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Israel’s Consul General to Deliver Next Mideast Lecture at CCSU

NEW BRITAIN – April 10, 2008 – Asaf Shariv, Israel’s new Consul General in New York will be the featured speaker at Central Connecticut State University’s next Middle East Insights Lecture Series, scheduled April 15.  The event will take place at 4 p.m. in the Torp Theatre, located in CCSU’s administration building, Lawrence J. Davidson Hall. 

Ambassador Shariv will speak about the current Palestinian-Israeli situation.  There is no admission fee and free parking is available in CCSU parking garages and surface lots.

Shariv has been in his current diplomatic post less than a year after serving as director of Media and Public Affairs for Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon.  As the personal media advisor to the Prime Minister and a senior staff member, his responsibilities included supervising the Israeli government's press office and advertising bureau.  He was also the spokesman for various government agencies, such as the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad), the Atomic Energy Committee, the National Security Committee and the Counter-Terrorism Unit. 

“As the youngest diplomat ever to serve as Israel's Consul General to the New York area, Mr. Shariv will be able to present an insider’s perspective of the Israeli political scene,” said Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, who has the distinction of being a CSU professor as well as a professor history at CCSU.  Dr. Mezvinsky organized the Middle East Insights lecture series in 2006.  He continues to arrange for a variety of prominent Middle East scholars and experts in to speak at CCSU during the current spring semester.

Consul General Shariv got his start in public affairs in 1990, as a soldier in the Israel Defense Force during which time he was a reporter and senior editor for the weekly BaMachane, the official newspaper of the Israeli military. In 1993, he was promoted to acting editor-in-chief and managed a team of 30 reporters, editors and producers. After completing his army service, he worked as a deputy editor at Globes Newspaper. Four years later the diplomat earned a law degree from the Interdisciplinary Center of Israel, and practiced law in Tel-Aviv before joining the Prime Minister’s Office as Senior Advisor to Ariel Sharon’s Chief-of-Staff.

The CCSU Middle East Lecture Series is underwritten by Dr. Susan Pease, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and is jointly sponsored by the Middle East Studies Committee of CIE, the History Department and the Peace Studies Program.   

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