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| Volume 12, Number 8 | December 3, 2004 |
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Israeli Consul General visits campus to promote co-operative projects
Israel’s Consul General for Central and Western Canada spent a day at the U of S Nov. 25 looking at possibilities for co-operative projects focusing on agriculture and research. This was the first visit to the U of S by Ya’acov Brosh, who has been in his Toronto-based position since August 2003. “It is definitely our intention for Israel to pursue possibilities for research, student exchanges and projects with the U of S,” Brosh said before going for a brief tour of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron. He said there is a Canada-Israel agreement providing up to $600,000 for each country to invest primarily in agricultural research and development. Brosh’s day at the U of S included a meeting with President Peter MacKinnon, the CLS tour, lunch at Boffin’s Club with U of S officials involved in promoting international developments for the University, a visit to VIDO (the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization), and a visit to the Food Pilot Plant in the College of Agriculture. He also took an hour in the morning to meet about about 10 History department faculty and students, for a discussion on Israel and the Middle East. Brosh said he has noticed that in recent months there has been an increase in intolerant statements about Israel and Jews by Muslims in Canada – an occurrence which he says used to be very rare. He told the History group that the core of the Middle East problem is not so much territorial as it is ideological. “It’s the fact that the Arab world doesn’t accept the right of Israel to exist, and many don’t recognize the fact that Israel exists.” Brosh said it is of great concern to Israel that Iran, which has the stated intention of destroying Israel, “is developing nuclear weapons and has long-range missiles”. But, he added, “there is an international effort to stop Iran from developing the nuclear bomb.”
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