Dear Mr. President, come take a pleasant walk with me

Dear President Peres,

You are one of my childhood heroes.  Each time I see you in person, my heart flutters in excitement, knowing that I am speaking with a living, breathing part of our history. I feel myself become star struck every time I have the opportunity to speak with you, whether to ask you a question or to introduce myself, which we have had the honor of about 5 or 6 times over the past 8 years. It’s ok, I don’t expect you to remember me, but I always remember you. I don’t get star struck by many people these days.

Listening to you speak with our group of bloggers at your very own conference “Tomorrow”, taking the time to show us how much you respect who we are and what we do, reminded me yet again, why I have been so honored to have met in person a man such as yourself. When necessary, you spoke as the politician that you are. That is your job, and I do not believe that any of us bloggers would have been naïve enough to expect otherwise.

Then there were the times that you spoke my language, where one could see through to the depths of your soul when looking into your eyes. You spoke the language of the heart. You stopped being a politician for a few brief moments, and became a regular person. A humanitarian human.

It is one thing to believe that a person is good, decent, and humane, but it is another to experience that. When you spoke about such terrible tragedies as the continuing massacres in Syria, your political hat fell right off. You spoke about Assad as a father killing his own children, not the Syrian conflict. You spoke about the meaningless and indiscriminate murder of small children, so innocent, so uninvolved. And you cried on the inside. I could see straight through to your soul. I felt, not heard, what you were saying.

As you discussed receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, you did not talk about how you received it. You discussed how the Israel people received it, how we deserved it, and you meant it. And we know how you care about Pollard, not as a political issue, but for the person that he is, failing health, losing his father, and still in jail 27 years later.

It makes me so proud to have a president like you, Mr. Peres, who upon taking up residence in the presidential mansion became a united symbol for the Jewish People. President Peres, in your position, you have the freedom to promote that which you believe in. We as a public appreciate that you are doing just that.

As a Jew and as an Israeli, I am grateful to have you, one of my childhood heroes, filling the most prestigious position in Israel. President Peres, you have my gratitude, adoration, and respect.

Thank you for being who you are, and for being true to yourself.

Sincerely,

A straight from the heart blogger and political activist