Further to my previous post, Eileen Fleming informs me she was not aware she was marching with white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, which is fair enough. Read her post here if you want more info. Eileen Fleming, who has Jewish family who died in the Holocaust, wants nothing to do with these guys. I think in her own mind she can still justify marching alongside Mike Piper and Fred Tobin, but it really doesn’t look good to anyone, and will only harm her cause. If you march with fascists, you can’t expect to be taken seriously by Jesus Radicals-type anarchists.
As it happens I disagree with Eileen Fleming on a fair few issues, but she maintains she was at the conference to raise funds for Vanunu, whom she clearly cares about. Anyway, here’s one of Eileen’s videos, which is also an introduction to her e-book So That Was 54:
Seismic Shock 
Poor Vanunu, he claims he suffered 18 years because he is a Christian.
He must be suffering from amnesia.
Dear Peter,
Can you IMAGINE 18 years in jail-most all of in solitary-essentially for just telling the truth?
Can you IMAGINE the greatest Christian mystic and priest, Thomas Merton speaking 2U NOW:
“The duty of the Christian at this time is to do the one task God has imposed upon us in this world today. The task is to work for the total abolition of war. There can be no question that unless war is abolished; the world will remain constantly in a state of madness.
“The church [meaning all Christians] must lead the way on the road to the abolition of war.
“Peace is to be preached, nonviolence is to be explained as a practical method, and not left to be mocked as an outlet for crackpots who want to make a show of themselves.
“Prayer and sacrifice must be used as the most effective spiritual weapons in the war against war, and like ALL weapons, they must be used with deliberate aim:
“Not just with a vague aspiration for peace and security, but against violence and war. This implies that we are also willing to sacrifice and restrain our own instinct for violence and aggressiveness in our relations with other people.
“We may never succeed in this campaign, but whether we succeed or not, the duty is evident. It is the great Christian task of our time. Everything else is secondary, for the survival of the human race itself depends upon it.” – Thomas Merton
And this is the Merton prayer that I heard in my heart all during my first of seven trips to Israel Palestine in 2005:
“Oh God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not necessarily mean that I actually am.
“But I believe that the DESIRE to please you does in fact please you. I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will always lead me by the right road, although I may know nothing about it, and I will NOT FEAR!”
Yes, of course I have taken some blind alleys and hit many dead ends since then!
Yes, I did march for NO MORE WARS FOR ISRAEL with those whose hearts were cold and closed to the fact that the once oppressed had become oppressors and were SUFFERING because of THAT FACT!
BUT, i have NO doubt that my Brother, lover, teacher and friend: Jesus Christ has never left me and he never will!
I am NO angel, i am NO Saint-but i do want to be one and what i know is:
“The struggle is in the mind. We must bury our own monsters and stop condemning people. We are all Christ and Hitler.”-John Lennon
The more I learn, of less I am certain,
except for the need to remain open
to the Mystery we call God;
Creator of unfathomable diversity
Artist of intricate details
who crafted verdant mountains where fragile flowers dwell
who designed the ocean depths
and no human eyes have yet to read their deepest tales.
So it is with us;
unknown realities within
The Divine indwells;
thirstily seeking us as we search hungrily for what we desire to possess;
Peace of mind and life to the full.
So many voices in the world striving to convince, when all that really matters is the peace that can be within;
Begins with Detachment from outcome,
just do your best.
When one lets go of the need to control and to self-defend
When one has a heart for the poor and oppressed
When one seeks and sees The Divine within all creatures and events
When one trusts The Holy is in control-although the daily news denies it.
When one accepts The Other has a plan and desires to find it.
When one comes to understand The Eternal Mystery is more than any concept
And welcomes the diversity of men rather than deny them.
When one accepts we will not stand on any accomplishment,
But on our motives and the love that drives it.
When one is aware that evil as well as good cut through every human heart
And learns to make friends with silence
The Light is ever present to guide us.
Silent time in nature is as necessary as bread
Prayer is poetry and service her manifestation.
To forgive is divine and necessary to be divinely forgiven.
And therein lies the peace that passes all understanding.
And every drop of dew are but tears from heaven,
Shed each day a new,
For me, for you
For what we did and did not do
To help bring in The Kingdom.
And the Kingdom comes from above and it comes from within.
IMAGINE a kingdom of sisterhood of all nations and all men.
I do!
I also believe that education is the way to compassion, and compassion the way to change.
PS: I am not playing any-but I always hear music in my heart as I write; and Bob Dylan who has been in my heart ever since I first heard his voice in 1966.
What he is singing to me NOW is from “Together Through Life” released in 2009:
“Well I’m looking the world over, looking far off into the East…I feel a change coming on…Some people they tell me I got the Blood of The Lamb in my voice…I feel a change coming on.”
xoxe
Dear SS,
I just got out of the pool completely refreshed and when I logged back on I was blessed with yet another:
=== Google Web Alert for: “eileen fleming” ===
Which led me here: 2U!
I am overwhelmed and most grateful for your openness and this opportunity to offer WHY I care so much about Vanunu, which was published on my site May 1, 2008:
“It’s a God Thing about Trees, Doors, George, Day and Vanunu”
People ask me all the time why I went to occupied Palestine-not just once-but six times since 2005 and why do I care so much about such a small plot of real estate.
I reply, that I went the first time to meet a little boy of Bethlehem who changed my life and to be the Christian delegate amongst the Palestinian and Jewish co-founders of the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace an interfaith non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and funds to purchase trees to replace those that have been destroyed by The Wall.
But, all my last trips to occupied Palestine were driven by the fierce urgency of now and a sense of calling; to go-bear witness-and report about the lives of regular people living under military occupation and to learn about and support the grass root efforts of Israeli, Palestinian and International nonviolent activists against the occupation of Palestine.
I also left hearth and home for occupied Palestine because injustice anywhere reverberates all over the world and American taxpayers are culpable in where their money is laid down. Annually, over 3.2 billion USA tax dollars are sent to Israel to support the now 40+ years of military occupation of the indigenous peoples of the Holy Land.
It was at an Olive Trees Foundation for Peace meeting, that I met a Catholic woman who showed me a photo first published by the Florida Catholic in 2000; a photo that irrevocably changed my life.
Photographer Debbie Hill, captured three year old George [it is his photo that adorns the banner of my website] of Beit Jala, a once peaceful Christian village a five minute car ride from downtown Bethlehem, the morning after the Israeli army destroyed his sanctuary.
Israeli forces had retaliated against a few hopeless militants who had infiltrated George’s neighborhood to snipe across the way into the illegal settlement/colony of Gilo, about a mile from the top of the hill not far from George’s home.
The shrapnel that blew apart the wall of George’s bedroom read ‘Made in USA’ and was delivered via American made Apache helicopters.
The second I saw George’s eyes, in that photo, my heart said “DO SOMETHING!”
What could I possibly do I wondered, but I did make a copy of the photo, put it in a frame and placed it upon the altar [a bar high table] in the upper room of my home. Dozens of times a day, I stop and gaze into the eyes of that little boy of Bethlehem and wonder what it will take to end the insane cycle of violence in the Holy Land; which is in pieces-bantustans.
When I met George for the first time in June 2005, I vowed to him that the rest of my life would be dedicated to doing all I could to help bring about the end of the occupation of Palestine.
Of course I had no clue as to what I would or could possibly do, or how much of an ‘impossible mission’ I had promised a little child of Bethlehem. But, every morning I wake up and wonder what I can do today in the pursuit of peace and justice; equal human rights for all, for that is the only way Israel will ever be secure.
A month after my first return home from occupied territory, I put up my website and became a civilian journalist; which is best understood as one who goes out of their comfort zone to report for the benefit of we the people, without orders or censorship from editors or paychecks from conglomerates.
The first civilian journalist may well have been Rachel Corrie, the altruistic young American and volunteer with ISM/International Solidarity movement who was run over and killed by the weight of a Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, four days before America bombed Baghdad.
Rachel and other NONVIOLENT activists had spent hours protesting against the demolition of the home of a pharmacist with five children in Gaza. The Corrie family has sought but has yet to receive justice; an open Congressional investigation and admission of accountability by the Caterpillar Company which continues to reap profits from manufacturing products that further the military occupation of Palestine.
On February 7 2003, Rachel wrote:
“…no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can’t imagine it unless you see it – and even then you are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the reality…Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown…When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting…at a checkpoint with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I’m done…I am in Rafah: a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees – many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Today, as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, ‘Go! Go!’ because a tank was coming. And then waving and [asking] ‘What’s your name?’
“Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what’s going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously – occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving – many forced to be here, many just aggressive – shooting into the houses as we wander away…There is a great deal of concern here about the “reoccupation of Gaza”. Gaza is reoccupied every day to various extents but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter all the streets and remain here instead of entering some of the streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren’t already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope you will start.”[1]
It was the events of THAT DAY we call 9/11 topped off by President Bush’s advice a few days later to we the people that we should all go shopping if we wanted to help, that drove my curiosity to learn “about the consequences” of USA foreign policy in the Middle East.
Being a Christian, I also was driven by the need to forgive, love and do good to my ‘enemies’ that led me to connect with the interfaith non-profit OTFFP/Olive Trees Foundation for Peace during the summer of 2003.
I connected with the OTFFP after reading two oped’s published in the Orlando Sentinel written by the Palestinian Muslim and American Jewish Co-Founders of the OTFFP regarding the need for open dialogue that recognizes, respects and empathizes with the pain of the other; for when that happens, anyone of good will, will be moved by compassion to do something to alleviate the pain of the other.
The OTFFP organization united American and Israeli Jews, Christians and Muslims after THAT DAY we call 9/11 to literally extend the olive branch of peace to all the cousins in Father Abraham’s family in Israel Palestine by providing the funds to purchase fruit bearing trees on both sides of The Wall. So far, 30,000 have been rooted.
After a few phone calls and emails to the OTFFP organization, I committed to attend a Sunday afternoon OTFFP meeting in south Orlando following the final third of my first year of weekend retreats for students in a two year formation program for Spiritual Director’s.
During 2002-2003, I participated in a central Florida, Episcopal-Methodist Formation Program for SD/Spiritual Director’s/SD’s. SD’s are not counselors or therapists, but are centered and prayerful people who have learned to listen with their hearts to any other speaking of their struggles with God.
I knew going into the program that I would NOT be hanging out a shingle as an SD, I was drawn to be there for the curriculum; studying the saints and various ways of prayer. That is also when I began to write creative spiritual literature.
But on a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2003, after concluding my final weekend retreat I attended my first OTFFP meeting and my life was irrevocably changed; and it began that morning during a guided meditation.
The workshop leader instructed my class to close our eyes and breathe deep and slow as she invited us to enter into a long corridor with many closed doors; and then, she went silent. Immediately, I imagined myself skipping, jumping, dancing and running past miles of closed doors as I headed to the end of that long corridor. I was aware of, but not interested in any of the closed doors on my right and left. I headed straight ahead although it was a while before I saw the enormous cathedral sized double doors at the very end of the hallway. As I approached the wooden doors they slowly opened into the inner space and I could see trees and mountains. After crossing the threshold, I realized I stood upon a mountain top and I could see for miles. There were people of every color and creed, in diverse dress and all were at rest and in peaceful harmony under those trees.
When the workshop leader interrupted my reverie, I did not want to leave that mountain top. I also had no clue if I had a glimpse of heaven or a possibility for this world, but as I was on my way to meet some of the Olive Trees for Peace people I thought that had something to do with my imaginative meditation.
I was the first to arrive at Dr. Diab’s home for the meeting, and on that Sunday I was the only Christian in a room filled with American Jews and Palestinian Muslims.
I was in awe of all of them as I prayed, “Jesus Christ! Will you look at all these Muslims and Jews doing exactly what you commanded your followers must do; forgive, love and bless ones enemies. Imagine when all we Christians do it too!”
It was that fateful day that led me to travel two hours every Tuesday afternoon for many months in order to listen and write down Dr. Diab’s memoirs, with the intention that it would be for his grandchildren.
And being an Irish story teller, dissident and spiritual creative, I had no control over the six fictional characters that welled up within me and who began to converse with Dr. Diab during the days that followed our Tuesday meetings. Not until I completed, KEEP HOPE ALIVE did I even realize that my ‘imaginary friends’ also represented six different ways to intuit, love and serve God.
“KEEP HOPE ALIVE” is also an historical fiction based on the memoirs of a 1948 Palestinian Muslim refugee who became an American citizen with Top Secret Clearance during the Cold War and founded the non-profit interfaith Olive Trees Foundation for Peace as a positive response to THAT DAY we call 9/11.
Because of my connection to the OTFFP, I journeyed the first time to occupied territory in June 2005. I wrote down everything I experienced, felt in my gut and wondered about. I went places I had never imagined existed and I did things I never thought I would or could; such as leaving Ramallah for Jerusalem late at night with a driver I did not know and who only spoke Arabic.
On that morning, I rode along with Dr. Diab and his driver to Ramallah from Jerusalem, and witnessed the Wall in full frontal, brutal view. On my left was a thirty foot high wall of concrete; on my right, only rows of bankrupt businesses.
“Financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been their families’ sole livelihood for generations.” [Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 43, Jan/Feb. 2007]
Dr. Diab and I had an appointment at the Palestinian Authority’s compound, where Arafat is now buried.
We met with Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to President Abbas who informed us, “We have lost more than 1.1 million fruit-bearing trees in Palestinian territories. Trees are about food, the environment, and life. Ancient trees have been demolished by tanks, and we thank the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace for addressing the need to replace them and rebuild the faith of our people. Palestine has always been tolerant to people of all religions. The Jews came here out of Spain along with many Arabs — and then came Zionism. When one wants to take over another, war happens. President Abbas is a very bad politician; he does not lie! He is ready to move on from the past. We have quit crying over our losses; we must move on. Live and let live is the motto of this administration. We can not carry on a battle; it must stop. Peace can only happen with peace, not force. President Abbas has promised, ‘We will do whatever it takes to show the world we want peace.’ We need America to help us. The best thing would be for Americans to come and see the truth of the situation for themselves. I encourage Americans to come and see the Wall; it has nothing to do with security, but everything to do with grabbing water and more land. When Americans understand the real situation, things will change for the better. The humiliation at the checkpoints is beyond belief. It can drive anyone to desperation. We condemn all terrorism, but resisting occupation is necessary.”
After that meeting, Dr. Diab set off for his home village in the Galilee and I explored Ramallah with a friend who was born and lives there. Just before midnight, my friend walked me through the checkpoint to where the cabs waited. I cringed when I saw the watchtower’s small window lit up, and I considered how easy it would be to be shot at and never see it coming. The ground was rocky, uneven, and littered with debris and the only light was from the moon.
My friend bargained with a cabbie in Arabic and I marveled that I, who even hated to fly before 9/11, with absolutely no sense of direction at all, who only speaks and understands English, was traveling alone through occupied territory without any fear at all.
After two weeks of traveling through Israel Palestine with ten other Americans connected with the OTFFP, I remained alone in Jerusalem for the following three days and once again, my life was irrevocably changed.
On the third Tuesday in June of 2005-the first day of summer and six days before I returned to the USA- and after an excruciatingly painful day in Hebron, I crossed paths with Vanunu for the first time.
A Little History:
In April 2005, two months before my first trip to Jerusalem, I turned the TV on that had last been tuned onto the History channel. They were broadcasting a show called, “Sexpionage” all about Russian female spies and one from the Mossad.
The very first clip that ran before my eyes was of Vanunu being transported to his closed door trial depicting his inspired move to write upon his palm: “HIJACKED” and the Rome flight number he had been on. That was followed by a clip of Shimon Perez in 1986 stating that Israel would never be the first in the Mid East to possess nuclear weapons.
Then, a black and white photo of a bearded, unkempt and disheveled Vanunu filled the TV screen and I thought his eyes looked just like George’s of Beit Jala’s, and again, I heard in my heart:
“Do Something!”
I did email Vanunu after that show to thank him for what he had done in 1986 and to let him know that I and nine other Americans would be in his territory in two months and we would like to take him to dinner or lunch.
But, just days before that trip, a Palestinian American warned me not to contact Vanunu as Israel had denied him the right to speak to not just foreign media but also ordered him to not speak to any foreigners at all.
I said, “What kind of democracy is that-that tells people who they can and cannot talk with?”
I didn’t contact Vanunu and only because a friend from Ramallah happened to be in Jerusalem on that third Tuesday in June 2005, and phoned and invited me out to dinner the moment I stepped out of the shower after Hebron, did I venture out again.
I had no hunger for food after my day in Hebron but as we walked towards the Old City and neared St. Georges Cathedral where Vanunu had been living, I asked my friend if he knew about Vanunu. He recalled hearing about Vanunu’s release from prison in 2004, but he did not know Vanunu was a Christian who had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish home but rejected the faith at 14 years old.
As we entered the courtyard, Vanunu was on his way out to a meeting and with a few minutes difference, we would have missed him completely.
Instead I was startled by his physical presence, for I had imagined Vanunu to be dark eyed and much taller than I at 5’4″. Vanunu is not much taller or heavier than I, but what knocked me for a loop was how the sun on the first day of summer illuminated his eyes to a light green-blue that immediately reminded me of the eyes of an old woman I met in 1998, who irrevocably changed my life.
Her name was Bernice and I crossed paths with her for the first time just a few weeks after I began visiting someone at a local nursing home. As I walked down the hallway, Bernice called out, “Help me. Help me.”
I had been a registered nurse for twenty-five years and when ever I hear someone ask for help, I am compelled to do something, or at least try. All Bernice wanted was for me to change her position, for she was completely paralyzed. From a distance I thought her eyes were dark, but as I approached her, I was startled at how light green-blue they were. That day was the beginning of my now ten year nursing home ministry, and although I have no clue what color Jesus’ eyes may have been, in that moment, I sensed/experienced the presence of The Other; that mystery we call God, for lack of a better word.
Crossing paths with Bernice was the first time I had known a visceral, intuitive experience of the presence of God within another. It happened for the second time in the courtyard of St. George’s Cathedral in 2005, during the chance crossing of paths with Vanunu, who inspired me to do something I had not yet imagined I would or could.
During our third meeting, while Vanunu was telling me about growing up in Marrakesh, Morocco he asked me if I had ever seen the “Dorothy Day” movie, “The Man who Knew Too Much” for the beginning scenes were shot where he grew up.
He meant to say Doris Day, but in that moment I realized my childhood dream of being Brenda Starr had matured, for Vanunu’s slip of the tongue was the catalyst for me to begin to imagine following in the footsteps of Dorothy Day, the 20th century socialist muckraker who became a Christian and a voice for the voiceless in her newspaper “The Catholic Worker” which persists today.
Dorothy Day understood that, “Love is not the starving of whole populations. Love is not the bombardment of open cities. Love is not killing……Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers.”
During my travels through occupied Palestine and after listening with my heart to the people who shared their stories with me, I asked everyone, “How can I help? What can I do to try to be a peacemaker?”
Everyone responded, “Tell our stories.”
Dorothy Day and Rachel Corrie told the stories of the oppressed. They both are dead, but as long as I can do something and have breath, I too will tell the stories I heard and try to be a peacemaker by seeking justice; equal human rights for all, and I will always persist to hope for the best.
Might you do something too.
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/18/usa.israel
Your sister in JC,
xoxe
Time again for me to go offline and walk my dogs; but i have updated my blog to lead to this link with gratitude/trust/belief/and knowing that it is God who is in charge and He/She/??? always leads us forward!
Most sincerely and with GRATITUDE from a USA sister in JC,
xoxe
Does any of Fleming’s rantings above, make any sense to those Jesus Radicals?
And why does she show no embarrassment at being in the active company of convicted racists and arch Holocaust deniers?
Hi again poor dear moderniDIOty,
Why are you such an angry leprechaun? Your pix is rather cute and happy looking.
But, OK, I will TRY to explain that it is Not my problem what anyone ‘gets’ or NOT about me,
All i am called to do is throw out ‘seeds’ for thought and my offering of what has been given to me.
It is like GRACE: all are free to take or leave.
And once again: no i am not embarrassed that i was in the company of as you think: “convicted racists and arch Holocaust deniers”.
I was with people i had never met before that day-and most blessed to have connected with Phil Tourney the USS LIBERTY Vet, which led to even more connections, and you can check it out if you care @ USS LIBERTY link on my site!
But, back to WHY I am NOT ever embarrassed or sorry to meet with any people-no matter who they are or what they think, because Jesus hung out with all sorts of outcasts and he was also a CONVICT/Prisoner!
JC was crucified by the Roman Occupying Forces for being an agitator of the status quo, a dissident and disturber of CONSCIENCES and as I aspire to be like him-I will talk with anyone!
And i will leave you this bedtime story:
Do You Want to be Healed?
On the first day of my fifth trip to Jerusalem in July 2007, I ended up where I was on the first day of my first trip to Jerusalem in June 2005.
After checking into my room at the American Colony; I headed down Nablus Road to the Old City once again.
The stairway down through the Damascus Gate was packed with street vendors hawking cheap goods from China. It was shoulder to shoulder people until I arrived at the Via Delorosa; legendary route that Jesus walked while carrying a wooden cross. Only a few tourists were about, but I saw many more Israeli soldiers than the last time I was here in November 2006.
The shop owners were just as hungry to get me into their stores as they were before, but I told them all, “I am not buying anything today! I am on my way to the Pool of Bethsaida.”
After many wrong turns and back tracking, I spied a Franciscan brother and inquired, “Do you speak English?”
He replied with a Cheshire grin-but no guile, “For you? Sure!”
“How do I find my way to the Pool of Bethsaida?”
“You have arrived! Go in there!” He laughed as he pointed to the left of where we were standing.
It was different than the last and first time I had wandered into the ancient “healing site” for renovations are in progress and once more a most surreal sense overwhelmed me again.
For nearly an hour, I was the only human being who stood, sat and meditated at a place where I had been ‘twice’ before and where Jesus asked:
“Do you want to be healed?”
In May of 2005, just prior to my first journey to Israel Palestine I phoned Mother Agapia Stephanopolous, a Russian Orthodox nun and the administrator of the Orthodox School of Bethany in Jerusalem, to schedule an appointment for Spiritual Direction and to discuss our mutual feelings about The Wall.
Mother Agapia is the sister of ABC News commentator, George Stephanopolous, and she had recently and passionately informed Congress about the fact that, “Israel is destroying the local Christian community.”
On April 18, 2005, Robert Novak’s article “Walling off Christianity” reported on the nun’s letter to Congress and how East Jerusalem had been cut off from the rest of the West Bank. Mother Agapia predicted, “It is only a matter of time before Christians and Muslims will be unable to survive culturally and economically.”
Mother Agapia spoke bluntly about the nine yards high wall of Israeli concrete that have “shattered” the Christian communities.
She told Novak, “I witness the strangulation of East Jerusalem, and the deprivation of her non-Jewish residents’ religious rights every day. Even the United States seems to have been taken in by Israeli spin.”
On my very first afternoon in Jerusalem, on June 12, 2005, the nun met me at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem and I told her that I hadn’t been taken in by the spin, but what could I possibly do? She had no answer.
I also told her of the surreal experience I had that very morning while wandering around in the Old City. I had landed in Tel Aviv with ten other members of the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace just a few hours before dawn on that Sunday morn.
We all checked into our rooms at the Ambassador; they all crashed, but I was wide awake.
As soon as the sun rose I began to explore, and after attending mass at St.George Cathedral I wandered around the Old City, which was eerily empty.
I stumbled upon the site of the Pool of Bethsaida and experienced déjà vu, which was more real than imaginary.
Beginning in 2000, I was a student in the Episcopal Diocese of Orlando’s Formation Program for Spiritual Directors. I knew going into the program I would never be hanging out a shingle as a Spiritual Director that I was there for other reasons. I was drawn to the program because of the curriculum; to deepen my prayer life and study the lives of the saints. During the first year all the students attended three weekend retreats.
On the second night of the second retreat, we had a guided meditation on the story of Jesus at the Pool of Bethsaida.
I remember it as clearly now as I experienced it then.
There were seven of us in the class and we were instructed to close our eyes, listen to the story and allow our imagination to lead us to respond to the character that called to us.
Our leader prefaced the story from John 5:1-6, by telling the legend of the angel from heaven who would descend and agitate the waters of the Pool of Bethsaida.
Only the first leper, blind, or invalid who made it into the water would receive a healing.
One day while Jesus was there, he walked by a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years.
Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The man answered he had no friends to help him get into the water.
Jesus asked him again, “Do you want to be healed?”
Our leader then went silent, and in my imagination I was immediately upon the back of that agitating angel.
I hadn’t thought of that experience until four years later when I found myself at the site of the Pool of Bethsaida.
What triggered the memory of that guided meditation was the recollection of a dream I had had a few weeks after THAT DAY we call 9/11.
In my dream I had stood at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew.
To my right was a large shade tree, but to my left I saw a few square squat dwellings with large satellite dishes attached to them.
I remembered thinking the moment I woke up from that dream what a strange place it was, but then I quickly forgot all about it.
That is, until the afternoon of June 12, 2005, when I found myself standing at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew.
To my right was a large shade tree, but to my left I saw a few square squat dwellings with large satellite dishes attached to them.
What a strange place I thought, how could it be that I had seen this scene in a dream a few weeks after THAT DAY we call 9/11?
On that afternoon of my very first day in Jerusalem, I told Mother Agapia about that dream and what I had seen at the Pool of Bethsaida.
She shrugged and smiled, then told me about the Jerusalem Interfaith Peace Conference with satellite link to the world that was happening the Sunday after the Thursday I was scheduled to return to the USA.
I knew immediately that I needed to attend and after saying goodbye to Mother Agapia, I phoned my husband to get his OK.
On June 26, 2006, I attended the world wide satellite linked Interfaith Peace Conference at Jerusalem’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Dan Rather moderated from Washington DC and the Holy Land interfaith panel were all moderates attempting to reclaim the battlefield of ideas from extremists on both sides.
Reverend Theodore Hessburgh, President Emeritus University of Notre Dame began the evening with a pledge and a summons:
“The Peace of the world begins in Jerusalem.”
Dr. Tsvia Walden, Board of Director of the Peres Center and Geneva Initiative stated, “There is a need for a third party in the negotiations that could enable both sides to trust each other. There are more people in this region interested in making concessions, they all want peace so desperately.”
The Coordinator of World Bank emergency services to the PA, Rania Kharma informed the world, “We all need to be the bridges to our leaders that justice, equality, and human rights will bring peace. Give people justice and they will reward you with peace.”
Sheik Imad Falouiji warned, “Religions must go back to their origins. God commands us to love each other and live together. This Holy Land was given to all people. This land is on fire. There is an occupation that must be removed. The language of peace cannot succeed without justice for all.”
The Rt. Rev. Bishop Riah Abu Assal affirmed, “Peace is an act. Blessed are the peacemakers not the peace talkers. Peace is possible in the Holy Land. The root cause for the lack of peace since 1967 is the occupation. For peace to make progress in the Middle East we need to deal with the root cause…Religion was not meant to bring death. All those involved in searching for peace should commit themselves to work for justice and truth.”
Throughout the entire evening, I kept remembering what President Bush promised in his Second Inaugural Address:
“In the long run, there is no justice without FREEDOM.There can be no human rights without LIBERTY. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty, we stand with you.”
Nighty night+sweet dreams,
xoxe
Eileen Fleming, Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Eileen, you are pretending to be a humanist, but in reality you must be a very idle person. to travel to Israel is a very comfortable thing and you can pretend to be a hero, because of your despicable activities.
Vanunu committed a crime and was not sent to prison without judgement.
Israelbashing is easy and popular with Antisemites and you showed your bad character, when you marched with Holocaustdeniers. Modernity may believe you, but I do not. After all whenever I protest or march in a demo I take good care to inform myself, who else will be there.
PA TV and Gaza TV is preaching hatred of Jews to children, they accuse Jews of ritual murder etc, (at the same time complaining, when they are not allowed to cross the green line and go to a Jewish hospital to be treated) So please tell us, what you wrote about that, how did you report on that and what do you do against that.
why if you are such a good Christian don’t you care about your fellow Christians in Egypt, who are discriminated, or even better your fellow Christians in Saudi-Arabia who are suffering flogging because they read the bible in a private room.
Palestinians could have had their own state long time ago. But their problem is, to admit, that another people has also the right to be there.
Dear deluded Peter,
You wrote:
“Eileen, you are pretending to be a humanist, but in reality you must be a very idle person. to travel to Israel is a very comfortable thing and you can pretend to be a hero, because of your despicable activities.”
I AM A WRITER! I do NOT vacation inn Israel- I EXPERIENCE Occupied Territory-and that is no Club Med!
“Writing is hard, because you are “giving yourself away.” But if you love, you want to give yourself. You write as you are impelled to write, about man and his problems, his relation to God and his fellows. You write about yourself because in the long run all man’s problems are the same, his sustenance and love.”-Dorothy Day
Just how many books and articles have YOU written?
Goggle ‘eileen fleming’ and LEARN something!
2. “Vanunu committed a crime and was not sent to prison without judgement.”
HE paid for that with 18 years of his life and Israel continues to torture and persecute him by denying him the RIGHT to leave the state!
LEARN A LOT @ VANUNU ARCHIVES: http://www.wearewideawake.org/
WITHIN minutes of emerging from his tomb sized cell-most ALL in solitary-Vanunu announced:
“I am not harming Israel. I am not interested in Israel. I want to tell you something very important. I suffered here 18 years because I am a Christian, because I was baptised into Christianity. If I was a Jew I wouldn’t have all this suffering here in isolation for 18 years. Only because I was a Christian man.” -Vanunu, April 21, 2004
3. “Israelbashing is easy and popular with Antisemites and you showed your bad character, when you marched with Holocaustdeniers.”
I MARCHED FOR NO MORE WARS FOR ISRAEL!
I have marched in many demonstrations!
IT IS BEYOND idiotic to continue that canard-it is arrogant willful ignorance!
I am GRATEFUL i had the opportunity to attract the David Duker’s to my site after that experience- FOR THEY READ MY experience at the event which was published October 16, 2007, and I excerpt:
I had traveled from Florida to speak about how freedom of speech had been denied in Israel to Mordechai Vanunu, and was aghast to learn it also had been squelched in Irvine.
While I did not agree with many things some of the speakers said during the rescheduled event at a local church that began nine hours after originally planned, I uphold that all people have the right to think their own thoughts and speak their own minds.
The conference continued on Sunday, but I had already split and found out on Monday that some of the speakers, who spoke on Sunday, were white supremacists.
I thank God I was not in attendance, for I abhor and detest any ideology which presupposes any person is superior to any other.
I am however grateful to have made the long trip to meet the diversity that is America; Christians, Muslims, agnostics and two Orthodox Rabbis against the ideology of Zionism, but most especially to have had the opportunity to hear the President of the USS LIBERTY Veterans Association, Phillip F. Tourney.
3. I wont repeat all your blaa blaa blaa-just this:
“why if you are such a good Christian don’t you care about your fellow Christians in Egypt, who are discriminated, or even better your fellow Christians in Saudi-Arabia who are suffering flogging because they read the bible in a private room.”
I CARE about everyone-but I am ONE person and can ONLY do what GOD puts on my heart so, I wonder WHY DON’T YOU TAKE UP THAT CROSS???
4.”Palestinians could have had their own state long time ago. But their problem is, to admit, that another people has also the right to be there.”
I WROTE A BOOK ON THIS TOPIC: HERE IS AN EXCEPT from “KEEP HOPE ALIVE”
Chapter 1: THE MORNING AFTER APRIL 4, 1968
…Riad beamed. “Jack, your brother is a wise man to think of such a just penance for Christians who may forget the other names for Jesus, like Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us,’ and the Prince of Peace. And Martin Luther King, Jr., walked in his footsteps; I hope we never forget his message of justice and equality for all humanity.”
Khaled met Art’s eyes and gently spoke. “You know, Martin Luther King is foremost the voice for the Negro, but he also speaks for all who seek justice. He said, ‘We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time for justice; now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to lift our nation from injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.’”6
Art stabbed out his cigarette and injected, “Yeah, and do you know what Reverend King said just a few weeks ago? He said, ‘Peace for Israel means security, and we stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.’”7
Khaled nearly blubbered, “Reality? The reality is that Israel’s democracy does not extend to Palestinians, whose families have lived there for centuries! Martin Luther King also spoke about not ‘being satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’8 Reverend King also spoke about his people’s great trials, tribulations, and creative suffering. He spoke about injustice, but offered such hope for change, because the American dream is that all men are created equal. This is also the Palestinian dream. Reverend King spoke of his dream, and I, too, have a dream, that underneath the shade of olive trees, the descendants of Abraham will one day sit down at the table of brotherhood.”
Art lit another cigarette as he added, “My rabbi always says, ‘If we would all just do like Micah told, we’d be alright. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’”
Khaled erupted. “I wonder if Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol ever read Micah. I read that when he was told by his generals that the IDF was the greatest army since King David, he became ecstatic! I cannot understand why the American government is ignoring the situation in my homeland, when, in 1956, the US demanded Israel withdraw from the Sinai Desert back to the international border after only three months. The Six Day War was a year ago, and no such demands were made.
“They have turned a blind eye to the destruction of Palestinian towns, and I cannot believe America has not stood up to the Israelis. Not a word of condemnation about the massive building projects in the West Bank, Sinai, Eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights! Not a word that Palestinians are still living in refugee camps, and their homes and olive groves have been plowed over!
“Why doesn’t America demand equally just treatment for Palestinians, too? Yes, yes, yes, America is focused on Vietnam. Now we mourn Martin Luther King in America, and I mourn the lack of justice in my homeland.”
Art violently snuffed out his cigarette and boomed, “Look, the situation is untenable. We got nowhere discussing this last night, and you cannot forget what my people, my very family, suffered beyond belief from the Nazis! You cannot compare the two! Then, we must endure the inflammatory rhetoric to ‘push the Jews into the sea!’ Why, of course we believed another Holocaust was about to happen. How can you blame us after all we have suffered while the world remained mute? Nobody spoke out to protect us when the Nazis were exterminating us in ovens. My God! How can you blame us for attacking first? Anyone would have, if they had suffered as my people have. How can you blame us for attacking first?”
Khaled kindly replied, “Of course, we all deeply regret the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Jewish people. But that pain should not be used as a reason to inflict pain on others.”
Riad shook his head, removed his thick-lens, thin wire-rimmed spectacles and rubbed his myopic eyes. “Yes, we all agree and we must be sensitive to the suffering the Jewish people have endured throughout history. I was in Egypt when the UN forces stationed on the Egyptian-Israeli border left, and what happened next? The Egyptians blockaded the Straits of Tiran and cut off Israeli shipping access to the Port of Eliat. Such infantile behavior from world leaders! It’s always about control and keeping power. If I were Irish, it would certainly get my Irish up!”
Jack and Riad shared a smile as Art erupted. “Yes, Khaled, it is true that just a few weeks after that blockade, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq signed a mutual defense agreement designed to facilitate a combined attack on Israel. They want to obliterate Israel! You see, Khaled, Israel had no choice but to attack first!”
Khaled was miserable. “I read that President Johnson was asked to intervene, but I am sad. Vietnam preoccupies this country. I am sad about many things. It was only seven years ago in his farewell address that President Eisenhower warned the American people to beware of the military-industrial complex. He warned us of the danger of becoming dependent on the manufacturing of weapons to stimulate our economy. It was a year ago that Martin Luther King warned us that ‘any nation, who, year after year, spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.’10 What I see going on in the world is that everyone seems to believe that stockpiling weapons will ensure peace and provide many jobs. This is false security, and sows the seeds that war is the way to peace.”
Riad rubbed his gleaming dome and looked directly at Art. “The Jewish people have been threatened throughout their entire history. It is understandable they are paranoid. It is justified! But, that does not justify them treating others unjustly. The Israeli nation is surrounded by refugee camps–refugee camps filled with indigenous Palestinians who were forced off their land by threat of their own holocaust. Poor leadership on all sides brings us to this place in time. The horrors and injustice of the Holocaust are still fresh in Jewish minds. It should remain fresh within all our minds. We should never forget the injustice of the Holocaust. We should never forget that man’s inhumanity to man was able to proliferate because good people did nothing. The nations of the world turned a blind eye to the pain and injustice the Jewish people suffered until too many had died. Now, the Palestinians are being ignored by the world and are fighting back in ways that will not help their cause. Injustice must always be confronted and be withstood by peaceful means. When will this be understood?”
“Get real, Riad. The PLO wants to wipe us out! But God is on our side. After all, we won the war in only seven days! The Arab nations received a left to the liver by Israeli’s pre-emptive strike, and now we control the Sinai, Gaza Strip, Suez Canal in Egypt, West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The entire city of Jerusalem is under Israeli control! Surely you see the hand of God in this?”
Khaled was steaming, while Riad gently spoke. “I know you do, Art, but I see a different side. Superior military force, and the fact that Israel was supplied with American intelligence and knew exactly where to strike, won it. Eighteen thousand Arab soldiers died, and Palestinian refugees continue to be ignored. By her silence, America has legitimized the Israeli victory, and I fear ahead of us will be more injustice, death, and destruction. Last December, George Habash founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It is a terrorist organization inspired by communism. Each side ups the ante with more death and destruction. When will it ever be enough?”
Art sighed deeply and offered, “You are right, Riad; when will it be enough? The Torah teaches that everyone is a part of God and created in the divine image. We can even agree with Jesus that the greatest command is that we love God with our whole hearts, souls, minds, and strength. I suppose, if everyone did that, it would be a perfect world…
I leave you with this:
When Jesus said you must be born again-he was NOT talking about a religious high- but to WAKE UP and be TRANSFORMED in Heart and Mind and then you will see The Divine in ALL.
Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Calm down Eileen, take the dogs for a walk, get some exercise, put another video on Youtube so we can all have a good laugh 🙂
I am laughing ALL the time!
And in fact i am going rollerblading now!
“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”-Arthur Schopenhauer
“First they IGNORE you. Then they LAUGH at you. Then they ATTACK you. THAT’S when you WIN!”-Gandhi
xoxe
Eileen Fleming, A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
I am BAAAAAAAAACK!
To correct myself:
I have ONLY been laughing ALL morning!
I have cried buckets of tears in agony over the so called Holy Land and for hard headed, stiff necked, cold hearted, willfully ignorant arrogant so called Christians.
Just ONE case in point:
Just because people say they are Christian; it does NOT mean they are
My Sermon of The Mount
March 20, 2006: I bid goodbye to the sixty ecumenical Christian Internationals who I had been traveling throughout the West Bank with, and then I went solo to spend two nights on the Mount of Beatitudes in Israel.
This awe inspiring site sits above the shimmering Sea of the Galilee where Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount. After the nine day Sabeel Reality Tour in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I needed to be alone and silent.
But, I ended up delivering my own Sermon on the Mount.
Four Franciscan Sisters, one each from Syria, Jordan, Malta and Italy care for the shrine and the pilgrim guests at the Hospice Center where I spent two nights and a day of silent reflection of all I had witnessed the previous nine days.
At dinner a Catholic Pentecostal from Scotland introduced himself and asked me why I was there and what church I was from. I responded I have Irish Roman Catholic, Polish Jew, Russian Orthodox and Episcopal roots but that my rock is The Beatitudes.
He looked even more perplexed when I told him I came to the Mount of Beatitudes to decompress and reflect after nine days in Occupied Territory. I asked him if he were aware of the work of Sabeel, a Palestinian founded organization that promotes a theology of liberation based on justice, peace, non-violence and reconciliation for all, regardless of faith path or nationality.
He sternly admonished me, “God gave this land to the Jews! The Bible never mentions Palestine, and that is that! God gave this land to the Jews and that is that!”
I responded just as fervently that the Palestinian Christians are the descendants of those who first followed Christ and they have been denied inalienable human rights by the Israeli government.
I told him the Christians in the Holy Land have shrunk from 20% of the total population to less than 1.3% since 1948 and if things don’t change soon, there will be no Christian witness in the land where Christ promised it is the peacemakers who are the children of God.
He sputtered, “But the Jews have suffered! God gave this land to the Jews and that is that!”
I responded, “Yes, the Holocaust happened because good people did nothing for far too long, and now the oppressed have become the oppressors. In the 21st century good people are unaware, ignoring or are in total denial about the injustice in the Holy Land. And what about all the Hebrew prophets, such as Micah who reminded the Hebrews of what God requires: To be just, to be merciful and to walk humbly with your Lord.”
I could NOT shut up although I knew that Scotsman was trying to get away-he also looked a bit terrified! But, I was on a tear and barely took a breath as I tell him that instead of staying in Israel for his entire visit, he should go and witness life in the occupied territories; to go and see the effects of The Wall on his spirit and see what it has done to the Palestinian economy. I told him he should go and tour some of the 57 year old refugee camps and see the ruins of all the uncompensated home demolitions. I bring it on home by telling him that I also doubt that God was ever in the real estate business!
His eyes had bugged out and his mouth had dropped open while the torrent of words flowed out of me. When I finally finish delivering my sermon, he stammered, “But there is suffering everywhere!”
I responded swiftly, “Yes there is suffering everywhere and Christ always stood up for the poor and the oppressed. And he told us what ever we do or do not do for the least and the outcast; we do it or do not do it unto God.”
He shook his head and turned and quickly walked away and never looked my way again. Nobody else spoke to me the rest of that evening or the next day.
All I kept hearing within was Luke 23:34: “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Eileen Fleming, Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
I think the point to make, again, is that Fleming does not see anything unseemly in forming alliances with convicted racists, like David Duke.
Fleming doesn’t even fathom why David Duke is so wrong, and why Holocaust deniers should be shunned.
I do hope that the Jesus Radicals will now revised their previously charitable view of Fleming and acknowledge that she clearly is an anti-Jewish racist.
I do hope that the Jesus Radicals will have the courage to do that, based on Fleming’s own statements and attitudes.
You make me laugh out loud moderniDIOtyblog!
But your obtuse will-full ignorance has me wondering if perhaps you are not just cold hearted and IDIOTIC, but just lack the mental ability to COMPREHEND what I have written many times before-so I pity you and have had enough of your inane nonsense, so I kick the dust off my feet from this ‘conversation’ as MUCH bigger issues are brewing and I am in the midst of writing an article RE:last GOOD Friday’s GREAT NEWS:
Nuclear conference criticizes Israeli nukes: UN Resolution to hold Israel accountable
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/09/18/nuclear-conference-criticizes-israeli-nukes/
I am Comment One!
So I say bye bye 2U and leave with gratitude to SS for the opportunity to reach some with eyes to see and ears to hear for “My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I’m not selling bread, I’m selling yeast.” -Unamuno
And I depart LOL!
“Walk gently, breathe peacefully, laugh hysterically.”-Nelson Mandela
“A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which you realize that you are trapped in a world almost entirely devoid of reason. Laughter is how you release the anxiety you feel at this knowledge.”-Dave Barry
I watched the video and it looks like a fashion piece. Is that her in it?
I also have never heard of her, at all, is she famous in some sphere? What does she do for a living?
I am baffled by all those personalities that seem to thrive on the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict. Far too many.
Absolutely bizarre. I thought that video was some kind of advert for gym equipment.
To be perfecty honest I have no idea what the video’s about, but Eileen’s happy so I’m happy.
Eileen I asked you some very simple questions.
“PA TV and Gaza TV is preaching hatred of Jews to children, they accuse Jews of ritual murder etc, (at the same time complaining, when they are not allowed to cross the green line and go to a Jewish hospital to be treated) So please tell us, what you wrote about that, how did you report on that and what do you do against that.
why if you are such a good Christian don’t you care about your fellow Christians in Egypt, who are discriminated, or even better your fellow Christians in Saudi-Arabia who are suffering flogging because they read the bible in a private room.”
Instead of answering you write gibberish. So try to answer those questions.
Your long emotional outbursts you should keep for confession if you are r.c. or for your psychoanalyst or guru.
Ha ha ha ha ha, what the hell is that video about with random dog walks and excercise machine demonstrations!!!
Eileen seems to be a good friend of the swedish-russian antisemite “Israel Shamir”
and she is publishing ritual murder stories about Jews.
I wonder when the Jesus Radicals will have the courage of their own convictions and respond to Fleming’s nonsense, or at the very least revise their previous charitable views of her?
Perhaps they’ve taken up a vow of silence on the matter?
Peter,
Can you please provide a link for that?
The New “Blood Libel”? Israeli Organ Harvesting
Saturday, 29 August 2009 22:03 Added by PT Editor Eileen Fleming
http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/views/2056-the-new-qblood-libelq-israeli-organ-harvesting
19/ http://www.israelshamir.net/English/Body_Snatchers.htm
The Return of the Body Snatchers, By Israel Shamir,
https://seismicshock.wordpress.com/page/24/
To the LIAR Peter Koroly and the inquisitor Dooley
PLEASE DO SEARCH the name “Israel Shamir” on my site
IT will ONLY lead to a footnote in the article i published on August 30, 2009 by world renowned and respected American journalist and Executive Director of http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
I WROTE:
If Americans Knew and Bishop Tutu’s Prayer
Alison Weir, sheds much needed light regarding Israeli Organ Harvesting and in clean up position is Bishop Tutu’s Prayer:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1378&Itemid=223
PS: To the rest of the idiots on this thread: you have my pity and prayer:
Father, forgive them their hard heads, stiff necks, cold dark hearts and willful arrogant ignorance for it has blinded them to the truth and rendered them the dumbest people i have ever crossed paths with!
And Romans 8:28 just welled up within me again!
Eileen is a sanctimonius, self-righteous r-sole and a first rate shit head to boot. Piss off no one cares what you think idiot queen.
Eileen you publish a ritual murder story, which is based between others also on the swedish-russian antisemite and friend of nazis and Holocaustdeniers Adam Ermash, formerly Jöran Jermas who is peddling his dirt under the name of “Israel Shamir” and you have the cheek to call me a liar.
Since you pretend to be a Christian, I recommend to read the following
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest them the mote the is in thy brother’s eye, but conseredest not the beam that is in thine
own eye?
Mattheew 7 1-3
I PUBLISHED Alison Weir’s article!
HAVE YOU BOTHERED TO READ IT???
PS-take your own advice RE: Mattheew 7 1-3
And btw the name is spelled MATTHEW!
I LEAVE you all with this as I go laughing all the way and praying for your EVOLUTION!
“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”-Arthur Schopenhauer
In Have you heard the true tale of the Bedouin named Mohammed Ali:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=824&Itemid=195
I related the true tale of the Bedouin named Mohammed Ali and his 1945 discovery of what has become known as the Nag´ Hammâdi Library; a collection of ancient texts that were buried in the wilderness under the cliff of Jabl al-Tarif in Egypt, just above the bend of the Nile, north of the Valley of the Kings, across the river from the city of Nag´ Hammâdi, near the hamlet of al-Qasr, apparently for safe-keeping.
These ancient compositions written in Coptic and Greek are now available in most every language. These ancient texts offer NO new answers; but they do provide us with a glimpse of Christianity at its very roots, and it was most diverse indeed.
Many of the texts were considered Gnostic and banned by the church Fathers during the reign of Emperor Constantine and were ordered to be burned. Gnosis is defined as knowledge discerned intuitively, and intuition is anathema to fundamentalists who prefer doctrines and dogmas, easy answers and who see black and white, but not shades of grey.
Today’s scholars agree that it is very possible the sayings in the Gnostic gospels are closer to the words Jesus actually spoke than what is found in the canonical gospels.
Two thousand years ago, there was lively debate about who Jesus was, and why he came. Churches before Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity were hot beds of individuality and not the institutions that have become big business today.
Jesus said he came that we would have life to the full; abundant life [John 10:10] and that takes deep thought, wrestling with The Divine and then taking action.
“To think deeply in our culture is to grow angry and to anger others; and if you cannot tolerate this anger, you are wasting the time you spend thinking deeply. One of the rewards to deep thought is the hot glow of anger at discovering a wrong, but if anger is taboo, thought will starve to death.”-Jules Henry
The first mention of Israel in the Bible is in Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestled, struggled and then clung to the Divine being and was then renamed Israel.
Jesus also was never a Christian; in fact the term ‘Christian’ was not even coined until the days of Paul, about 3 decades after Jesus walked the earth as a man. Jesus was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up and challenged the job security of the Temple authorities by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God already LOVED them just as they were: sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Military Occupation.
What got Jesus crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces of his time, by teaching the subversive concept that Caesar only had power because God allowed it and that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Occupation above the elite and arrogant.
The early followers and lovers of Jesus were called members of THE WAY-being THE WAY he taught one should be;
Nonviolent, a Peacemaker and one who did the will of the Father. “What does God require? He has told you o’man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord.” -Micah 6:8
We are not just body and mind, we are also spirit; a trinity in one flesh that will decay and whither away. When any part of the human trinity is out of balance, so will ones life be. Life is a journey and the best trip one can embark upon, is by going within and wrestling with The Divine; and thus become Israel on the way.
“I said, you are gods: you are all children of the Most High God.”-Psalm 82:6
It has been said that evolution is being held up by fundamental religiosity and the surge of such narrow minded and arrogant thought, sends shivers through cynical atheists and mystics alike. The bumper sticker actually did get it right: “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
According to the 1987 classic, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, Dr. Scott Peck defines the spiritual life as fluid and that one may pass back and forth repeatedly through any of the four-probably more-stages of the soul.
Stage one upon this journey -that begins from within-is essentially our infancy in the spiritual life. Like a wild child, a person in this stage reflects the inner chaotic and anti-social, unregenerate soul that is interested only in its own self-satisfaction and ego, much like the stereotypical spoiled child.
Stage one people may claim to love others, but their behavior reflects they love their own pleasure, money, power, prestige, and security above any other. For stage one people, it really is all about them.
Stage two souls seek to “let their light shine” and will live virtuous lives and do many good works. They also can be judgmental of others, self-righteous, rigid of thought, cold of heart, legalistic concrete literal thinkers and may even be guilty of a lukewarm faith. They want to do right and they even may desire to love and please God, but have not yet fully opened up to the Inner Light, as Joan of Arc did when she challenged church and state and persisted that she had intuited God within -even while being fried.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32
Stage two souls have not yet been set fully free and prefer the security of a higher human authority than themselves for guidance. They submit to institutions, scripture, dogma, ritual, ministers, or gurus. This is the most appropriate stage for older children and most adults who live busy lives just trying to keep bread on the table and a dry roof above.
The difference between a stage one and stage two soul, is that a one wouldn’t even notice a neighbor in need, while the two has awoken to the fact that we are to be our neighbor’s keepers and they will respond to a friend-and like the good Samaritan, even to a total stranger in need.
Most theologians would agree that the opposite of faith is not disbelief: the opposite of faith is fear. Stage three souls have not just fearlessly awoken, they have evolved! This evolution has led them to the realization of what Christ was really talking about in the Sermon of the Mount AKA: The Beatitudes which sound like crazy promises, but are all about waking people up to The Divine.
About 2,000 years ago, when Christ was about 33, he hiked up a hill and sat down under an olive tree and began to teach the people;
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
In other words: it is those who know their own spiritual poverty, their own limitations and sins honestly and trust God loves them in spite of themselves who already live in the Kingdom of God.
How comforted we will all be, when we see, we haven’t got a clue, as to the depth and breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.
God’s name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, “My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours.” -Isaiah 55:8
Christ proclaimed more: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The essence of meek is to be patient with ignorance, slow to anger and never hold a grudge. In other words: how comforted you will be when you also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to do what “God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord.”-Micah 6:8
“Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.”
In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your ‘enemy.’
“For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you.”
Christ warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is already within you, within every man, every woman and every child. The Supreme Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The Universe -and yet so small; within the heart of every atom.
“Blessed are The Peacemakers: THEY shall be called the children of God.”
And what a wonderful world it would be when we all seek peace by pursuing justice; for there can be none without the other.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires, theirs is The Kingdom of Heaven.”
And one fine day the lion will lie down with The Lamb and man will make war no more and that is the Kingdom of God.
A stage three soul may well reject Christ as God, but often agree with the philosophy of Jesus, which Thomas Jefferson laid out when he weeded out the miracle stories from the gospels and clarified the teachings and ethics of Christ in: THE LIFE AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH
1. Be just: justice comes from virtue which comes from the heart.
2. Treat people the way we want to be treated.
3. Always work for PEACEFUL resolutions, even to the point of returning violence with COMPASSION.
4. Consider valuable the things that have no material value.
5. Do not judge others.
6. Do not bear grudges.
7. Be modest and unpretentious.
8. Give out of true generosity, not because we expect to be repaid.
9. Being true to one’s self in more important than being loyal to one’s family…those who think they know the most are the most ignorant…
A stage three soul will see that a neighbor is everyone on the planet and not just those who think and look the same and are born in the same geographical localtion. Stage three’s are seekers, doubters, skeptics, atheists, agnostics and frequently adults who grew up disenchanted with institutionalized religion. Their inherent intellectual curiosity leads them to seek their own way towards the Mystery of the Divine through philosophy and the study of multiple faith paths choosing and discarding according to their “inner light.”
Stage three souls often become activists for social justice and reform and the increasing wave of humanitarian secularism verses the bondage of religious dogma just may be the way to change the world as we now know it.
It has been said we are all called to be mystics in the market place and a stage four, such as Thomas Merton and Rumi give voice to that experience of the curtain being lifted and seeing through the glass a bit less darkly.
A mystic can best be understood as one who is in love with the divine mystery and is viscerally connected to the unity of all creation. Mystics are not navel gazers, they feel the pain of the world within their hearts and grieve at what humans do to the other when they have no clue that The Divine is within the other as much as within themselves.
Mystics have detached from their concepts of God-not by their own efforts, but by the invitation and action of God upon a willing and simple soul in love with Pure Being, AKA: God for lack of a better word.
The mystic fool, Saint Francis, the leper kisser of Assisi, was so head over heels in love with God in everyone and all of creation that most people of his time considered him crazed, or at least, extremely eccentric. One needn’t be a mystic or move beyond stage two on the spiritual journey to do what is good and right just because it is good and right.
On that foundation alone people of faith, atheists and agnostics can surely find something to agree upon. Or would only a mystic see that?
PS ALERT!!! This just welled up within:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and FALSELY say all kinds of EVIL against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.”-Matthew 5:11
LOLOLOLOLOLOL+off for a swim i go,
hehehehehe
xoxe
Eileen Fleming, A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
I Produced “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu” because corporate media has been MIA all during a Freedom of Speech Trial in Israel
Whatever else, one thing is clear, Fleming is an unapologetic racist.
Fleming associates with the very worst professional figures on the Far Right, David Duke and his Holocaust denying friends.
Fleming pushes “Israel Shamir’s” racist filth and then she advances the whole Offal Libel nonsense.
Fleming is without any remorse or conscience, nothing penetrates her racist facade, nothing gets through to her.
Fleming is an unapologetic and unabashed racist.
And you are an IDIOT blowing nothing but IDIOT WIND!
And YOU have NOT a shred of proof to back up your slander and I still wonder WHY you are such an angry leprechaun/troll?
Face reality-You all started this fight and you will never win a War of Words with me!
But I am most grateful for this opportunity to engage in ‘conversation’ [I use that work tongue in cheek] that some may wander onto this page and have eyes to see, ears to hear and the intellectual curiosity to LEARN MORE and THINK for themselves!
I leave you with this:
There are only two sins: being selfish and being boring.
God knows YOU have bored me!
Eileen Fleming, Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Any readers interested in Fleming’s racist associate, David Duke, one time Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, should read the SPLC’s material on him:
“Insatiable
The guilty plea of white supremacist David Duke for corruption is only the latest episode in the life of a voracious con man”
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=25
U R a Master of IDIOCY, Retarded or just plain vile and EVIL!
I have NO connection to David Duke and I ABHOR any ideology that presupposes any race superior or chosen by God over any other.
NO religion owns God and NO Church owns Jesus.
I dare you-and anyone-to READ ME and cite chapter and verse to back up modernIDIOTY’s insane and stupid slander!
Eileen Fleming, Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and
Readers can make their own minds up on Duke and Fleming,
This is an extract from October 2007, from a cached copy of Duke’s web site:
http://tinyurl.com/n2b2vq
So on the Friday evening before the main event, apparently there was scheduled a get together for the assorted racists.
Did Fleming attend? Did she know the type of people she was helping?
Eileen Fleming. Yes I have read that article published by you. So you accuse Jews of robbing organs and killing people for it, this is the old ritual murder lie Christians used in order to rob and massacre Jews Hundred of years ago.
Eileen you do not answer my questions because you do not read my posting. You are so conceited and convinced that everybody wants to read your “verbal diarrhoea”.
You seem to be a mindless racist who is propagating any lie and diffamation about Jews you can find.
Let’s assume for a moment, that you really are so stupid and believe, that Jewish doctors do what your antisemitic friends of counterpunch accuse them of, then how comes, that at the same time those very same antisemites accuse Israel of closing the border [because of security considerations] and not letting in Palestinian patients?
Why are Palestinians so keen to be treated in Israeli hospitals? Why don’t they trust often their own doctors? if Israel such an “apartheid state” as you and your ilk claim, why are Arab patients from Arab countries flocking to Israeli hospitals?
I recommend to read the article of
Adam Holland, Blood Libel promoted by Counterpunch Alison Weir [Friday, September 11, 2009]
…Not only does Weir not provide this historical context, she goes so far as to imply without basis that the donor was deliberately allowed to die (or worse) in order to transplant his heart, that this practice is allowed under Israeli law and that it is commonplace there.
Where is Counterpunch headed?
It is bad enough that Counterpunch, in the name of defending human rights, would publish such patently false charges as true. It is outrageous that they would present the anti-Semitism of the middle ages as a progressive response to the Jewish people, whom they portray as intrinsically reactionary and criminal. In doing this, Counterpunch has turned the definitions of “progressive” and “reactionary” on their heads. In fact, they have completely turned logic on its head. What will they support next? The Spanish Inquisition?
NOTE: Counterpunch is publishing other articles supporting the spurious charges from Aftonbladet. One, entitled “Israeli Bodysnatchers”, was authored by Bouthaina Shaaban, chief spokesperson for President Assad of Syria and a former Syrian “Minister of Expatriates”. Shaaban describes herself as “a Nobel Peace Prize nominee”. (I love when people claim that as a credential. Literally anyone can be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, so those who cite it as an honor always do so fraudulently.) In addition to repeating the absurd organ trafficking charges, her article also baselessly blames Israel for the assassination of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/blood-libel-promoted-by-counterpunch.html
“Today’s scholars agree that it is very possible the sayings in the Gnostic gospels are closer to the words Jesus actually spoke than what is found in the canonical gospels”
Rubbish.
This is a highly contested, and there are many many scholars of today who would, and do, disagree with your statement. Making such a broad general statement does not make it true.
Donas I believe it is futile to expect Eileen Fleming to grasp what you say. She has her racist antisemitic agenda and she is not ready to accept any criticism. She does not answer questions and she has verbal diar….
She reminds me of Stalinists I used to discuss with. Whenever I came with facts they said, look the question is whom should we believe, you petit bourgeois or our comrades in Moscow. So Eileen believes every lie and diffamation coming from a Palestinian source.
Imagine ranting your life away and trying to convince yourself that your aren’t anti-semitic.
Imagine being an Irish American Arab supporter and instead of confronting all the crimes of America, the Arab and the Muslim world ( where a 16 year old girl was just hanged in Iran for adultery, where women are stoned to death for being raped, where half the population is subjugated, outright) instead to focus on a speck of a country that’s half a world away and is 1/3rd the size of San Bernardino County in California.
I once know someone that had the same tone and look in her eyes as Eileen Fleming. Seriously, the woman had serious mental illness. She also posed as a healer and talked about laughing constantly. I’m no psychologist so I can’t report what the illness is. Only that I would bet my life that Fleming is bi-polar and a sociopath.
Seriously, I thought that video was a feminine hygiene ad.
Weird.
Thanks for the best laugh of the day, which I would have missed if it were not for Google alerts in my name. So great to know after almost a year, you Zionists are still discussing me!
PS: The Revolution I started in 2006 was updated today @ http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Mordechai Vanunu, Mainstream Media, Wikipedia and a PS: To the Book Publishing World