Cosmic Irony and Vanunu Mordechai

“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 baptized into Christianity...” - Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu image courtesy: mindfully.org

(CLERMONT, Fla.) - Cosmic Irony is the idea that fate, destiny, or a god controls and toys with human hopes and expectations.

It also encompass’s the belief that the universe is so large and man so small that the universe is indifferent to the plight of man.

Mordechai Vanunu was born on 13 October 1954 in Marrakech. In 2005, from east Jerusalem he told me:

“In 1963 the Zionists came to my village and encouraged everyone to migrate to Israel....

“In 1963 the Zionists came to my village and encouraged everyone to migrate to Israel. There was no family discussion; my father just told us we were leaving, and six months later, we boarded the train to Casablanca and got on a World War II military ship. The ship kept going up and down, and everyone was crammed into an open space; people everywhere kept throwing up. After four days, we arrived in Marseilles. This was a great place, but we had to leave for Israel. The next boat was bigger and modern, and the journey was smoother. When we arrived in Israel, the Interior Minister assigned us to Beersheba, but all the rest of our family had been assigned to Nazareth, and we wanted to go there, too. We had no choice, and home was a small hut in the desert. There was nothing in it and we had nothing much with us. After a few days, my mother left for Nazareth; it was chaos, and we had nothing to do to occupy us.

“Outside, there was only desert, but I walked a few hours everyday so I could be in the Old City. I started exploring around a Mexican-looking town, never talking with anyone, but always watching everyone. Three weeks later, my mother returned, and then my uncle, Joseph, arrived and took us up north to see some more newly arrived family. We stayed for two months, and then moved into a new apartment in Beersheba. I went to the fifth grade and met a few friends, but they were strange people. They were Romanians and a lot of Middle Easterners, who used bad language and seemed cheap to me. Even the school supplies were inferior to those I had had in Morocco. Even the ice cream was not ice cream; it was just ice, and there was no Pepsi.

“I didn’t like it at all, and wondered why I had to be there. There were only Jewish people around; I never saw an Arab or Palestinian then, and the old mosque was uninhabited. My mother had babies every two years. I preferred to be alone, but I was never lonely. Even when I walked with my father on Saturday to pray, I didn’t talk, but I wondered about God and truth. My father became even more orthodox as I turned away. I couldn’t accept all the teachings and decided I would not accept any of them.

“At fourteen years old, I began to doubt, and by sixteen, I left Judaism for good. I didn’t know if God even existed, and I didn’t even care. I decided I would decide for myself what is good and what is bad; I didn’t need anyone telling me the rules. For me, it was about doing to others what I wanted them to do to me; I didn’t need any other rule. I was sent to Yeshiva, the Jewish boarding school in the Old City. I experienced a great disconnect from God. I didn’t talk to anyone about any of it. I kept everything within and continued to wonder about finding my way, my direction, and the purpose of my life. I have always searched for answers.”

Vanunu stumbled into Christianity only a few days before being kidnapped by the Mossad:

“I really had no idea what I was doing by getting baptized a Christian, I just felt like I had to do it. It was my way to be a new being. It wasn’t until after my trial that I started to read the New Testament. While I was in prison I would read aloud for ½ hour twice a day. I would read the entire New Testament and begin it again when I finished the Book of Revelation. I did this for me as well as for my captors. Not so much the prison guards but the ones who watched me on camera 24 hours a day.

“The Shen Beet, you know like the FBI and the Mossad, like your CIA were watching me constantly. They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises near my cell all night long. I chose to read them 1 Corinthians instead.”

1 Corinthians says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with THE TRUTH! It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Within minutes of emerging from 18 years in a tomb sized windowless cell on 21 April 2004, 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 baptized 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.”

In 2005, Vanunu said, “My Christian conversion was also considered as treason and led to me receiving more time in jail than any murderer has ever served. The Israelis have this very beautiful article about freedom and liberty but they want to destroy anyone who criticizes them for revealing the truth to the world. The world must look and see what kind of democracy Israel is when one speaks out the truth.”

On 11 November 2009, Vanunu emailed me the following message:

1 FREEDOM 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not FREEDOM, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.

And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not FREEDOM, I am nothing.

And if I dole out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I may boast but have not FREEDOM, nothing I am profited.

FREEDOM is long suffering, FREEDOM is kind, it is not jealous, FREEDOM does not boast, it is not inflated.

It is not discourteous, it is not selfish, it is not irritable, it does not enumerate the evil.

It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth. It covers all things, it has faith for all things, it hopes in all things, it endures in all things.

FREEDOM never falls in ruins; but whether prophecies, they will be abolished; or tongues, they will cease; or knowledge, it will be superseded.

For we know in part and we prophecy in part. But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant, I reckoned as an infant; when I became an adult, I abolished the things of the infant.

For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I was fully known.

But now remains faith, hope, FREEDOM, these three, but the greatest of these is FREEDOM. FREEDOM FREEDOM FREEDOM. VMJC.

On 22 November 2009, Vanunu updated his email signature: “AFTER 23 YEARS, NOW I AM SENDING GOD AND RELIGION, FREE FROM MY CASE 22/11/2009. FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.-VMJC.”

On 22 November 2009, Vanunu published on his YouTube Channel Comments:

	vanunuvmjc (1 year ago) " And if I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and speak in the tongues of men and angels, BUT HAVE NO FREEDOM, I am NOTHING. And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,  but have not FREEDOM, I am NOTHING."
	vanunuvmjc (1 year ago) 1 FREEDOM 13:1-13 If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not FREEDOM, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not FREEDOM, I am nothing.

And Vanunu’s legend continues to grow:

On 2 October 2010, the International League for Human Rights announced that Vanunu will be awarded the Carl-von-O­ssietzky-M­edal in Berlin on 12.12.10. The International League for Human Rights also wanted “to draw international attention to the fact that [Vanunu] is still being held prisoner in Israel, deprived of elementary civil and human rights, although he has already served his prison sentence in full, and regardless of the fact that his information is now a quarter of a century old.”

On 11 Oct. 2010, Israel denied Vanunu's appeal to leave the state.

A member of the International League for Human Rights, is Nina Hagen, a punk-rock star of the 1980s, whose “Manager is [now] Jesus” and she is on tour throughout Germany, Italy and Switzerland determined to sing Vanunu to freedom so that he will be in Berlin by 10 December for the ceremonial act and bestowal of the Carlvon‐Ossietzky‐Medal on 12.12.10.

Eileen Fleming is the Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org, a Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com, Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and  BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker:

2005-2010  youtube.com/user/eileenfleming. Eileen is a unique leader in her state and she intends to run for a Florida Congressional seat in the future, to help speed the process of change that is so demanded today. Like many who walk in similar steps, Eileen, like other writers at Salem-News.com, is an outspoken advocate for humanity and she has no tolerance for the oppressive forces of the world.

You can send Eileen Fleming an email at this address: ecumei@gmail.com