By Mark Fleming, MSFS’13
A group of MSFS students met with Barukh Binah, Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States, to discuss developments in the Middle East and the importance of the US-Israel relationship.
Ambassador Binah has served his entire diplomatic career in the United States, having acted as Consul General in Chicago, Congressional Affairs counselor at the Embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman for the UN Mission and the Embassy. His recent appointment as ambassador to Denmark is his first posting outside the US.
The meeting with Ambassador Binah offered participants an opportunity to ask questions to a senior Israeli official prior to departing for a 10-day trip to Israel.
“The trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories will help to make a tense issue in international affairs tangible for graduate students at Georgetown University,” said Richard Priem, second-year International Relations and Security concentrator and trip organizer. “This meeting with Ambassador Binah gave the group the opportunity to have an Israeli perspective before going to the region, where students will be exposed to a wide variety of opinions and points of view.”
According to Ambassador Binah, three pillars allow Israel to remain stable and prosperous during this time of unrest in neighboring countries: Israel’s technological and educational advantage, its open democratic society, and its strong relationship with the US.
“People have lost their fear of the regimes,” Binah said. “People are talking about taking to the streets in masses that have not been seen in the past.
Given these changes and Israel’s place in the region, he asserted that Israel has to adapt to the changes and remain committed to its values.
“We must not allow this turmoil around us to change the way we look at ourselves,” Binah said. “The worst mistake we made in the Mideast was to think we could change things.”
Students who attended the talk found it a great introduction for the ten-day educational and cultural trip. The subjects that the Ambassador mentioned left them wanting to know more about certain subjects, which they can pursue during their travels.
“I would like to learn more about where Israel is heading demographically and in domestic politics,” second-year International Commerce and Business (ICB) concentrator Vanessa Ramirez-Bowne said. “The meeting set me up to ask those questions during the trip.”
“He gave us a good sense of what the key issues are,” second-year ICB concentrator Matt Sullivan said. “It was good to hear about the economy and high tech sector since we do not often hear about them due to the conflict.”
Priem said that addressing these economic and social dimensions in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and not solely the Arab-Israeli conflict, motivated him to organize the trip in the first place.
“We learn about the region in class, but seeing it in person adds a completely new dimension to our understanding,” he said. “Equally important, it will also allow first and second-year students in the MSFS program to bond and have fun together before resuming their academic and professional activities.”