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Tag(s): Christianity; God; Healing; Justice; Meditation; Middle East Conflict Israel Palestine Le; Occupation; Peace; Peace; People Jesus Christ; (more...) Spiritual Healing; Thinking; Tikkun Healing The World (less...)
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July 14, 2007 at 12:53:19

"Do you want to be healed?"

by eileen fleming Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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[Jerusalem, 14, July 2007] This moring I checked into my comfy room at the American Colony; well known for accomodating writers and spoiled Americans, spent an hour on a treadmill at an incline of five at a brisk 4-5 MPH, did some upper body free weights, went for a swim, then headed down Nablus Road to the Old City of Jerusalem…

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, 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 Fransiscan brother and enquired, "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 laughs as he points 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 but 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, 2006, 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.

Between 2000 and 2001, I was a first year 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.

1 | 2

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
“The Peace of the world begins in Jerusalem.”

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of
wearewideawake.org

Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"

She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.

She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

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7 comments

Author of four books, part-time college professor, Ph.D American history Carnegie Mellon University.Graduate work in Clark University, Gratz College of Jewish studies.
philip rosenAuthor of four books, part-time college professor, Ph.D American history Carnegie Mellon University.Graduate work in Clark University, Gratz College of Jewish studies.

Christians in Holy Land

Why is it when I visited Jerusalem recently the Christians including the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church was much more fearful about the Muslims than the Jews whom he felt were protecting him? Jerusalem's Jews protect themselves by the separation barrier. Do you want them murdered by suicide bombers?

by philip rosen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 93 comments) on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 2:01:39 PM

Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"
Eileen FlemingEileen is the Reporter and Editor of wearewideawake.orgProducer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" She has been to Israel Palestine five times since June 2005.
She is currently working on "The Boom Boom Benny Story"

FEAR and ERROR andf schraga

Jesus taught: FEAR NOT!

schraga wrote:

Christians in Holy Land

I RESPOND:

The Christian Exodus of the Holy Land has reduced their numbers from 20% of the total population to less than 1.3% since Israel became a state in 1948.

The reasons are primarily the forty years of occupation, the oppression, The Wall, the lack of economic opportunity, the daily humiliations at checkpoints, the hassle of obtaining permits to be able to move about, ineffective and corrupt governments, the rise of fundamentalism in all three branches of Father Abraham’s offsprings and the violence and destruction that surrounds.

shhraga asked:

Why is it when I visited Jerusalem recently the Christians including the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church was much more fearful about the Muslims than the Jews whom he felt were protecting him?

I RESPOND: WHAT ORTHODOX CHURCH did you visist? TELL ME and I will go and visit too and find out how that erroneous thought entered you!

schraga wrote:

Jerusalem's Jews protect themselves by the separation barrier. Do you want them murdered by suicide bombers?

I respond THE WALL DOES NOT divide Jews and Palestinians, but grabs their land, resources, separates them from their families and friends andholy sites.

LEARN THE TRUTH:

The Following was received October 24, 2005 from Bethlehem

Dear World:

We are writing you from the city of Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ was born. The city of diversity where Christians and Muslims live side-by-side and peoples of all faiths and cultures are welcomed. Bethlehem is now facing unprecedented danger.

As citizens of this Holy city, we welcome you to witness the new and sad facts. The city is completely encircled by the wall and the bypass roads. We would like to provide you with some facts about the reality of the city.

• Israel claims that it built the wall to ensure security for its citizens.

• The claim for security is nullified by the fact that the wall is NOT being built on the internationally recognized 1949 Green Line boundary between Israel and the West Bank. The wall is on Palestinian land that according to international law must be returned to Palestinians.

• The direct effect of the wall is that 10% of the West Bank will be confiscated and Palestinians will be isolated from each other and from the world in prison-like zones.

• The current wall is at least 360 km long (3 times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall); once completed it will reach over 700 km, completely encircling and dividing the West Bank.

• 295,000 to 400,000 Palestinians will be isolated from the West Bank because their homes will fall between the Wall and the Green Line.

• Rural populations will be walled off from primary urban centers where essential services are available, such as hospitals, schools, markets and places of worship.

• The wall has two forms: cement and/or a fenced road. The cement wall ranges between 6-9 meters in height. The fenced roads range from 40-100 meters wide. Sniper towers, trenches, trace roads, patrol roads, gates, footprint detection fields, sensors, and cameras support both forms.

• A system of "special permits" for Palestinians will be set up by Israel to allow for passage through the check points at the wall. Israel will have total control on the movement of the inhabitants and will seek their total “obedience” in order to get permits.

• Seven villages (approximately 19,000 Palestinians) lie between the Green Line and Bethlehem will be completely isolated. These villages are the main vegetables and meat providers to the Bethlehem governorate.

• The United Nations is already feeding over 1,100 families in the Bethlehem area through direct food aid. This number is likely to increase if subsistence farming declines due to restricted access to farmlands.

• The route of the wall will insure that all settlements’ clusters fall on the Israeli side together with most of the Palestinian agriculture land and underground water.

• About twelve to fifteen Palestinian residential buildings at the entrance of Bethlehem are under threat of evacuation or demolition, in addition to the Armenian Church property and an Islamic cemetery.

• After the completion of the wall, we expect percentage of migration to get higher to endanger the historical existence of the Christian community in Bethlehem. As of this publication, more than 200 Palestinian Christian families have migrated to other countries.

Prepared by Husam Jubran and Eilda Zaghmout

Sources:
www.arij.org
www.stopthewall.org
www.humanitarianinfo.org
www.btselem.org
www.pengon.org

From Leila Sansour,
Chief Executive, Open Bethlehem

On the fourth anniversary of the bombing of the ancient Palestinian-Christian Shrine to Saint Barbara by the Israeli army, aides to US Congressman Michael McCaul prepared a resolution purporting to act on behalf of Palestine's Christian community. The resolution before Congress blames the crisis threatening the erasure of the oldest Christian community in the world on the Palestinian Authority.

The resolution was drafted without consulting any Palestinian body, whether spiritual or civic. Yet they reflect a deeply entrenched view in the US that Christians and Muslims cannot share the same space.

Whether through naivety or premeditation such claims feed the myth that Israel's brutal military occupation is no more than a sectarian conflict.

At Open Bethlehem we will do everything in our power to address such misconceptions. It is important to remember that these misconceptions are not the result of a worldwide conspiracy. They are the fruit of interested parties, pursuing their own agendas and seizing the opportunities that democracies offer. With openness and transparency on our side, we can more than match the success of the pro-Israeli lobby - and we will. We invite all our friends to join us.

Open Bethlehem has joined the calls from the heads of the Churches in Palestine, civil society organisations and laity bodies in urging Congress to dismiss a resolution presented by Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas) which misleads members of the house on the real threat to the Christian community in Palestine. The resolution relies wholly on information supplied by Israel's Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, a think-tank dedicated to the promotion of Israeli concerns.

Leila Sansour, July 2006
Chief Executive, Open Bethlehem

"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."-President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address

Please send a Fax and make a phone call and let President Bush know how you feel:

WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS LINE: 202-456-1111
WHITE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD: 202-456-1414
WHITE HOUSE FAX: 202-456-2461

by Eileen Fleming (145 articles, 51 quicklinks, 266 diaries, 579 comments) on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 4:21:04 PM

I live in the heart of America, and am haunted by the saying:
"Evil succeeds because good men do nothing." by Edmund Burke.

Albert Einstein had another way of saying it:
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

So I do what I can.
Edward Ulysses CateI live in the heart of America, and am haunted by the saying:
"Evil succeeds because good men do nothing." by Edmund Burke.

Albert Einstein had another way of saying it:
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

So I do what I can.

For peace to make progress ....

"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,” was rightly said in the essay.

However, who's willing to admit they've been lied to, and stolen from, for centuries? If you simply understand that Abraham lied to get more land, more gold and more silver, then all the lies, theft and murder since those times would be understood. The faithful are manipulated for the gains of a few, who lack empathy and conscience, thus willingly direct men to lie, steal and murder.

There's certainly a higher power, but Abraham was NOT singled out. He was already in the religious business and knew how to manipulate others. Many, including Jesus, saw through his madness and pointed it out, paying for it with his life. Paul understood Abraham and corrupted Jesus's teachings to redirect the land, gold and silver his way. Islam's no better or worse, just more lies for the same reason. That's why the Pope recently came forward and said THEY were the true Church. Yeah, right. But only if the gold flows towards Rome once again. Doesn't it make sense? Give me your gold and silver, and I'll speak to God on your behalf. I'm not an atheist. I simply use the direct line, which everyone already has.

by Edward Ulysses Cate (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 217 comments) on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 6:00:58 PM

"Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" Bono
Dana"Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" Bono

Separation Barrier?

This is a just a pleasant way to describe what it really is- A WALL. No peace has ever been achieved by building walls. The real work that has to be done is to tear down the walls between the people living in Israel and the West Bank. There has to be understanding and justice. Currently the situation has only worsened because there is no justice for the Palestinians who are oppressed and remain under occupation. The Wall does not make anyone safer- it just furthers the division, the separation, the suffering and does not move anyone towards peace. It also does NOT follow the boundary of Israel and the West Bank and effectively annexes more land into Israel's side of the wall. It causes great suffering for many people. If you want to really know about the wall, do some research. There are many great websites and sources for this information. The facts on the ground, are the facts-no one can deny this. Look at the maps and the history and you will see the truth. Then explain how this wall is just a "separation barrier" to keep people from being killed by suicide bombs-this is what we are told, perhaps it sounds like a good rationale to people, but it is not the truth. And while you are at it, find out about the illegal settlements and the over 500 checkpoints inside the West Bank too. Figure out how to explain that all as well.

by Dana (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments) on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 12:31:43 AM

"Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" Bono
Dana"Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" Bono

Separation Barrier?

by Dana (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments) on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 12:34:54 AM

I am a freelance writer located in New York City. I am also a Certified Lay Speaker in the Metropolitan District, New York Annual Conference, United Methodist Church. I am considered a Jewish Christian or Christian Jew, whichever you prefer, having been Bar-Mitzvahed in 1970 into the Tribe of Levi (making me a Levite). Plus, I'm the son of a Holocaust Survivor.
Kenneth BarrI am a freelance writer located in New York City. I am also a Certified Lay Speaker in the Metropolitan District, New York Annual Conference, United Methodist Church. I am considered a Jewish Christian or Christian Jew, whichever you prefer, having been Bar-Mitzvahed in 1970 into the Tribe of Levi (making me a Levite). Plus, I'm the son of a Holocaust Survivor.

Quoting Bush May be Hazardous To Everyone's Health

Eileen, my sister, quoting George the Weasel may be hazardous to everyone's health. Do you really think he meant what he said, or was he just spouting words without any sincerity whatsoever? I believe the latter is true, He has undone all of the good will on both sides built up by Bill Clinton. He has absolutely no credibility in the region. and neither does Tony Blair.

I asmit to being on one of my insomniac kicks as it is nearly two in the morning. However, whenever someone quotes that imbecile in the White House I can't let it go by.

Hope everything is going well. Got your V message. Oh well! God bless.

by Kenneth Barr (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 77 comments) on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 12:52:14 AM

I am not sleeping either

Everytime I come to Israel Palestine, it gets me in the gut; the oppression, the occupation and by virtue of my tax dollars and the over 100 BILLION USA tax dollars since 1948-not counting unpaid loans and bargain basement priced weapons of destruction; i and every USA citizen is culpable.

Our 'leaders' have failed we the people and yes of course i know George W didn't give a thought about Palestine when he read his speech writers words, BUT i do believe in doing all we can to hold our leaders accountable to their promises lets them know you cannot fool all the people any of the time!

And The Wall is an APARTHEID WALL and the International Court of Justice deemed it ILLEGAL and must come down, and we USA citizens provide 1.5 MILLION Tax dollars PER MILE!

I triesd to post two links to videos every American should see but the system will not accept them, they are accessible under BEST LINKS @

www.wearewideawake.org

If Americans Knew What Israel Is Doing!

www.youtube.com/

VIEW 5 CLIPS On MYSPACE

[MAKE SURE YOU TURN THE MUSIC OFF FIRST]

If you are American DO NOT SKIP NUMBER 4: US Financial Aid to Israel

occupation101

by Eileen Fleming (145 articles, 51 quicklinks, 266 diaries, 579 comments) on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 8:56:17 AM