Bethlehem internships

I visited Ben and Roxanne's internship on Wednesday.  It sounds like a decent organization, but very liberal and a little idealistic.  It was obvious that they are very anti Israeli, but it sounds like they are trying to do good.  Overall, he said that they are opposed to the many of the aspects of the peace process, but mostly the two state solution.  It makes sense.  His argument is basically that Palestine can't function as a country made up of piecemeal sections of desert and small urban centers.  Israel has already grabbed most of the valuable land and is unlikely to give it up.  I think this is probably true.  The Jordan Valley gives them access to the water and effectively shuts off the West Bank from the rest of the world.  If they went ahead with the two state solution they would probably end up being only the second country (excluding Vatican City and others like that) which is completely surrounded by another country.  However, there aren't any other solutions in my mind.  The work they do isn't very political and they seem to be more concerned with putting patches on a wound than actually curing it.  Mostly, because there is no cure yet and all the treatments are very hypothetical.  However, any indication that a one state solution is on the table is just ridiculous.  I was also interested in how he handled the Hamas issue.  He was very timid about even saying their name out loud where people could hear him.  I guess that doesn't surprise me too much since they probably didn't understand everything else that he was saying and he does have to live there and be a visible part of the community.  However, I was surprised when he said that they had worked together before, at least I'm pretty sure he did.  Maybe it was that he had been offered work by them.  However, I'm really glad I didn't end up somewhere where that is a possibility.  With as crazy as America is lately about going after organizations that support Hezbollah and Hamas, I wouldn't want to be affiliated with any of them when I try for a security clearance, even if they are squeaky clean and have the best intentions.