Spring Break
Panels to address crisis in Middle East
Heather Holm / Activities Editor
Issue date: 3/9/09 Section: News
Two conflicting viewpoints on the Middle East will be available to the public today.
One is from Israel and will show the Israeli side of the Middle Eastern crisis, and the other is the ambassador from the League of the Arab States to the United States, to show the Arab side of the issue.
Ping Chen, director of the Public Policy Institute at the college of sciences, invited two dignitaries to Eastern for the all-day conference on the Middle East.
The Egyptian ambassador Hussein Hassouna will be speaking on behalf of all 21 Arab nations.
Robert Schwartz, the senior policy adviser to the Consul General of Israel, will be speaking for Israel.
"He is in charge of political and international policies of Israel," Chen said.
Chen said since these two men are enemies, they had to be contacted separately to attend the conference at Eastern.
"We wanted to have a balance of information," Chen said. "We know they both disagree on international issues. When you have a dispute with someone, we don't want to just hear from you. We want to hear from your neighbor too."
However, they will not be sharing the same panel.
Hassouna will present the keynote address at 7:30 p.m. in the Theatre of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
Schwartz will speak at the panels "The Challenges of Iran to the West and the Arab World" at 2 p.m. and "Palestine and Israel: A Two-State Solution" at 3:30 p.m.
Another panel discussion topic includes "The Future of Iraq" from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Schwartz will not be speaking at this one, however.
The panels will be held in the Charleston/Mattoon Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
"Most visible crises in the world in terms of international crisis are in the Middle East," Chen said. "War and conflict have always lived together there. Our mission is bringing the crisis closer to the students and campus more clearly and meaningfully."
He said Eastern was lucky to get top representatives to come to campus and that they can speak a word of authority on the issues and each represent their own government.
Chen said a question to be answered would be "Can (these nations) co-exist?"
"They will discuss how to solve the problem in the Middle East and who is to blame for the trouble and they are going to blame each other," he said. "We will try to have a solution of some sort and this is a way to expose students to the real world and inform them on what is going on authoritatively."
Mary Anne Hanner, dean of the College of Sciences, is going to be the moderator of the keynote address lecture.
"I will be introducing the ambassador and any other dignitaries that may be there," she said. "I do think it is going to be a very informative day with interesting panel discussions and very powerful discussions about the policies and the politics of the Middle East."
Admission to all events is free and open to the public.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or haholm@eiu.edu.
One is from Israel and will show the Israeli side of the Middle Eastern crisis, and the other is the ambassador from the League of the Arab States to the United States, to show the Arab side of the issue.
Ping Chen, director of the Public Policy Institute at the college of sciences, invited two dignitaries to Eastern for the all-day conference on the Middle East.
The Egyptian ambassador Hussein Hassouna will be speaking on behalf of all 21 Arab nations.
Robert Schwartz, the senior policy adviser to the Consul General of Israel, will be speaking for Israel.
"He is in charge of political and international policies of Israel," Chen said.
Chen said since these two men are enemies, they had to be contacted separately to attend the conference at Eastern.
"We wanted to have a balance of information," Chen said. "We know they both disagree on international issues. When you have a dispute with someone, we don't want to just hear from you. We want to hear from your neighbor too."
However, they will not be sharing the same panel.
Hassouna will present the keynote address at 7:30 p.m. in the Theatre of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
Schwartz will speak at the panels "The Challenges of Iran to the West and the Arab World" at 2 p.m. and "Palestine and Israel: A Two-State Solution" at 3:30 p.m.
Another panel discussion topic includes "The Future of Iraq" from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Schwartz will not be speaking at this one, however.
The panels will be held in the Charleston/Mattoon Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
"Most visible crises in the world in terms of international crisis are in the Middle East," Chen said. "War and conflict have always lived together there. Our mission is bringing the crisis closer to the students and campus more clearly and meaningfully."
He said Eastern was lucky to get top representatives to come to campus and that they can speak a word of authority on the issues and each represent their own government.
Chen said a question to be answered would be "Can (these nations) co-exist?"
"They will discuss how to solve the problem in the Middle East and who is to blame for the trouble and they are going to blame each other," he said. "We will try to have a solution of some sort and this is a way to expose students to the real world and inform them on what is going on authoritatively."
Mary Anne Hanner, dean of the College of Sciences, is going to be the moderator of the keynote address lecture.
"I will be introducing the ambassador and any other dignitaries that may be there," she said. "I do think it is going to be a very informative day with interesting panel discussions and very powerful discussions about the policies and the politics of the Middle East."
Admission to all events is free and open to the public.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or haholm@eiu.edu.
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