In an effort to promote student political awareness on campus, the Madison-Israel Public Affairs Committee hosted Deputy Consul General Gershon Kedar at Hillel Offices to talk about relations between Israel, its neighbors and the United States.
Kedar's main focus was to explain the current state of Israel through a different paradigm than how it is typically seen.
He explained how the public generally sees the events going on in the Middle East as strictly Arab versus Israeli when really they should be seen as moderate versus extremist movements.
According to Kedar, it is important to find peaceful solutions to conflicts and the most important to be done is for the world to realize there is a problem.
I think the United Nations is the ideal form for a peaceful solution because it's where all the powers are,"" Kedar said. The obstacle is that the UN has to ""do what it's supposed to do"" by promoting peace and security, he said, questioning whether it will be able to take significant actions in such a direction.
Some audience members were part of a protest group outside of the building before the event and voiced their concerns with what Kedar had to say during his lecture.
Emily Singer, a member of MadPAC who attended the lecture, said the protesters may take away from other people's ability to become educated on the presented issues.
""I think some of their questions aren't really questions but rather [are just used] to disrupt and explain their own opinions,"" Singer said.
However, Kedar took the protesters' arguments in stride.
""The harder the questions the better,"" he said.
Kedar said one of the reasons he came to UW-Madison was to encourage people to think more openly and to diverge from one-dimensional common viewpoints.
""If it helped people to think that the issues are more difficult than they thought, then I think it was worth my visit here,"" Kedar said.
Kedar was visiting from Chicago where he holds a position in the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest.
According to the Israel Diplomatic Network website, some of his past positions include Deputy Director General of the Department of UN Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was a Counselor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem.
