Sent 6 July 2013 Dearest Members of the Israeli Knesset, I contemplate what has happened in the world over the last sixty years since the founding of Israel. In the United States and South Africa, savage racial persecution was eliminated, replaced by social equality and shared prosperity. In Europe, physical destruction and human misery dominated the post-war continent. Today, 28 nations are bound together in a community committed to prosperity and partnership. These previously unimaginable transformations were not the result of contracts or new laws – although these were generated – but rather a transformation of the manner in which people – one-by-one – relate to each other and the recognition of the tremendous suffering caused within each society. Conflict has been relentless between Israelis and Palestinians over all these same sixty years. A sense of hopelessness, resignation and cynicism dominates today. There is much talk of legal agreements, however it seems that neither party is willing to acknowledge and take responsibility for the ever present fear, hurt and suffering each has perpetrated on the other. Until such transformational leadership and sincere reconciliation is brought forth within Israeli and Palestinian society, an unending vicious cycle of revenge and terror seems unavoidable. The Holy Land has special meaning for all Christians, Muslims and Jews. The unmistakable essential message within each of our traditions is of love and brotherhood among all Children of Adam. I pray that the obsessive hypocritical insincerity that fills today’s news may be abandoned, being replaced by recognition of the precious reflection of our Father within each of us, the bringing forth of compassion and community and the rejection of the dark, self-imposed isolation and righteousness of our feeble individual human identity. Once this occurs, the entire world will share a never before experienced joy and brotherhood impacting peace among the peoples of all our traditions. Imagine a Holy Land without a wall separating the Children of Adam, rather a community of brothers sharing prosperity and the limitless fulfillment of human possibility – as a natural self-expression for each. Brotherhood between all Christians, Muslims and Jews is already embedded within the Christian and Islamic Holy Scriptures. What is needed is for Israeli Jews to speak to this. Christians and Muslims are listening with exquisite attention to be able to hear this from you. May God bless and guide you, your colleagues in the Knesset, the government and the Israeli and Palestinian people, May you generate the fulfillment of our Father’s promise of everlasting peace and brotherhood for all the yet unborn children of our Holy Land, Erik Hesse
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:06:45 +0000
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