"Most Israelis have never had access to what we saw and experienced," Pearce said. "We witnessed first-hand how military and civilian officials on the front lines work every day to stop terrorists and how they must continue to adapt their defenses to counter the evolving threat.”

Highlights of the program, which was sponsored by the non-partisan Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, include:

• touring a prison for terrorists, which culminated in a face-to-face meeting with terrorist-convicts in the prison yard
  
• visiting the Gaza Strip to observe how the Israelis control exit and entry and prevent terrorists from moving people and weapons across the border
  
• attending a training session with an elite undercover police unit established to capture terror suspects
  
• attending a lecture on improvised explosive devices, including an opportunity to try on replicas of suicide belts worn by actual bombers
  
• visiting a naval base at the northern border with Lebanon, where the terror group Hezbollah's position could be observed just over a nearby hill
  
• attending a question-and-answer session with regional diplomats, including the ambassadors of Jordan and the U.S. and a Turkish representative
  
• attending a briefing on intelligence by a former high-ranking official of the MOSSAD, Israel's equivalent to the CIA
  
• riding an armored bus through the West Bank to the settlement of Bethel and hearing from a survivor of a terrorist attack
  
• attending lectures by academics on a range of topics, including Iran, radical Islamic movements, Hezbollah, and Palestinian terror groups.
  

"The experience put our own struggle against terrorism into clearer perspective," Pearce said. "It also provided valuable lessons for protecting Americans from future terrorist attacks. I look forward to sharing what I learned with my students and using it in my research."

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is a nonprofit policy institute located in Washington, D.C., focused on defeating terrorism and promoting democracy around the world.

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