Open letter to President Obama

The Hague, 28 January 2015

Mr. Barack H. Obama, President
The United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

The ‘Sadness Silence Can’t Touch,’ as so eloquently expressed by the American Poet, Dario Robleto, has got to be the defining feud of our time, the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle for Co-existence. The players are stuck with one foot in the stirrup, the other in the sand. “Today’s status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It’s not sustainable,” says Secretary of State John Kerry. Instead of heading toward an American Indian model, with Palestinians on reservations amid a sea of Israeli settlements and security zones, why not open borders with freedom of movement? Mr. President, many people around the world would like to hear you say: “Mr. Netanyahu, tear down those walls”.

Living Apart Together

Empower Israelis and Palestinians to connect freely. Enable the people in the region, not just products, services and capital, to cross borders without restrictions. It works in the BENELUX, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, the forerunners of the now borderless European Union.

A Two State Borderless Solution

UN Resolutions 194 and 242 make sense even more so now.\

1. Return to the borders of June 4, 1967.
2. Dignify Israeli neighborhoods in Palestine.
3. Welcome Palestinians back into their ancestral homeland.
4. Share the Holy City with all Jews, all Christians and all Moslems.
5. Recognize the sovereignties of Israel and Palestine.

Regional Reconciliation

“How Does One Reunite a Million-Year Old Rain Drop With a Million-Year-Old Blossom,” asks Dario Robleto. Establish a commission similar to the South African Commission of Truth and Reconciliation! Mr. President can you think a better way to help build a bridge among people who are neighbors? The majority of the Israelis and the Palestinians want to live in peace. They will connect the dots outside the box to break through the clouds where the sun always shines.

OPERATION NEVER AGAIN

The right of passage combined with a mutual respect of boundaries is the white elephant in the room. Some Israelis will find themselves living in settlements located in Palestine. Likewise, many Palestinians will live and work in Israel. No problem! The borderless boundaries, freedom of passage, make such concerns moot. Israel is Israel. Palestine is Palestine. Israeli citizens vote in Israel, no matter where they might work and live. The same principle applies to the Palestinians.

“End this nightmare,” say my very good and dear friends on both sides of the Divide. “Compromise! Work out a solution!” But, neither fully trusts the other. Mr. President, the Israelis and the Palestinians crave security even more than peace. Please invoke the European Union (and NATO) to:



1. Guarantee bilateral demilitarization.
2. Protect the opposing factions from each other and from themselves.
3. Hold all warring parties accountable for damages and restitution.
4. Finance the war reparation efforts through a European-initiated Marshall Plan Fund to compensate those whose properties have been illegally seized and confiscated.
5. Forge peace.

Despite Israel’s lethal arsenal, it goes against Israel’s collective conscience to sentence the Palestinians to a Final Solution. There is good in the Israeli character. For many, certainly for my mother, the concentration camp has also been a breeding ground for compassion and tolerance. So, another Holocaust, especially on shared soil, is out of the question. Can we “Quietly Cross the Boundary of Life and Find New Meaning in Our Tangled Roots of Our Combined Histories?”

I worry. I want Israel to survive. I am of Jewish descent (though I look Kama’aina). I, too, have a spiritual connection to the land. The region is my home, born on the Red Sea on a British Ship of Dutch parents. Inside my soul and within all of my being, I am attached to the splendor of its many colors, their tints and hues. I really do not know how to explain my love and deep devotion to the land, but I understand implicitly and intuitively why neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis will ever leave.

Mr. President, what would you want to do if you could do anything that you could do? To again quote Dario Robleto: “Creativity Has the Power to Fix Something that Never Got Fixed, to Correct a Wrong Waiting to be Resolved.” Please work toward a paradigm shift with your counterparts, copied below. After all, if a policy hasn’t worked for 66 years, isn’t it time to change? In the mean time, dedicated people around the world will sign the petition on www.buildingthebridge.eu (in the air since yesterday) to encourage the United States and to support the European Union to help effectuate a positive change in the region.

Thank you Sir for, again, stepping up to the plate.

Sincerely,

Abraham A. van Kempen