The talk

I have been in the meeting from the early morning—For the Organizational Behavior presentation on Monday. I will feel a huge relief once I get done for my presentation on Monday.

Everyone said it rained quite heavily last night. Honestly speaking, I do not have the slightest clue. I had a long day and was very tired. I dozed off right after I went to bed—which was almost around 12:30.

So far the best weather was on Wednesday. High 60s I think. I had to attend the talk by Dr. Yoram Puri.Since the location was not far from school,I decided on talking a quick stroll around the busy downtown. The weather was simply marvellous. To my surprise,I was the odd one out walking around the city in my long coat.

Dr. Yoram Peri had also been appointed as the advisor for Yitzak Rabin’s period. It is always interesting to hear the first hand experience on these "on- going" conflicts. In relation to Nepal, I was kind of surprised to hear how instrumental the military was in the entire peace process in Israel. Dr. Peri emphasizes on the fact that Military were used by the politicians to strengthen their position. – To me, this is indeed a very interesting perspective.

Another interesting point he added which was quite appalling was when he mentioned, “War would have stopped, but the military did not want to. If there was a strong “ civil lain intuition,” then the war in Israel would have stopped. The view was just top myopic.”

Additionally, he added that fact how Israel after deciding to withdraw the troops from Lebanon unilaterally got attacked by the Hezbollah. He emphasized, that Israel thinks that they should not have withdraw from Gaza and Lebanon. “In near future, if we withdraw, we will get attacked.”

I think the talk was very interesting. Last month I had attended the “Jerusalem Women Speak” talk. In that talk one of the women had mentioned how in Israel, many thousands of eighteen years old are resisting conscription into a military because they do not see them being as a defense force. However, Dr. Peri, depicted Military as on of the heroic symbols in Israel. Truthfully speaking- I am confused.

I am not very knowledgeable in this topic but from the two talks that I have attended, I have just been more confused. Why is there so much involvement between the militants and the political leaders? I think Israel’s fundamental security posture will not improve until the pattern of relations between its generals and political leaders is dramatically altered and a better decision-making mechanism in national security matters is established.

After the talk, like usual, I managed to have a quick chat with Dr. Peri and of course! Shook my hand. The place was quite packed with Professors and representatives from the various consulates.

Not that I like to eavesdrop, J but one conversation really caught my attention. This old gentlemen patted on the back of a another one and gleefully said, “Your great grand father was a great president,”

“He was an idiot” – was the other gentlemen’s firm reply.

I could not help but think who that person was.

He definitely looked Middle Eastern—Israeli to be exact. Who am I to be so sure of that person’s nationality? He could have been very well from Turkey, or Palestine.. Anyways, during that event—that was one question that was running in my find and unfortunately, he left before the event ended. Nope, I did not have the chance to talk with me. The question still ponders in my mind.

On an interesting note, I met a wonderful lady, Dr. Kinchuk, director of the Humphrey Fellow Program from the BU University. She was from St.Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia-- The same place my dad got his undergraduate from. I always get excited to meet with people from around the world and if I could to relate to them I get more thrilled.

It was really nice meeting with her. I am very thankful for her as she helped to book the room for the Chalpohal talk tomorrow.

I am at the library- -trying to do the work for my professor. The internet is just too slow.

I have whole weekend booked for the Marketing presentation on Monday