Israel, Uganda, The Hopi & The End Times

 (Palestinian teen dies in Jerusalem,  victory in Uganda as the anti-gay bill is shelved)

A Palestinian teenager who was shot Friday during street clashes in East Jerusalem died of his wounds early Saturday, raising tensions ahead of planned Palestinian protests marking the anniversary of the founding of Israel.

Milad Ayyash, 17, was shot in the stomach during stone-throwing confrontations in the neighborhood of Silwan (actually it was Ras al-amud, his funeral passed through Silwan, prompting riots-JC) between local youths and Israeli police and security guards posted at buildings housing Jewish settlers, according to witnesses. Police said they were investigating the source of the gunfire.

The youth’s funeral sparked further clashes on Saturday, and two Palestinians were reported wounded by rubber-coated bullets fired by police.
(Washington Post)
(Jerusalem Post) 
(Haaretz)
 
(Update May 15 from Joseph Dana's blog +972 with videos of the Nakba demonstrations.

A 17 year old Palestinian from Silwan has died this morning from wounds sustained during clashes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood yesterday afternoon. Milad Said Ayyash, a resident of the Ras el-Amud neighborhood in East Jerusalem was shot in the abdomen with live ammunition as Border Police officers and settlers clashed with local youth. He was evacuated to the Muqassed hospital with no pulse and in critical condition, where he underwent surgery in a failed attempt to save his life.

Israel is claiming that the minor was shot by Israeli security forces but eyewitness and activists on the ground are claiming that he was shot by private settler security guards around the large settlement, Beit Yonatan, in the heart of Silwan. According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, the bullet extracted from Ayyash’s abdomen has been found to belong to a handgun. This type of bullet is scarcely used by the Israeli police in crowd control situations. The bullet therefore indicates the likelihood that the youth was shot by one of the settlers’ security guards.)

Clearly there is some confusion as to who actually fired the bullet. 

TVNL Comment:  Stones against guns, as always.  Had this been an Israeli teen, the story would have made headlines on every US 'news' network.

Though a common enough occurrence in Israel (and how we have become inured to these stories) this death has affected me deeply, because I talked with so many of these Palestinian youths on the streets of Ras al-Amud and Silwan, Jerusalem, three weeks ago. Yet another tragic story in this never ending saga of oppression. I'm not forgetting the Jewish victims of suicide bombers, nor the rigid pathological hatred of some members of Hamas and Hezbollah, but the larger proportion of violence  lies by far on the Israeli side. It took the Palestinians twenty years of occupation before the first suicide bombing occurred. 

This ongoing oppression, aided unreservedly by the US (with oil definitely the primary motivation. among other benefits), is simply part of the end times for our industrial civilization. Chris Hedges of Truth Dig has been writing powerful, prescient, prophetic sermons to this effect for some time. See his latest in this vein, This Time We're Taking the Whole Planet With Us.  

With the sparsity of oil and other natural resources, powerful elites are gathering their forces together and engaging in ever more draconian methods to consolidate their power. I continue to agree with those analysts who see 911 and its aftermath as such a conspiracy with full US government complicity and possibly the unwitting aid of genuine Muslim jihadists, but the fog of controversy and obfuscation that still surrounds this issue makes it difficult to break through the wall of denial. 

This brings me by a circuitous route to the recent news from Uganda that the anti-gay legislation, complete with the death penalty for homosexual acts, which was once again before the Ugandan parliament, has been shelved for the time being, with its supporters saying, "It waits for the next parliament." (though this seems like an empty boast. In face of the enormous world wide protest, it would seem the time for this bill has past and that is cause for cautious rejoicing.)  Why the connection, however, with 'conspiracy theories' about 911? Because the sponsor of the bill,  David Bahati, is the secretary of the Ugandan branch of The Family, the secretive American Christian evangelical organization, which has close ties to the Bush family. As Indira Singh, the heroic 911 whistle-blower has maintained, the Family is one of the powerful, 'hidden' groups connected to the software firm of PTech, which is funded by elements within the Saudi Royal family, and whose software is installed on all computers in the White House, secret service, the FAA and Norad. It is Indira Singh's contention that this futuristic, 'artificial intelligence' software is the key to unraveling the conspiracy of 911. If this sounds like a crazy theory, my apologies, but it is crazy, since it is the work of devious men - though I also believe it's an accurate analysis. However, I'm not an investigative journalist, and this is an extraordinarily complex and convoluted subject, which requires very careful study. I hope to do a future posting on this heroic woman's efforts to reveal the truth. Indira Singh's interviews can be found on YouTube and here at From the Wilderness.

At the moment, these reflections (without documentation and support) simply reflect my view that all things are connected, from the death of a Palestinian teen in East Jerusalem, to a Christian fundamentalist attack on gays in Uganda, to an extremely sinister US Christian fundamentalist sect, The Family, with close ties to elements within the US government, to the conspiracy of 911 and it's tragic aftermath for all of the Middle East, and finally to the ongoing saga of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Follow the thread and connect the dots, because they are all connected, but because of the convoluted and highly secretive nature of these elements, it takes the heroism of researchers like Indira Singh to make sense of it all and to convince fair-minded, reflective persons that this is not some 'crazy conspiracy theory.'  I would urge all LGBT persons who are actively promoting the cause of justice for gay people to become informed about this larger contextual web within which our struggle is contained.

However, I don't quite share Chris Hedges deep sense of pessimism and despair (We've lost, they've won), but rather I find myself more attuned to the author of the blog, In the Wilderness, Michael Ruppert (where the articles on Indira Singh can be found). After recovering from a serious illness, Michael has now opened a new blog, entitled, Collapse Network, which contains a number of valuable spiritual resources for dealing with the present crisis of our civilization. It may seem alarmist, and I have to admit I'm not at the point where I can take their practical suggestions for the future seriously, but the writers are less alarmist than Christ Hedges, who commands enormous respect within 'liberal' opinion. While a 'collapse' of sorts may be imminent within the next generation, this is simply another of those difficult times of trial the human community must pass through. What is clear from CN's resources, however, is the imperative need for spiritual persons to make themselves ready for a time of purification, in order to be of service to their fellow human beings and to ensure that the traditions of civilization are protected and preserved. At this point in history, sadly, the formal institution of the Catholic Church must be accounted as a hindrance to the requirements of this coming time of purification.

But just to give some idea of their spiritual approach to the whole issue, here is a wonderful Hopi Indian video (2 parts) I found at Collapse Network, which begins with these prophetic words from Hopi elder, Floyd Red Crow Westerman.

"Time evolves and comes to a place where it renews again. There is first a purification time and then there is a renewal time. We are getting very close to this time now. We were told that we would see America come and go.  In a sense America is dying from within, because they forgot the instructions on how to live on earth."

What is it that I find so moving about that statement? It is the extraordinary spiritual  patience and  boundless trust it implies, enduring near genocidal extinction and centuries of oppression with the calm, clear sighted view that "this too will pass." The Hopi teach us a lesson about patience in the face of oppression and limitless trust in the power of the Creator. It was a lesson learned by the Jews during their many years of the diaspora, enduring centuries of Christian persecution, while never giving up hope in the 'coming of the Messiah.' It is a lesson lost by the present generation of Zionist, Israeli leaders. It is a lesson not yet learned within the extremist elements of Hamas and Hezbollah. It is a lesson being taught by the wisest of the Palestinian spiritual leaders. It is certainly a lesson for gay persons everywhere. And it is a lesson Christian Catholics must take to heart in the face of the intransigence of the present institutional leadership (though I'm not counseling total passivity). "This too will pass."

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