Students and faculty crowded into Hillel Tuesday night to broaden their perspectives on how Israel might find peace.
Bradley Burston, a columnist for Israeli newspaper Haaretz and proclaimed liberal Zionist, spoke to the crowd of about 40 to provide insight and answer questions regarding the social and political state of Israel.
Burston paralleled Egypt’s situation with the long-existing Israeli political conflict. He defined the current Egyptian protests as a “revolution,” adding that it should motivate Israelis to “consider the importance of peace.”
This peace also includes Israel’s conflicts with other Middle Eastern countries. “Israel is a Jewish state because Jews make it one,” Burston said. “If they have to ask … whether it is or not, then there is something wrong.”
Achieving full peace is not without cost, Burston said.
“You need a leader who is willing to give everything he has,” Burston said. “Someone willing to give his life.”
The Forum for a New Israeli Dialogue, a new club on campus, invited Burston to speak with hopes to represent a diversity of opinions regarding Israeli politics.
“There seems to be a very polarized view of Israel on campus,” the club’s vice president Akiva Sanders, a College freshman, said. “What we are trying to do is create an environment in which people can support Israel and at the same time question what it does.”
The group’s president and College sophomore Logan Bayroff said they chose Burston because “he is someone who is very articulate with a strong grasp on the political situation in Israel, and a big voice for the liberal movement.”
Once Burston opened the floor for questions, students did not hesitate to challenge him by asking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the settlement revolution in Israel and Israel’s connection to the current political turmoil in Egypt.
“I was excited that he talked about what was going on in Egypt,” College sophomore Leanne Gale said. “It was the first time I’ve heard a liberal Zionist’s perspective since I’ve been at Penn. It’s true that it’s not a mutually exclusive discussion: one can simultaneously be pro-Israel and pro-Palestine.”
Engineering junior Aaron Roth added, “I wanted to hear what Burston had to say, though I often disagree with him.”
Bayroff agreed that Burston’s lecture was “extremely enlightening,” adding that “there are a lot of people in the room with a very different political opinion than Mr. Burston — who, after hearing him, will at least know that the opposition is still intelligent and cares about Israel.”
Burston had high hopes for the future of The Forum, saying that “these kinds of things can have a tremendously positive effect.”
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