STAFF EDITORIAL: Bravo on choice of speaker

Binyamin Netanyahu is an excellent choice for the Connaissance fall speaker and his talk should be interesting. And he will do so at Penn's Irvine Auditorium, before an audience of 1,200 students and faculty. That makes Netanyahu's visit a coup for Connaissance -- which is bringing Netanyahu to campus as its fall speaker -- and a tremendous opportunity for students with tickets to the event. Heads of state have visited Penn's campus in recent years -- including China's Jiang Zemin in 1997 and President Clinton during his 1996 re-election campaign. But neither of those visits was sponsored by Connaissance. The organization's lineup has traditionally featured a slightly lower-profile group, including Gloria Steinem, Conan O'Brien and Dick Vitale. Unfortunately, Netanyahu has prohibited any dissemination of tonight's night's speech, including a closed-circuit feed or subsequent rebroadcast on UTV-13. That leaves students without tickets out of the loop, and that is unfortunate. However, for those lucky enough to have secured tickets through the Connaissance lottery, tonight should prove highly enjoyable. The message has grown clichZd, but as with the best clichZs, it has grown so with good reason -- attend tonight's speech with an open mind. Many on Penn's campus have pre-formed conceptions of one sort or another about the State of Israel and her political figures. And Netanyahu -- known to his countrymen as Bibi -- has inspired an unprecedented depth of animosity among many. It goes without saying that any public demonstration of such feelings tonight would be an incredibly poor reflection on those involved and on the University as a whole. But after the speech, students should be equally mindful of the need to respect the opinions of other students. Speeches can inflame passions, but they also have the capacity to create dialogue. Make tonight a basis for conversation, not anger.