I tell people to personalize their testimony.

Describe how the bill would affect you or the witness sitting next to you at the witness table.

I took my advice today.

House Bill 949 would prohibit the State of Maryland from doing business with or buying the stock of companies that support the BDS boycott of Israel.

I was supposed to talk about the constitutionality of the bill. But this how I began my testimony…

“I’ve been to Israel many times. I’ve gone to the usual tourist sites – the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the church on the Mount of the Beatitudes.

“I’ve also accompanied a friend to the grave of his father. Toured Hebron and walked through the shuttered Arab market. Went to a kibbutz within range of the missiles fired from Gaza City.

“I support a two-state solution. But I’m just a tourist, a schlepper, if you will.

“Dennis Ross, however, is a career diplomat. He has tried to negotiate a two-state solution on behalf of Democratic and Republican Presidents.

“He has submitted written testimony on House Bill 949.

“It says, ‘Only two states for two peoples can fulfill the needs of both national movements. But BDS is promoting Palestinian national rights to the exclusion of Jewish national rights.’”