President's Conference, Day 2: Morning Plenary, Writers' Panel

More Day 2 highlights...

Morning plenary

Kissinger starts off the morning, and tells a joke. "If I speak longer than fifteen minutes, a trap door will open up and swallow me. On the other hand, if I do speak longer than fifteen minutes, you can all say you were present at this historic occasion." (Not funny? Read it again, but like Kissinger.) He proceeds to talk about his connection to Israel, and address some of the issues -- like the environment, energy, proliferation, education and others -- that we're all dealing with on a global level.

Amos Oz speaks beautifully about Israel. "As a dream come true," he notes, "Israel has a touch of disappointment to it. The only way to keep it perfect is to never live it out...it is not in the nature of dreams to be fully fulfilled." He also shared some relateable observations, like that he loves Israel "even at times when I cannot stand it." He noted that the Jews have no Pope, basically because if we had one, he'd constantly get hit up for favors from people claiming connections to his relatives and friends from the old country. He also observed that finding a solution to the Israeli/Arab / Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the heaviest shadow over Israeli life and the most urgent task is resolving security.

I am called away to be interviewed by a camera crew, so I miss speeches by Abby Joseph Cohen and Bernard Henri-Levy. No worries, writers' panel to come. (See Writers Discussing Tomorrow post.)

Lunch session/Tomorrow Through the Eyes of Nobel Laureates

One in five Nobel Laureates are Jewish, Shimon Peres says. Several of the Laureates shared some of their research with us. Although I recognized that they're all brilliant, and were really articulate and engaging, I'm still too tired, and much of it went over my head. Walter Kohn spoke about R&D for alternative clean energy. Roger David Kornberg talked about the evolution of medicine, and how medical advances are usually the unexpected products of a quest for knowledge. He is the second Nobel Laureate in his family, so I'd officially hate to be his kid. Game theorist Roger Myerson insisted that if there's a secret key to peace, we need to find it. "We need a common vision of justice stitched from the traditions of both communities,"he said. Eric S. Maskin talked about climate change, and that it involves many other issues, like politics, the environment and science.

Elie Wiesel concluded the session noting that globalization is "not really reality." Global terror began here, he said. "Because it wasn't stopped, it spread. Fanaticism is the hatred of the other. It is a noble endeavor to [try to] restore justice," he said, noting that he was not a fan of Gandhi's because Gandhi had encouraged Europe's Jews to commit suicide -- in what would have been a 20th Century Masada -- rather than fight back when attacked by the Nazis. That way, Gandhi said, the Jews deaths will not have been for nothing. Wiesel, obviously, thought this was colossally bad advice. "Our obsessions are to bring consolation to those who need it," he said.

Coming tomorrow...reports on today's New Jewish Leaders session and the panel about whether Jewish identity is unraveling or renewing itself...plus, special footage and photos from the adult mega-event special event honoring the mutual love shared by Israel and the United States....isn't it romantic? Stay tuned!