Evento

Ilana Dayan in a lecture

Polls indicate out loud: Israel is a wonderful place. 75% of Israelis think their country is great to live in, more than any other western economy. The World Health Organization reports that from 50 top states, Israel ranks 14 among the best countries to spend your life in leaving behind Norway and France, Holland, Germany and Finland too.

And no, the news dont lie: Israel is indeed a terror stricken country, polarized from within and threatened from without, always at the center of some storm, still trying to crave an island of sanity in the midst of an stormy ocean whose waves never come down.

Ilana covers the Israeli existence for more than 30 years: As a radio correspondent, an investigative reporter, and an anchor of a leading current affairs TV program. Her perspective is one that comes with the objectivity of a journalist, but also with the intimacy of someone who cares deeply for the place she made Aliya to, at the age of 6. Her talk will take us to a journey inside Israel 2016: Did Israelis lose faith in the chance for peace? And if so how come the majority of them still support the two states solution? Are they familiar with the rise of BDS and alike in American campuses, and in Europe? And if so can the current state of affairs be maintained? Will we forever live on our sword?

Those issues and more are reflected in many of the stories that Ilana covers. She will take us behind the scenes of the interview she recently conducted with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, and the one she conducted a year ago with President Obama; the things she saw in Gaza, with the IDF paratroopers during operation Protective Shield, and the unforgettable encounter, after the war, with the mother who lost her son, a young soldier only 20 years old.

And in the midst of it all, the most successful Silicon Valley outside the Silicon Valley is booming, culture is thriving, the press is biting, Israeli democracy is never calm, but so much more healthy and stable than any of its neighbors.
The fascinating question is how it happens; the more important one is where we go from here.
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