Rep.: Israel Said No Syria Attack Plan

Syrian President Bashar Assad meets on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 with U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi at Ash-Shaeb presidential palace in Damascus. Pelosi arrived here Tuesday as the highest ranking US official to visit Syria since 2003 for talks with the Syrian leadership on the strained relations between Syria and the U.S., to convey a peace message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to President Assad, and to discuss Iraq and other regional issues with Syria. Pelosi's visit was criticized by the US administration.(AP Photo Hussein Malla). (Hussein Malla - AP)

"Nice people, serious about the issues," Ellison said. "What I admired in Israel was the very frank and widely diverse points of view that were expressed. People there love a lively debate. And they had one."

Ellison said he didn't share his views on the peace process with the Israelis.

"I wasn't really there for that reason," he said. "I was there to listen a lot. I asked a lot of questions. I definitely talked less than I listened. This is my first trip to the region, and all the reading I've done and all the conversations I had don't compare to really being there _ just seeing how close the holy sites are to each other."

He said he would like the U.S. to be more engaged in the peace process.

"It's a good thing that Condoleezza Rice has started to go back to the region," he said of the secretary of state. "The United States cannot simply fold its arms and turn its back on the Middle East."

The group also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

"He needs to be strengthened, his hand needs to be improved," Ellison said. "And the world needs to step up and help him if they want him to be successful."

Abbas' Fatah movement is part of a Palestinian unity government that also includes the militant Islamic Hamas. While the U.S. has met with non-Hamas members of the government, it refuses to meet with Hamas officials.