Open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Hague, 28 February 2015

Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister
The State of Israel
3 Kaplan St. Hakirya
91950 Jerusalem
Israel

RE: LIVING APART TOGETHER

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I hold you personally responsible for jolting me out of my retirement. You’re to blame. I was in the region when Israel went on a killing spree last summer. My reaction: “Not again? … Enough is Enough! NEVER AGAIN! And so, now I’m wrestling, trying to learn social media. I’m also trying to enrapture people everywhere but especially in Europe and in North America, to ‘Say YES’, yes to having Europe (NATO) and the United States hold you and the Palestinians by the hand to once and for all settle the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle to Reach Peaceful Coexistence. Please visit www.buildingthebridge.eu, in the air since yesterday.

Believe me, I’d rather be sailing. In order to combine my retirement activities – swimming (in the Dead Sea), snorkeling (Red Sea, my birthplace), skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, and just being with wife, children, family and friends – with my passion to help keep the peace torch aflame, my web developers have engineered a web page that is self-sufficient and self-generating. Through word-of-mouth people everywhere can and will help influence the road toward peace using the keyboard as their sword.

Nothing is cast in concrete and nothing is new under the sun. Kernels of wisdom – exciting ideas, attainable goals and practical applications – will inevitably come out of the conversations on buildingthebridge.eu. Perhaps someone from either left field or right field might come up with the winner, a sustainable peace resolution. This is a new world, Mr. Prime Minister. The Internet enables everyone to function as a Head of State, if only for a few minutes at a time.

We must thrust forward toward a paradigm shift. The convergence toward peace is a process, a diplomatic task and duty, requiring moral imagination and moral courage. Those of us on the street, expect you and pertinent others to distill the many ideas into a practical and sustainable peace. All eyes are on Israel and on Palestine. If peace is possible there, it is possible everywhere. It is a struggle worthy of hope.

Sincerely,

Abraham A. van Kempen