It has been a long and memorable day. As so often last time I’m awake to start the day at about six. The weather is still cloudy and rainy. Which is greening up nature all around. But it remains too cold during the morning. Alright for a late balcony lunch then.
During the morning I tried to inform myself on the latest devellopments in Israel. I feel sad about the lack of any kind of process towards a sustainable peace in the Middle East. As long as I can remember there has been this Palestinian problem and the Multi-religious status of Jerusalem. Is peace in the Middle East an impossible utopia? Why had the Holy Sophia to be converted back into a mosque, mister Erdogan? And what about Muslim Sisterhood?
We see the strengthening of religious fanaticism, right-wing extremism and patriarchal authoritarianism, their tendency toward violence and war, everywhere on the rise. Not only in the Middle East. Where are the years of investing in interreligious dialogue and a comprhensive peaceplan? Where have they gone? Where are the visionary political-strategic designers, policymakers? I do not mean the forms of powerpolitics based on ideological righteousness or the shortterm selfinterest of corrupt businessmen.
We are so far back beyond the days of hope, the days of Yitsak Rabin and Clinton. And yet we will have to move on from the actual desastrous situation. I have just recieved a letter of an old schoolfriend of Willemien. She happens to live in the northern border region in between the Golan and the Libanon. She settled there with her late Dutch-jewish husband to embody pratical support for living in coexistence between Israelis and Druze. She describes former invasions by Hesbollah from the North: the near end of coexistence there.
Before my riversidewalk I had a long phoneconversation with an old friend from the Dubrovnik Post-Academic Studies in the 1970-ies. Meeting dissident political philosophers long before 1989 and the barbaric Yugoslav war. She survived all those years as a highly respected highschool teacher in French, German and Philosophy. Sometimes it seems better to serve in a humble and honorable task educating the enthusiasts among the next generations. They will be the ones who will revitalize the neglected peace and coexistence projects from the past.