Sunday, March 30, 2008

An Interesting Speaker

I've been wanting to write about this topic for a long time now, but have either procrastinated, forgotten, or have been too busy to. I am a part of an Israel ambassador group, where we listen to influential speakers, plan different events to produce awareness, and travel to New York to rally with some important people in the government. In mid-January we had a very special guest come and speak to us. His name is Dr. Yossi Olmert and he is the younger brother to the current Prime Minister in Israel. He is a well known expert on the Modern Middle East, Islamic Militants, Terrorism, and the Palestinian and US-Israel relations. He holds several senior positions in the Israeli Government and has participated in the Madrid peace conference and was a member of the Israeli delegation for peace talks in Syria.

When I first heard that he was coming to talk to us, I was excited because I knew how knowledgeable he is, but I was also a bit down-hearted because I expected it to be a boring lecture about Israeli politics (which is an extremely complicated topic). When our group (about 20 people) sat down to talk, I knew at once I was wrong. He was, as I had known, extremely intelligent, but he was also funny, kind, interesting, and very conscience that his audience consisted of high school students. He was more interested in answering our questions than giving a summary of the current situation in Israel, and was fairly surprised at the quality of the questions being asked. Overall it was an amazing experience and it inspired me to be more connected to Israel and to do all I can to help Her, even if it's changing one person's views about Israel.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Oh No He Didn't

I'm sure by now everybody knows more than they'd ever want to know about the Eliot Spitzer scandel. Last week as I was reading about it, I noticed something very interesting about one of the pictures that most people would have glanced at, but not really seen.


In the picture, both Spitzer and his wife looked morose, yet Mrs. Spitzer chose to wear a scarf with an American flag on it. The message she is trying to portray is that even though there is a controversy surrounding her husband, they are still patriotic Americans. There is also a flag in the background, and I'm sure there are more of them that cannot be seen in the shot. I don't know if she expects to regain the respect of American citizens or members of the government, or if she just wants to try and rid herself of the stain her husband made in her life, but whatever her motive, she chose to wear it.