Yuli Edelstein began his address last night by reminding the audience that despite the recent violence and portrayal in public media, he believes Israel is in many ways a “dream come true.”
Edelstein, a cabinet minister in charge of public diplomacy in Israel, gave a talk titled “Israel’s Vision For The Future: How Far Should She Go for Peace?” Monday night in Claudia Cohen Hall.
Edelstein, who was accompanied by large body guards during his speech, addressed a number of topics: the problem of modern anti-Semitism, the role of the United States in the Middle East, the failure of previous peace campaigns and the way that Israel might change its own future.
As a young adult in Moscow, Edelstein’s application to immigrate to Israel was rejected and he was immediately expelled from university. He began teaching private Hebrew classes. Edelstein said he was falsely charged with drug possession, after which he served a year-and-eight-month prison sentence. During that time he said he faced hard labor, solitary confinement and torture.
He eventually was able to immigrate to Israel with his family and has since risen to be one of the country’s highest-ranking government officials.
Edelstein said he believes that the real story of Israel is not being told. He explained to his audience that “we talk about conflict too much,” when “there are many good things happening,” such as “[Israeli] medical research saving lives of people all around the world.”
Edelstein pointed out what he feels is Israel’s uniqueness: Who would have known, he asked, that “62 years later we would be witnessing six million out of seven million Jews worldwide living in Israel?”
His speech focused on answering the question, “Why is Israel unable to be accepted by the rest of the world?”
College junior Chris Shook came to see Edelstein speak because he “thought it would be insightful to hear an Israeli opinion in a pivotal and transitional period in international relations,” but he was disappointed by Edelstein’s avoidance of a direct answer to the questions he himself raised in his speech.
Although he said that he did not have the answer to this question, Edelstein pointed to reasons such as anti-Semitism, the depiction of Israel in the media and radicals want to destroy Israel as possible explanations. However, Edelstein left the members of the audience to decide for themselves.
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