I found the President’s speech to Israelis inspiring and filled with hope.
The line impacting me the most was when he said peace begins “not just in the plans of leaders, but in the hearts of people, not just in a carefully designed process, but in the daily connections that take place among those who live together in this land, and in this sacred city of Jerusalem.”
Obama went on to say, “you must create the change that you want to see.”
My greatest hope going forward into Passover is that these words can actually happen by all sides in the region.
You don’t need me to tell you that after pulling out of Gaza, Israeli cities were pummeled by years of shelling, including four rockets fired into Israel with the President of the United States in Israel.
There are many business relationships and just people to people connections made daily between Jew and Palestinian. This is for sure something to build on. But there is always this worry that if one side gives too much, it becomes vulnerable.
Israel has hard wired itself into the global economy because of its start ups and ventures.
The obstacles seem to be an Arab street that calls for democracy on one hand, but on the other won’t permit its citizenry from the freedom to work with Israel, and at the same time to create countries where learning, industrial advancement and commerce and democracies can really work. Groups like Hamas, Hizbollah and even the Muslim Brotherhood are no different towards the freedom of their constituency than the region’s former tyrants.
Still, there is hope. President Obama offered a wonderful presentation of at the very least, hope.
As we head into Passover, I pray that the Arab nation’s free themselves of the very ideology that would crush that hope of normal, productive lives for their citizenry. Israel would be more than happy to share in the regional security that such hope could bring.
