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.