Hawaii Democratic U.S. Reps. Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard will be among a 37-member House delegation traveling to Israel and the West Bank next week to learn more about issues critical to the U.S.-Israeli relationship and international security.
The trip, led by House Minority Whip U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is scheduled to leave Sunday and return Aug. 11.
Members are expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yaakov Amidror, his national security adviser, and also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and new Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
Other highlights of the trip include a tour of Israel’s northern and southern borders, and visits to Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the border with the Gaza Strip, to an Iron Dome battery at the Hatzor Base and to Bethlehem.
It will be Hanabusa’s first trip to the region.
"You hear so much about what the relationships are or are not, and I think this is an opportunity to be able to judge a lot of that on your own," Hanabusa said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., shortly after Congress recessed for its five-week summer break. "You hear about what the people endure, and we get to see it firsthand, so I think that’s always the best learning experience for all of us.
"These issues dominate a lot of the foreign affairs discussions that we have."
Gabbard said the visit comes at an important time "to visit and to learn and to see what’s happening there."
The trip comes after Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed recently after a five-year freeze.
The two sides are trying to reach agreement on the terms of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Two previous attempts, in 2000-2001 and in 2007-2008, broke off under disputed circumstances before a deal could be reached.
"This was a trip that had been preplanned," Gabbard said Friday in a phone interview, "but considering the current events that are happening now and the conversations that are happening, it looks to be kind of a historic time to be visiting there to see the leaders both in Israel and Palestine."
The trip also comes as the U.S. State Department on Friday issued a global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed more than 20 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.
The statement said al-Qaida or its allies might target either U.S. government or private American interests. The alert expires Aug. 31.
Hanabusa and Gabbard said they were taking all necessary travel precautions but added that they did not expect to run into any trouble.
"I am very confident that if there was any danger for us that they would probably cancel the trip," Hanabusa said. "I think that as long as we are a go on it that they have taken all the precautions. I’m certain that we will be fine."
The trip is sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
