That's how Jack London, a former University of Manitoba law professor, introduced The Great Debate at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue September 30.
More than 1200 people watched as awardwinning debaters from the Gray Academy of Jewish Education, St. John's-Ravenscourt School, Stanford University, the Massachusets Institute of Technology and Beverly Hills, California engaged in the aggressive thrust and parry of parliamentary debate.
Leonard Asper, president and CEO of Canwest Global Communications also spoke, lacing into international media for their coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The size of the crowd testified to the "box office power of debating," London said as the program, hosted by the Gray Academy, started. The event also spoke to the "promotional talent" of Raymond Kives, who played key roles in organizing and paying for it and starting a debating program three years ago at the Gray Academy.
The senior debaters included Kives' son, Michael, twice winner of the World Public Speaking and Debating Championships as a high school student.
Now based in Beverly Hills, Michael Kives was also captain of the Stanford University Debating Team.
Kives and three of his friends, all prizewinning university debaters, tackled the resolution, The Roadmap to Peace Leads Nowhere.
Kives, a passionate speaker with a baritone voice, and his debating partner, Jeffrey Davidson of Stanford, argued in favor of the resolution.
They described the roadmap so far as a disaster, adding that in contrast to the Jewish state, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has failed to meet any of the requirements.
"Six months have passed since the start of the roadmap," Kives said. "Yasser Arafat is stronger than he's ever been. Terrorists have concocted new plans for attacking the State of Israel, and three-quarters of Palestinians say they'll vote for a party that doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist."
Davidson added that the roadmap requires the PA not just to "stop terrorism from happening", but to "dismantle the instruments of terror...that allow for these acts. Right now, the Palestinian Authority government doesn't have the willpower or control to do that."
Patrick Nichols of MIT, arguing in opposition, maintained that the Roadmap to Peace sets out a "blueprint" for setting up a "stable Palestinian state", and "that's crucial to Israeli-Palestinian peace."
The PA and the Israeli government until now never had an "explicit agreement" about an "end goal" for a peace process - creation of a Palestinian state. "Now they have an explicit agreement."
Phil Larochelle of MIT, Nichols' debating partner, designated firstplace speaker of the year by the American Parliamentary Debate Association, showed his speaking skill and a passion like Kives', as he stood at the lectern on the Shaarey Zedek bimah. He said the two-state solution the roadmap calls for is the most likely longterm option for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Others, like Israel annexing the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or creation of a single state, including Israel and the occupied territories, would lead within a few decades to an Arab majority, because of the high Arab birthrate.
The judges, Charles Adler, a talk radio show host and columnist, Janice Filmon, trustee for the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice (husband Gary, former Manitoba premier, sat a row behind her), Martin Freedman, a justice of the Manitoba Court of Appeal, Nicholas Hirst, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, and Joseph Wilder, chair of the Canada-Israel Committee, judged Kives best speaker in the debate, and Nichols and Larochelle, best team.
Sheldon Mindell, director of endowment for the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, told the crowd the foundation has a Gray Academy Debating and Public Speaking Endowment Fund to help support that program at the academy.
"Running a debating and public speaking program is very expensive," Mindell said of that steadily-growing program at that Winnipeg Jewish day school. "There's instructors, travel, other expenses - all costly."
Donors can earmark gifts either for the fund, in general, or make contributions named for specific individuals, as part of the larger fund.
Ray Kives has set up a scholarship fund with his wife, Barbara, for annual winners of the academy's program. After watching The Great Debate, Kives said he felt "exuberant".
"I feel it's so wonderful to see how the kids can get up, basically unprepared, and speak for 15 minutes in flawless English... Anybody that can learn debating or public speaking - whether you're the best or not - it's something that's so important in life."
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