President's Conference: Day 1 (In Brief)
So here's the short report on the first day of the President's Conference, since I'm too tired to do a real post until later. There were a bunch of Jews there. Many of them were Israeli. Many others were from ROI (and representing several countries). During the dinner buffet, the food tables were mobbed and the bar was pretty open and accessible (with an excellent Cabernet available). Security was tight, and included the regular spate of bag-checkpoints, metal detectors, and the swabbing down of each person's hands with some sort of magic material that apparently read palms and indicated if you'd fired a gun or had anarchistic tendencies, or something. (I think it's the same magic material that they wave at your electronics during those special searches at the airports these days. Cool stuff, if that's actually what it is.)
Lots of Presidents in attendance. Countries represented at opening panel -- moderated by Tony Blair and simulcast in translation on special headphones that sometimes even worked -- included Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Mongolia, Poland, Rwanda, Slovenia, Uganda, Ukraine, Pulau and Burkina Faso, and a closing note from Mikhail Gorbachev, who's looking a little like Ed Asner these days. Each world leader was given five minutes to state their vision for the future. With the time so tight, there was no chance for debate or questions; this meant that each message was terse and similar, with the country's representative noting that we live in an era of globalization and that Israel can help and serve as inspiration. Not a bad message, if a little generic. Nothing earth-shattering. A few interesting notes to come when I have time to read my handwriting and transcribe it.
Non-political celebrities spotted? One: Famous actress Gila Almagor. Which proves that I actually watch all those Israeli movies I rent on Netflix.
Opening gala event performances were a little weak. More on that tomorrow. (Just too tired.) Unintentional highlights include moments via the roving celebrity visitors cam, which caught a few people scratching their noses, others wearing their headphones creatively, and Ehud Olmert winking at the camera during Hatikvah.
If you want more news from Jerusalem, you might want to check out www.JerusalemOnline.com -- which broadcasts a daily video news update from Israel in English, as well as other Israeli content in fields such as security and intelligence, real estate, hi-tech, tourism, entertainment, etc.
No kidding-I saw Gila Almagor last Thursday night....I'll send you the picture.
Posted by: Benji | May 15, 2008 at 10:44 PM
No kidding-I saw Gila Almagor last Thursday night....I'll send you the picture.
Posted by: Benji | May 15, 2008 at 10:45 PM