Security and Diplomacy Shabbaton

Last weekend I attended a weekend event on Security and Diplomacy in Israel. It was completely by coincidence that it was held a few days after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. It was held in Jerusalem, yet it was a very different Jerusalem experience for me. We were not in the city center and to areas that I had been before. We were at a hostel the whole weekend. It was very interesting and informative. I got to meet other people on programs through MASA. I got to listen to many important figures   in the media such as Barak Ravid from Haaretz, and both from Jerusalem Post Gill Hoffman and Khaled Abu Toameh. We also heard from Col. (Res.) Bentzi Gruber from the IDF. They had incredible knowledge of the topics that they came to talk about. They were incredibly opinionated as well as knowing the facts. Some of the questions they were asked by us were deep and led to about a five minute response. Some of their responses were very provocative and were quite delightful to listen to. We talked mostly about what was Operation Pillar of Defense, but we also talked about the challenges of Jerusalem, the Arab Israeli and Palestinian viewpoint, and the current political situation in Israel. It was really great to learn all of this here in Israel rather than back home. I feel this way because I had experienced what had gone on here. Overall it was a great weekend. It was very funny that most of the people leading the weekend were from the Britain. The food was good and met some cool people. I learned a lot and had a pretty good weekend. More to come soon.