in search of Jewish conversation partners who are willing to discuss something more than a shared affection for hummus. He found an unlikely one in Yossi Klein Halevi, an Israeli journalist, a Shalom Hartman Institute fellow, and a self-described former Jewish extremist. Born in Brooklyn to Holocaust survivors, Halevi grew up hearing warnings from his traumatized father about how the Jews will always be hated and persecuted. Unsurprisingly, Halevi became radicalized as a young man. He once told me, solemnly, that he could describe 24 ways that Israel could be destroyed by its neighbors. (I stopped him after the second scenario.)

Abdullah cooked up the Muslim Leadership Initiative with Halevi in 2013. The Shalom Hartman Institute itself was created by David Hartman, a rabbi who left Montreal for Israelinto the hills south of Jerusalem, past security checkpoints, toward the settlement of Efrat, in the West Bank, near Bethlehem. Established in 1983, Efrat is an affluent community of 10,000 residents, built on the high ground of seven hills in the Judaean Mountains. It’s one of the gentrified jewels of Gush Etzion, a collection of more than a dozen settlements housing more than 80,000 people. Efrat is one of those settlements that many believe would become part of Israel in a land swap with Palestine. Not that such a deal is on the horizon. Stunning vineyards, beautiful maple and pine trees, and flourishing gardens filled the landscape. The roads were spotless; the roundabouts had striking green grass, perfectly cut; and all around us we saw idyllic, sand-colored homes