After a week in Israel — my first visit there — my overall assessment of its state of the environment is that there is room for both optimism and pessimism. Israel’s environmental health depends on the country taking decisive steps, both large and small, to reverse decades of damage.

I arrived in Israel last month to discuss environmental issues with leaders there. I joined Los Angeles city and county officials and activists led by Evan Kaizer on a trip arranged through the L.A. Jewish Federation’s Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Partnership. As the president of Heal the Bay, the nonprofit organization dedicated to improving Southern California’s coastal waters and watersheds, I came to share stories about water quality and supply, sustainability and river restoration. More