"When I come here and see the situation here, I find that what is happening here is ten times worse than what I had experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid."- Arun Gandhi, after his 2004 visit to The Holy Land.

This week in Bethlehem, the second international Christ at the Checkpoint Conference concluded with a “major breakthrough in the evangelical world” and was attended by over 600 Evangelical Palestinian Christians, Christian Zionists, and Messianic Christians.

They came together with “Hope in the Midst of Conflict” under the banner “Christ at the Checkpoint,” to seek understanding between Jews and Christians and reflect on 'what would Jesus do’ about the Israeli occupation of Palestine and concluded with:

1. The Kingdom of God has come. Evangelicals must reclaim the prophetic role in bringing peace, justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel.
2. Reconciliation recognizes God’s image in one another.
3. Racial ethnicity alone does not guarantee the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.
4. The Church in the land of the Holy One, has born witness to Christ since the days of Pentecost. It must be empowered to continue to be light and salt in the region, if there is to be hope in the midst of conflict.
5. Any exclusive claim to land of the Bible in the name of God is not in line with the teaching of Scripture.
6. All forms of violence must be refuted unequivocally.
7. Palestinian Christians must not lose the capacity to self-criticism if they wish to remain prophetic.
8. There are real injustices taking place in the Palestinian territories and the suffering of the Palestinian people can no longer be ignored. Any solution must respect the equity and rights of Israel and Palestinian communities.
9. For Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.
10. Any challenge of the injustices taking place in the Holy Land must be done in Christian love. Criticism of Israel and the occupation cannot be confused with anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of the State of Israel.
11. Respectful dialogue between Palestinian and Messianic believers must continue. Though we may disagree on secondary matters of theology, the Gospel of Jesus and his ethical teaching take precedence.
12. Christians must understand the global context for the rise of extremist Islam. We challenge stereotyping of all faith forms that betray God’s commandment to love our neighbors and enemies. [1]

Also this week, peace and justice activists in Johannesburg concluded a week of programs highlighting the similarities between the Apartheid regime in South Africa and that of Israel.

Learn More about that @ Prophets on Apartheid: Part 1

Prophets on Apartheid: Part 2

Israeli Apartheid Week is a global annual international series of events held in cities and campuses with the goal to educate people about Israeli Apartheid and because ‘it’s always about the money’ to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns.

Last year, Israeli Apartheid Week took place in more than 40 cities across the globe and the good news is that over 100 participated this year!

When it came to South African Apartheid, the US was one of the last to get on-board and only did so when President Ronald Reagan was forced to sign a Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act “because the citizens’movements in the United States had so effectively turned around United States politics that the Republican senators were telling him that it was in the interest of the Republican Party to sign.”

Last week in D.C. thousands of US Christians united with Jewish AIPAC supporters who converged on the Capitol to lobby Congress in support of the state of Israel and push America into war with Iran.

The Christians who attended the “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference sought to answer, “How should Christ followers respond to this political, multi-faceted conflict?”

They desired “to promote awareness, a message of unity, and contribute to peace and justice for all of the world's inhabitants. [With] hope to be challenged and to challenge the global church on its moral, ethical, and prophetic responsibility.” 

In 1948 there were 29,000 Palestinian Christians living in the land many call Holy but because of The Christian Exodus, they number less than 10,000 today; not because of Judaism or Islam, but because of a brutal and illegal military occupation that denies their human rights and prevents them from reaching their jobs, land, holy sites and families which have been separated by Israel’s wall.

"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] 

During the conference, the Mayor of Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, spoke about the Apartheid Wall and other “walls in this world – walls of religion, race, gender... we want to break down all the seen and unseen walls in the world. [he thanked the delegates for] breaking down the wall – not physically, but psychologically [and continued] we live in a big prison in this city but as Muslims and Christians we always have hope”and he concluded by saying that “with your help we can achieve peace.” [3]

The first time I met Mayer Batarseh was when he traveled to Florida in 2005, to meet with Mayor Buddy Dyer, with the hope to re-ignite The Twinning Agreement that was signed in May 2001 by the then Mayors of Bethlehem and Orlando.

The Twinning Agreement is a sister-pact that affirmed Orlando and Bethlehem would encourage tourism to the other and promote a global community. I followed up on Mayor Batarseh’s visit with my own visit to Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office one week after the Mayors had met.

I informed the Orlando Mayor’s public relations representative about an opportunity to help the city of Bethlehem and was seeking the Mayors support in getting the word out about two events that were already scheduled and my involvement with Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund, who imported goods crafted by the artisans in Bethlehem that volunteers sold throughout the world. We returned 100% of all proceeds back to the crafts people and any remaining went to help support the children who endure in the refugee camps of the Holy Land.

Mayor Buddy Dyer did not even have the common courtesy to respond to any of my three follow up emails and multiple phone calls.

I also informed The Orlando Sentinel about the opportunity for the Central Florida community to do something to make true the words of the Twinning Agreement without traveling all the way to the Little Town of Bethlehem in occupied territory.

I got nowhere, but I keep writing about it because the proverb is; 'if you want to change the world: WRITE!'

In 2006, while I was in Bethlehem I again met Mayor Batarseh and he told me:

“When the occupation is ended there will be peace. If the world boycotted Israel for six months they would comply with the UN Resolutions which is all we want! There is state terrorism and Israel must be forced to recognize our right to exist. For the past ten years Hamas has worked with and helped the poorest of people, they have built schools and orphanages. The PA took the money but Hamas was providing the social services!

“Israel is a state built on religious beliefs. The US and EU and all the free world are against theocracies. But Israel has the right to do anything! The world needs to WAKE UP! If there is no peace in the Holy Land there can be no peace anywhere. End the occupation and there will be peace the very next day. All the terrorism in the world can be traced back to the Palestinian situation. All the money spent on weapons and war could eliminate world poverty.” [4] 

There can be no peace without justice and there is no justice without accepting the truth.

There is more than enough blame to be shared by all but playing that game- as well as living in the past- has got no soul!

For this American struggling Christian Anarchist and candidate for US HOUSE of Representatives, who seeks to change US foreign policy and challenge all Christians, I propose believers and unbelievers would do well to consider just WHO their Jesus is.

The gospel [which means good news] that Jesus preached, was very political and a direct challenge to the politically powerful, arrogant, self-satisfied and self-righteous.

Two thousand years ago the Cross had NO symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry.

When Jesus said: "Pick up your cross and follow me," everyone back then understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any others who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces.

Jesus was never a Christian, for that term was not even coined until the third decade after his crucifixion.

Jesus was born, lived and died a devout Jewish nonviolent Palestinian whose last message to his community was “Put down the sword!”

In the latter days of Nero's reign [54-68 A.S.] through the domination of Domitian [ 81-96] Christians were persecuted for following the nonviolent, loving and forgiving Jesus.

That Jesus was first left behind when Augustine penned The Just War Theory.

Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a Just War and within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity began.

With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War Theory, wrong became right. Nothing much has changed in two millennial, for in today’s Orwellian world politicians claim the way to peace is through war and that nuclear weapons provide protection.

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. I contend that ANYONE who does the same is that Biblical Israel too!

In 2006, Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower, Mordechai Vanunu, issued this invitation to Hillary Clinton and all US Christians:

I am Eileen Fleming for US HOUSE of Representatives 2012 and I approve of this-and all of my messages.

1.http://www.christatthecheckpoint.com/index.php/about-us/2012-press-release

2. http://tehrantimes.com/world/96218-south-africa-highlights-israeli-apartheid/

3. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/national/1042-christ-at-the-checkpoint-addresses-challenges-for-palestinian-church

4.:

Last night’s "60 Minutes", featured a Lesley Stahl interview with Meir Dagan, who admitted that bombing Iran now is "the stupidest idea" he'd ever heard.

A few other ‘stupid ideas’ this little muckraker would have asked the former Mossad chief and "60 Minutes" to address follow; because ‘stupid is as stupid does’ and failures of intelligence are always rooted in failures of imagination.

At the top of that list is Israel’s failure to imagine that the vacuum left by a Media who failed to report on Israel’s WMD and Israel’s Administrative Torture and Lawless Captivity of Vanunu Mordechai could be silenced on the World Wide Web.

Cases in Point are as I reported in Dubai and "Stupid Israeli Spies"

A DVD copy of that interview was mailed to “60 MINUTES” in 2006 but as of this writing no response has yet been received.

LEARN MORE about that at The "Big Get" Don Hewitt and "60 Minutes" Didn't Get Read more...  

When I last saw Vanunu in June 2009, he told me, “The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons.”

However, on July 6, 2009, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish continued to deny Vanunu the right to leave Israel, claiming his "case is still generating great interest, like any other security-related case. The media's attention he gets is proof of that."

IF ONLY that were true Vanunu would now be free and Insha’Allah [God willing] America would also hold Israel to the same standards it demands of Iran:

Open up all nuclear facilities to IAEA inspections and establish a Nuclear Free Middle East. 

A Little Important History:

In 1963, Shimon Peres was Israel's Deputy Minister of Defense when he met with President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

Kennedy told Peres, "You know that we follow very closely the discovery of any nuclear development in the region. This could create a very dangerous situation. For this reason we monitor your nuclear effort. What could you tell me about this?"

Peres replied, "I can tell you most clearly that we will not introduce nuclear weapons to the region, and certainly we will not be the first."

By September of 1986, Peres was convulsing over Mordechai Vanunu, who had been employed as a lowly tech in Peres’ progeny; Israel’s clandestine underground nuclear weapons center in the Negev called the Dimona.

Peres ordered the Mossad, to "Bring the son of a bitch back here."

Vanunu's kidnapping included a clubbing, drugging and being flung upon an Israeli cargo boat and shipped back to Israel for a closed-door trial.

After 18 years in prison, nearly 8 more under 24/7 surveillance by Mossad on top of 78 days back in solitary confinement in 2010 because he spoke to foreigners [who happened to be media] in 2004; I ask, how stupid can stupid be to continue to deny Vanunu the right to fade into the world instead of continuing to make headlines in light of what Vanunu wrote in 2009:

“THE ISRAEL STUPID SPIES WILL NOT GET ANY THING FROM HERE.”

And so, I wonder how stupid can stupid be in light of what Israeli media also reported in 2004:

"This is the secret that hasn't yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of the subsequent attempts at cover-up, whitewashing and protection of senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure. The 18-year prison term to which Vanunu was sentenced is almost exactly the same period as that in which Yehiel Horev has served as chief of internal security in the defense establishment [who has been] involved in the affair as deputy chief of security at the Defense Ministry, and also after Vanunu's abduction and arrest, as a member of an investigative commission.


"Shortly after taking office as chief of security at the Defense Ministry, Horev began to take punitive measures to hobble Vanunu. He is responsible for the harsh conditions in which Vanunu was held, which included years in solitary confinement, and the sharp limitations on the number of visitors he could have…[and has fought] a rearguard battle to prevent Vanunu from leaving Israel and to place him under supervision and restrictions that will be tantamount to house arrest.

“Horev has always been considered the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute. He is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel's nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses…all the hyperactivity being displayed by Horev and those who support his approach is intended only to divert attention from what has not yet been revealed: the security blunders and their cover-ups."-Yossi Melman, for Haaretz. 

"Everybody understands that Vanunu has no more secrets. What can a technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced with giant steps?

"But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership with the United States in the development of Israel's nuclear armaments.

"This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State Department for 'arms control', Under-Secretary John Bolton, has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe damage to the mighty super-power.

"The Americans, it seems, are very worried. The Israeli security services have to dance to their tune. The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing, from the lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in Israel's nuclear arms program, while pretending to be the world's sheriff for the prevention of nuclear proliferation."- Uri Avnery, April 24, 2004.

And how stupid can stupid be, not to imagine a little one such as me- who happened to be writing my first historical novel in 2005 and researching in Israel Palestine- when I met Vanunu for the first time, would as a matter of CONSCIENCE become a reporter because Vanunu told me:

"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection.

"When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.

"Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year." [1]

And I wonder how stupid can a Government, SECURITY Establishment and a Supreme Court be in light of what Vanunu wrote on November 24, 2006:

“My lawyer succeeded to reveal a few very important facts: This General of the Army was not allowed to see all the secrets that he is required to protect by these restrictions that they claim I know them. So, he gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he is protecting or that he is also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet using its authority for just punishing me.

"He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk with foreigners in general anywhere. He testified that I can speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything; it is not his concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give this information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means that it is not about secrecy but about something else." [IBID]

That something else is of utmost import for all who believe freedom of conscience and speech is a right that no government or any corporate interest has any ‘right’ to impinge upon and was revealed on February 22, 2006, during Vanunu’s court appearance as he wrote:

"Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details…three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated. It is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

"The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders; Hisaion [documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers.] This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.

"The policeman did not have any answers and said that he brought all the evidence to the court. When Sfard asked him again about any material related to the espionage [charge] Peterburg had no answers.

"Sfard proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and [that they] misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage." 

And how stupid can stupid be in light of what Vanunu wrote on May 5, 2011 to:

MK Mr. Eli Yishai

Minister of Interior

The State of Israel

Re: Revoking my Israeli Citizenship

I am Mordechai Vanunu that was kidnapped from Rome on September 30, 1986 by The Israeli Secret Services.

I was tried by The Jerusalem District Court and convicted of Aggravated Espionage, High Treason and Assisting the Enemy and I was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. This followed an interview I gave to The London Sunday Times regarding the secret production of nuclear weapons materials in Israel.

I fulfilled the democratic principal of the right of the public to know.

I have served 18 years in Ashkelon Prison, mostly in solitary confinement.

I was released on 21 April 2004 with severe restrictions imposed by the Israeli Government.

Seven years past and the restrictions had been renewed again and again relying on The Emergency Laws from 1945.

Since my release I have lived 6 years in East Jerusalem and since September 2010 I live in Tel Aviv.

On June 1986 I was baptized to the Anglican Church.

Recently, (28.3.2011), the Knesset passed a new law that revokes the citizenship of anyone who was convicted of espionage or treason.

25 years I am demanding and waiting to have my full freedom restored.

This law should be applied to my case and I am willing for my citizenship to be revoked and canceled.

I am writing to you today asking the state of Israel to cancel my citizenship.

This desire is not new and is not recent, but now it is supported by the new law to revoke citizenship .

I am asking and expecting the enforcement of this law to its letter and revoke my Israeli citizenship.

This law applies to me and I am ready for my citizenship to be canceled.

I don't have another citizenship but I would be able to get one easily during my forced stay here and for sure at the moment that I am allowed to leave.

In any case I here declare that my wish was and still is to cancel/revoke, in fact, my Israeli citizenship.

After all the 'treatment' that I have received from the State of Israel and its citizens, I do not feel, here, as a citizen or how a citizen should feel, I feel as an unwellcome citizen and treated as such by the state of Israel and its citizens.

I am called and shouted at as a spy, 'The Atom Spy', and a traitor by the Israeli media and in the streets of Israel.

I am harassed and persecuted as the enemy of the state for 25 years.

I feel I am still imprisoned, still held as a hostage, by the state and its government.

After 25 years of ongoing, many and very hard punishments by the State of Israel, I wish the end to all punishments and my suffering, and wish the realization of the basic human right of freedom.

I would like to exercise my right to freedom of conscience, my right to choose not to be a citizen of Israel.

I have no interest in Israeli citizenship; I do not want to live here. I ask you to cancel/revoke my citizenship here and now. I ask you to let me be free from Israel as our dislike is mutual.

I HAVE NO SECRETS!

EVERYTHING I KNEW THAN, I HAVE PASSED ON TO THE ENGLISH PAPER IN 1986!!

IT IS TIME TO ALLOW ME TO LEAVE ISRAEL AFTER A QUARTER CENTURY OF IMPRISONMENT!

Mordechai Vanunu.

May 5th 2011

Tel-Aviv

Copies to Prime M, Netanyho.

Foreign M, Liberman.

Defence M Barak.

Justice M, Neaman.

President Peres.

And how stupid stupid can be when on November 29, 2011, Vanunu also wrote:

"Now the judge decided they will hear the case when? The clerics will tell as very soon. I saw what they wrote, they wrote very short, repeating again and again that this law is new and my case is 20 years ago, so it can not be use for my case.

"I spoke with Feldman my lawyer, I told him it does not matter this Law, I am asking them to revoke my citizenship, with this law or without this Law, as I asked them in 1998.

"At that time they answer I need to have other different citizenship. But with this new law they can take any citizen his citizenship even if he don't have other citizenship. So it will take more months until the court will decide."

Vanunu’s next historic trial is scheduled for July 2012, but how stupid can stupid be to not allow Vanunu the right to fade away into the world, instead of continuing to make history?

But because if I can't laugh and "if I can't dance it's not my revolution" [Emma Goldman] I am most grateful to "60 MINUTES" for ending their show with Dagan with an interview with AEROSMITH, because I last danced along with those bad boys from Boston while in Alabama in July 2009, and wrote:

To all the Sharp Dressed Soldiers Shipping Out Read more...

I am Eileen Fleming of US HOUSE of Representatives and I approve of this and all of my messages and as I was born and bred in New York City and I am NOT getting off the Nuclear Train until the time's a'change and bring in a FREE VANUNU and establish a NUCLEAR FREE MIDDLE EAST; here's hoping "60 MINUTES" will want to learn more about that at the Facebook Call for Public Action for Vanunu's FREEDOM 21 April 2012

http://www.facebook.com/events/375553329140552/

[1] "BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker"