of seconds of discussion.

For those who might be considered to be on the “left,” who David thankfully defines as those who have “Israel’s best interests at heart,” their views are sometimes dismissed depending on how frequently one has been to Israel,if ever.

What is “left” these days is anyone’s guess; I have always considered myself to be a centrist and moderate, but frequent mis-use of words like “left,” “liberal,” and “progressive” have eroded much of their meaning.

David says, “I’ve seen some people on the left in the US proclaim their views insistently and repeatedly, only to learn that they never visited Israel or perhaps only visited once or twice in years past, but audaciously project their own world view and political thinking on the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

One need never have visited South Africa to have had an informed view on the former racial polices of that nation. One need not visit Darfur today to know of the horror and to form a view of solutions for that disaster (in my own case, I take cues from numerous sources on Darfur, including Nicholas Kristof).

The examples are endless, and it is emblematic of our searching, inquisitive Jewish minds that we are able to form views on so many issues far from the United States by incessant reading, listening, and hearing testimony of others who have been on the ground.

I have always had ideas about Northern Ireland, though I have never set foot in Belfast. I have a view of Venezuela today though I have never seen Caracas. I can form ideas about anti-Semitism in France though I have not been to Paris in 15 years, or about the plight of the Jews in the former Soviet Union though, unlike David, I have never seen Moscow.

On the other hand, we all know fellow Jews who have been to Israel repeatedly. Some are fervent supporters, some are “loving critics,” and some are just chronic complainers of the left or the right.

In other words, I don’t think we need to examine the stamps in one’s passport to determine whether one has anything to add to the discussion about the Middle East.

That Israel holds a special place in our hearts for most of us probably qualifies us to be heard, provided, as David suggests, we do it with humility.