Palestine

This comes from Mideast Web via a Green Party listserv. I'm not a Ron Paul enthusiast, although I appreciate his stands on war, empire, and civil liberties.
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THANK REP. RON PAUL FOR HIS COURAGEOUS STAND

On March 5 the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 951, "Condemning the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, and for other purposes," by a count of 404-1.

The lone voice of dissent was Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who not only cast the lone vote against the bill, but rose to speak on his opposition to wording of the legislation that "oversimplifies the Israel/Palestine conflict" and "is more likely to perpetuate violence in the Middle East than contribute to its abatement."

We commend Representative Paul for his understanding of the issue, his commitment to principle, and his determination to speak out. If more elected officials acted with the same clarity and even-handedness with regard to Israel and Palestine, we would be closer to a just and sustainable peace in the region.

I wrote the following last night for the WAWA Blog Dec. 26, 2007. In this morning's email was this message from Vanunu.

PS- In 1986, Vanunu a secular Jew converted to Christianity just days before being kidnapped by the Mossad and spending 18 years in jail for telling the world the truth that Israel was already nuclear.

Bad news, Dec. 25 th. The police come to the American Colony to arrest me. I was meeting a young German girl who wanted to know more about my story. They took us to the police questioning me, hold me until midnight 24:00. Not so impresive all this again arrest. I think the police was waiting for my arrest in Beet Lehem,since I did come to B L. they found new reason to arest me. Any way life will continue as I am doing all the Time.
vmjc

On Christmas Eve evening I picked up my mail and opened up a card from Jerusalem sent to me by Mordechai Vanunu. He made me laugh out loud, for he addressed it to: "Eileen Flaming" not Fleming, which is my actual name.

But, upon reflection, I think Vanunu has renamed me well; for I am flaming over the hypocrisy and injustice of empire and apathy and ignorance of good Christians who have no eyes to see, ears to hear, or hearts that bleed for the poor and oppressed in the Holy land and the entire Middle East.

This is my first blog entry.
I am not a writer, but when I read this article this morning and noted one of the Cross Left Bloggers was affirmed I thought you would all want to know.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0712/S00174.htm

Advocacy, Intellect, and Common Sense
Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 2:15 pm
Column: Jim Miles
Advocacy, Intellect, and Common Sense

by Jim Miles

Ramzy Baroud's current article [1] on the despair of writers and the role of the intellectual in presenting information has proven to be very thought provoking personally. I would not be doing what I am doing now without his support and conviction, yet as with the writer in the article, I have often wondered why do I keep doing this when nothing seems to change. Further, am I preaching only to the converted, or is there perhaps someone out there who has read the material and actually transformed their thinking because of that?

Zion's Zealots

[Miami, Fl. November 6, 2007] The James L. Knight Center was packed to the rafters with John Hagee's tribe of Christian Zionists and south Florida's right wing Jewish community. Zion's Fire Banners, dancers, singers and a band whipped the crowd into a frenzy of spinning, jumping, clapping, twirling and moved the rotund Hagee to link arms with men in skull caps and dance the Hora-not to Hava Nagila, but to repeated choruses of:

Shout for joy and victory! Bat Yerushalyim

From one end of the stage to the other, the largest American and Israeli flags I have ever seen were draped side by side and by the end of the evening I imagined every star on the red-white-and blue had morphed into the Star of David.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez pointed to the flags and exclaimed: "Isn't that beautiful up there together? I get goose bumps! All nations have been created by an act of man, except Israel was created by an act of God."

I have many friends connected with FOSNA/FRIENDS OF SABEEL NORTH AMERICA and can connect CROSSLEFT with ease to someone who attended the historic conference in Boston last week when over 900 attended the largest conference to be held by Sabeel in the U.S.A!!!

Desmond Tutu, Naim Ateek, Noam Chomsky, Anat Biletzki, Phyllis Bennis, Jeff Halper, and others addressed:

The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Issues of Justice & Peace
October 26-27, 2007. Old South Church, Copley Square, Boston, MA

So many people stood in line to register at the last minute for the Saturday sessions of the Boston Sabeel conference that for the first time, Sabeel turned people away.

SOLD OUT signs were posted on the front doors of the Old South Church in Boston. Inside was packed to the rafters with folks from 30 U.S. states and from five countries.

The event drew opposition from pro-occupation and pro-Zionist groups in the wider Boston area.

Please Join The Boston Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, The Mass. Chapter of The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and FOSNA/Friends of Sabeel [THE WAY] who are ecumencial Christians for Justice and Peace

At a large, area-wide mobilization

Tearing Down Walls – Building Bridges: Protesting Apartheid in Israel/Palestine
October 27th, 2007 – 3:00 p. m.
Copley Square, Boston

Hear activists from Israel, Palestine, South Africa and the U. S. address the issues of inequality, violence and peace
in Israel/Palestine

Take a stand for justice and human rights for everyone in Israel/Palestine!!!!!!!

“We should put out a clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to the Palestinian people and say:
peace is possible, peace based on justice is possible. We will do all we can to assist you to achieve this peace,
because it is God's dream, and you will be able to live amicably together as sisters and brothers.” –

It was on the second Saturday in September, 2007, while in Arlington, Virginia, at George Mason University attending the 6th annual US Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, that I first heard someone say when they were asked their organizational affiliations, reply, "I am here as a free radical."

Free radical, Keren Batiyov, is also a poet, writer, a nonviolent activist with ISM/International Solidarity, and a Russian history maven. Keren was born and bred in a fundamentalist Christian home, but at the age of 40 connected with her Jewish roots and converted Jesus from God back into his originally understood role of divine prophet; and a prophet can best be understood as one who points out impending doom and provokes people to remember God.

Published first on 09/28/07 @
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/09/28/p1982...

The Political Question and Moral Accountability
eileen fleming

"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." ~ Unamuno, wall graffiti in Paris, May 1968

Last week in the Al Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer was the weapon that brutally murdered 19 year old Mahmoud Khafafi. Bulldozers and tanks entered Mahmoud's farmland village at dawn and uprooted olive trees, razed the land and demolished thirteen homes. Young Palestinians threw stones at the tanks, which began shooting in return. The victim ran behind an olive tree and when the bulldozer began to uproot the tree, Mahmoud was shot in the neck, yet attempted to flee until the blade cut his head off and his brains spilled out. [http://www.mezan.org human rights organization in Gaza gathered the details]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
URGENT ACTION

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 15/062/2007
UA 247/07 Fear for Safety 21 September 2007
ISRAEL/
OCCUPIED 1.5 Million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
PALESTINIAN
TERRITORIES (OPT)