Building Future Leaders conference

This past weekend I participated in a leadership conference put on by MASA. Thursday we heard Bogi Ya'alon speak who is most likely going to be the next Minister of Defense over here. He talked about his "solution" to the conflict, which doesn't involve a two state solution (because that is not solution, nothing will change, he says) instead Israel needs to make the Palestinians recognize its right to exist. As he was Chief of Staff of the IDF and is going to be Minister of Defense, I think you can guess how he thinks we should "make" the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist. There were mixed reactions after hearing Bogi speak, many Israeli's and pro-Zionists thought he was great, and the more liberal of the bunch didn't necessarily agree with what he was saying. Thursday night we went to the Idan Raichel Project concert! Idan is great,you should listen to them if you haven't before, they are made up of 12 or so members most from all different countries around the world. Allie spoke at the show about Israel, her WUJS program she was on last year, making Aliya, and she gave a shout out to us BFL'ers. She was amazing and inspiring, per usual! After the concert I went out with her and her friends in Jerusalem, it was nice to meet some more of the people at her Ulpan.
Friday we went to the Herzl and Begin museums to learn about "where we came from" in terms of the Jews being in Israel and such. We heard a speech after Shabbas dinner about a lot of the problems Israel has, and how it's not this great land/place that it was intended to be. There were mixed reviews about this speaker as well, but I thought it was really important that he raised awareness about problems in Israel that no one wants to mention or think about like the failing education, divide in the society, homeless youth, and so forth. Next the soldier BFL participants held a panel like discussion. They are all in the most elite unit of the army, and are directly responsible for the day to day safety of the people living in Israel. We would not be able to do things like ride buses here without their unit, they physically stop the terrorists from committing acts of violence by going to their houses and arresting them and such. It's kind of hard to imagine even when you talk to them about it. After long discussions about everything the soldiers took a bunch of us out in the city, to a nice, authentic, typical Israeli pub. Just kidding, it was an Irish pub, haha. The conversation and company wonderful. You can't feel any more safe when you're out with these guys, two of which are carrying pistols in the belt of their pants...hmm.
Saturday consisted of more discussion/workshops and an inspiring speaker who is working with at risk youth. The weekend was packed full with intellectually stimulating conversation to the point where I almost felt like I couldn't think anymore at times, but it was sooo good to challenge myself like that. If I'm going to be here I need to seriously think about how I feel about a lot of the issues and resorting to "I don't know how I feel about it yet" is becoming less and less acceptable to me. Beyond the actual conference, forming friendships with the participants was great. I really enjoyed asking tons of questions (what else is new) and having conversations about things that had nothing to do with the conference. Great environment, great food, great friends, and I can't wait to go back for the next session in a few weeks!

Stay tuned for updates on Purim, the most ridiculous holiday I clearly have never experienced correctly before!