Skip to content
  • Image
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Podcasts
  • Email
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Contact
The Arab Daily News

The Arab Daily News

Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem

  • About
    • About
    • Our Writers
    • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
    • Book Store
    • Contact
    • Submit Book Reviews, Press Releases
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Corrections Policy
    • Profile on Ray Hanania
    • Submit Press Release
  • Features
    • Food
    • Book Review
    • Humor
    • Movies
    • Travel
  • Arab Stores Targeted
  • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Community Network Page
    • Arab Heritage America resources
    • Directory
      • Groups & Organizations
      • Mosques, Churches
      • Restaurants
      • 2008 & 2014 Arab Media Directories
    • National Arab Heritage Month
    • Video: Chicago Arab History
    • Video: Photo Array of Chicago Arabs
    • Overview of Arabs in America
    • Hanania standup comedy
    • Arabs on the Titanic
    • Obituaries
  • Podcasts
    • Ray Hanania on Politics Podcast
    • Arab News Ray Hanania Radio
    • Arab Radio Podcast intro
    • Radio Baladi Detroit
  • Hanania on Tiktok
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Toggle search form
  • photo credit author Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho www.NGPhoto.biz and Wikipedia
    Emergency Court Motions to Stop Elbit Drone Parts Shipment via Frankfurt Airport  Activism
  • American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh murdered by Israeli soldiers May 11, 2022
    Documentary names soldier it says killed Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 American Arabs
  • Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ
    Jordan bans 12 news sites for ‘spreading media poison’ following corruption report Arab World
  • CAIR Logo. Council on American Islamic Relations
    CAIR Condemns MIT for banning Class President from Graduation Ceremony over Anti-Genocide speech Activism
  • ADC creates emergency fund to defend people who are being punished for expressing views on the American-sanction violence by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Photo courtesy of ADC
    ADC Condemns ADL, Rep. Torres’ Defamation of Dr. Lara Sheehi Activism
  • UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories warns of a second Nakba  Arab World
  • Arab American community liaison Hassan Nijem, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Basta at the Arab American Heritage Month event hosted by Pappas’s office.
    Pappas honors Arab American business and community leaders for Heritage Month Activism
  • 04-28-25 Pappas Arab Heritage Month
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recognizes Arab American Heritage Month by honoring business and community leaders American Arabs
  • Stuffed Grape Leaves. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    A recipe on how to make Stuffed Grape Leaves with lamb, ox tail and rice American Arabs
  • Andrew Boutros, interim US Attorney Northern District of Illinois. Photo courtesy of the US Attorney's Office
    Andrew S. Boutros Takes Oath of Office as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois American Arabs
  • Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians March 18 2025
    Palestinians demand investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza Strip Arab World
  • Illinois Muslim Action Day April 9 2025
    Illinois Muslim Action Day Policies at April 9 Statehouse News Conference American Arabs
  • Investigation demanded in March 23 massacre of 15 first responders by Israel's military in Rafah
    Investigation demanded into Israel slaughter of First Responder in Rafah on March 23, 2025 Arab World
  • More than a dozen candidates running for various local offices in the Chicagoland suburbs attended an Ifatr dinner Thursday, March 13, 2025 hosted by the Arab American Chamber of Commerce at the Jerusalem Banquet Hall in Bridgeview.
    Candidates promise fairness and engagement at Arab Chamber Iftar event March 13 Activism
  • Orland Fire Protection District, Fiscal Voices, receive endorsement of the Arab American Democracy Coaliton
    Independent candidates for Orland Fire receive Arab and Muslim American endorsement Activism

Spec Script, Spies and Vanunu Mordechai

Posted on September 29, 2017September 25, 2018 By Eileen Fleming No Comments on Spec Script, Spies and Vanunu Mordechai
SHARE ...
          
 
  

  • Tweet

A spec script is written by a writer with hope that the script will be optioned and purchased by a producer, production company, or studio.

“This American and Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Vanunu Mordechai” is this writer’s first spec script.

Norway announced on Friday that Vanunu has been offered asylum, two years after his wife applied. The current restrictions holding Vanunu in Israel will expire this November. 

By Eileen Fleming

In 2005, this American not of Arab descent responded to my first [of 8] trips to both sides of Israel’s Wall in Palestine by going online.

After nine books and thousands of opeds and articles I have begun to learn how to write screenplays thanks to “The SCREENWRITERS Bible” and a few online classes with the author David Trottier who directed me to obtain “Movie Magic Screenwriter 6” software.

The screenplay “This American and Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Vanunu Mordechai” is not available to the public but what follows are a few scenes from:

This American and Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Vanunu Mordechai an original screenplay by Eileen Kasmir Fleming

EXTERIOR BETHLEHEM HOTEL – EARLY AM, 21 JUNE 2005

THIS AMERICAN is talking with a sweet faced woman. Her head is covered with a scarf and she is wearing a long sleeve dress that reaches her ankles.

THIS AMERICAN: Yeah so even though I have not yet met him it sure feels like I know him from reading him –

SWEET FACED WOMAN: What did you say his name is?

THIS AMERICAN: Jerry Levin and back in the 1980’s he was CNN’s Mid East Bureau Chief based in Lebanon. He was kidnapped by Hezbollah and after nearly a year miraculously escapes on a Christmas Eve –-

They both notice a fast walking late 60-ish looking wiry man sprouting bilateral hearing aids and a red baseball cap imprinted with “CPT” atop a full head of lightly greying hair approaching them. His red t-shirt is imprinted with black letters that read: “CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKERS TEAM”.

THIS AMERICAN: That has got to be Jerry –

JERRY LEVIN: Levin. Yes I am Jerry Levin and you must be that American wanting to see Hebron –-

THIS AMERICAN: Yes I am and thanks again for this opportunity.

JERRY LEVIN: See how you feel after your experience.

They bid the WOMAN goodbye and walk hurriedly up the hill to a jumbo sized vintage WW II army jeep filling with people.

JERRY LEVIN: Hop on and make your way to the very back.

LEVIN pays the driver in shekels as she stumbles to the last row and last two seats.

Arabic chatter and the noisy engine make it impossible to converse as they drive over the dusty bumpy rocky roads to Hebron.

Their jeep stops in the midst of a crowd of other old vehicles with people pouring out and walking in different directions speaking in Arabic.

She and LEVIN head towards a small open market and onto a checkpoint where a cluster of Israeli soldiers are checking ID and they join the long queue.

JERRY LEVIN: Most of the soldiers don’t like the CPTs. Whenever they won’t let us through we just go another way, and eventually we get where we want to go.

Her passport is finally inspected and she walks away hearing:

SOLDIER: Have a nice day.

LEVIN leads her through a convoluted path to a narrow stone street.

Ancient stone buildings on both sides are connected overhead by a thick netting heavy with rocks, shovels, electronic equipment, furniture, and other debris.

THIS AMERICAN: What the fuck is this about?

LEVIN chuckles.

JERRY LEVIN: It gets cleaned out about every year or so. Come back in a few months, and this netting will be much closer to your head. The settlers just throw whatever they want onto the netting. They do what ever they want and get away with everything.

THIS AMERICAN: This stone street has been here for centuries. One side all Israeli, the other Palestinian. Is their only connection to the other this deeply sagging netting above my head? Will I be underneath it when it gives way?

LEVIN laughs. She is nauseous.

JERRY LEVIN: Sometimes the settlers curse and stone us. It keeps it interesting.

They walk through a Palestinian street bazaar where LEVIN encourages her to buy something while Arabic music plays.

She searches until she finds a group of women selling scarves and wallet-sized bags embroidered “WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING”.

She buys a dozen of the bags and stuffs them in her backpack.

They walk to the entrance of the Abraham mosque.

A guide, without speaking English appears and instructs her to remove her shoes and put on the brown prayer shawl he holds.

She ties it under her chin but her hair spills out as she follows him.

The guide leads her and LEVIN through the mosque while a young woman, a few adolescents and three small children follow close by whispering to each other.

THIS AMERICAN turns around smiling and they smile back.

THIS AMERICAN: Marahababa.

The group laughs politely and responds in unison “Marhaba” [hello].

The GUIDE speaks to them in Arabic and the woman responds at length ending with “Salaam” [peace]. The GUIDE turns away from them to explain.

GUIDE: The family has lived in the mosque since the husband died. She would not say what was cause of his death.

THIS AMERICAN fishes through her backpack, pulls out paper money and hands it to the woman who bows and chants “Salaam, salaam, salaam” as the guide leads on and the family quits following.

 

DESERTED HEBRON NEIGHBORHOOD:

LEVIN leads her in silence past empty Palestinian homes with graffiti. They reach one marked “GAS THE ARABS” and stop.

THIS AMERICAN: I don’t understand it. How can a people whose families may have been gassed want anyone else to be?

JERRY LEVIN: Here come a couple of settlers, ask them.

Up the road two young Orthodox Jews walk towards them.

THIS AMERICAN: Where do you think they are from?

JERRY LEVIN: Brooklyn.

THIS AMERICAN: I am New York…have got to get out of this place…

JERRY LEVIN: Let’s go. You look sick.

THIS AMERICAN: I am. Sick at heart.

 

BETHLEHEM:

LEVIN and THIS AMERICAN walk up the hill to the Checkpoint and TERMINAL that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

The thirty foot high wall is filled with colorful graffiti and artwork.

As they near the guard checking the ID for the walking traffic who will funnel through the terminal she erupts:

THIS AMERICAN: This feeling of oppression is visceral…this situation is untenable… and so is Vanunu’s. You’re pretty much the only source of information I have read about him….Except for a TV documentary I caught on the History Channel, just before Easter. It was titled “Sexpionage” all about Russian female spies and one from the Mossad. They flashed a photo of a heavily bearded unkempt Vanunu as Shimon Peres claimed Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East…. If it hadn’t been for your reports, I would not have known Vanunu was released from jail last April.

JERRY LEVIN: He’s been arrested three times since –

THIS AMERICAN: I remember reading your report last November about Vanunu having his morning coffee when thirty armed officers stormed into Saint Georges panicking the pilgrims.

JERRY LEVIN: Mordechai’s confiscated computer and letters have still not been returned. You know I haven’t spoken with Mordechai in a few months but I can give you his cell number. He appreciates being treated to dinner or a beer.

LEVIN scribbles the number on a pad he pulls from his back pocket. She takes it and sticks it down a jean pocket.

They say goodbye and she enters the Terminal…
###

Mordechai Vanunu and Eileen Fleming, June 2009 after attending church at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City


By chance
 this American met Vanunu later that very same day, which can be read HERE

The restrictions that keep Vanunu in Israel will expire again this November.

This American will next learn the proper formatting for the documentary:

“This American and the USS LIBERTY Survivors of The Six Day War”

Read More HERE

 

 

Eileen Fleming is TADN’s volunteer Health Reporter and Senior Non-Arab Correspondent 


Fleming produced the UNCENSORED “30 Minutes with Vanunu” Mordechai, Israel’s nuclear whistleblower


Contact her HERE 

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Eileen Fleming
Eileen Fleming
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for TADN at The Arab Daily News
Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for The Arab Daily News
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.
In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl.
Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/
Eileen Fleming
Latest posts by Eileen Fleming (see all)
  • Vanunu still has more nuclear secrets to spill, Israeli court declares - December 29, 2021
  • 9/11 and a 20th Reflection of That Day - September 5, 2021
  • Mordechai Vanunu: Final Annual Update and this Writers Next Steps - June 19, 2021

  • Tweet

SHARE ...
          
 
  
 
          
 
 Tweet 
Arab World, Bloggers, Commentary, Eileen Fleming, Israel, Middle East, Opinion, Palestine & Jordan

Post navigation

Previous Post: All you Need to Know about Algerian Political Harvest Season 
Next Post: The Black List and This American and Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Vanunu Mordechai

Related Posts

  • USS Liberty Ship's Patch
    Highly Praised US Navy Historian Ignores 50+ Years of USS Liberty History Bloggers
  • Staunch Sisi supporter calls for opening of stadia and dialogue with ultras Arab World
  • Hunger strike enters 25th day for Palestinian dissident Arab World
  • Palestinian refugees fleeing Israeli and Zionist violence during Israelis war against Palestinians in 1947-1948
    Response to COVID-19 in Wavel Palestinian Refugee Camp Arab World
  • CAIR advocating for justice, peace and tolerance at the Capitol
    Urge Congress to Reject New Israel Aid and Prevent U.S. Involvement in Potential Iran Conflict American Arabs
  • Illinois Muslim Action Day April 9 2025
    Illinois Muslim Action Day Policies at April 9 Statehouse News Conference American Arabs

More Related Articles

Top iTunes podcasts on Arabs, Middle East American Arabs
About 100 Residents of Orland Park filled the board meeting room Monday Oct. 17, 2016 to protest increasing Mayor Dan McLaughlin's salary 375 percent from $40,000 to $150,000 a year. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania. Analysis: Why Pekau won and McLaughlin lost Bloggers
Saudi business women in Jeddah. Photo courtesy of the Saudi Embassy Saudi Arabia Issues Sweeping Changes to Enhance Role of Women in Society Arab World
FX TV’s Tyrant Offensive On Many Levels American Arabs
Gaza Strip, Israeli bombings. Photo courtesy of the Doctors without Borders Israeli snipers shooting and killing hospital workers in Gaza Arab World
Khalil Gibran movie opens with not enough publicity American Arabs

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Ray Hanania's 4 times a week columns at https://RayHanania.com at Substack

Enter Your Email to Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

  • OPINION COLUMNS
  • Photo courtesy of Journalist Abdennour Toumi
    France: Political Compromise vs Political Instability
    August 28, 2024
  • Zakia Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia
    Arabs eat Middle East food like they are making love
    June 27, 2024
  • Zwar lamb kabob and kufta with white and yellow rice
    Zwar ranked the Best Middle East restaurant in Chicagoland suburbs
    June 8, 2024
  • Pictured: Rahm Emanuel, Afghan activist Salman Aftab who was co-chair of the Iftar dinner, and several non-Arab Muslim leaders. Also pictured is Ald. Joe Moore. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania for Arab News
    Comprehensive look at the failings of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
    January 18, 2024
  • NEWSWIRE
  • CAIR Logo. Council on American Islamic Relations
    CAIR Condemns MIT for banning Class President from Graduation Ceremony over Anti-Genocide speech
    June 1, 2025
  • Arab American community liaison Hassan Nijem, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Basta at the Arab American Heritage Month event hosted by Pappas’s office.
    Pappas honors Arab American business and community leaders for Heritage Month
    April 29, 2025
  • 04-28-25 Pappas Arab Heritage Month
    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recognizes Arab American Heritage Month by honoring business and community leaders
    April 27, 2025
  • Mike Ghouse
    Celebration of 500th Interfaith Marriage Ceremony
    February 14, 2025

Creative Commons License
All work on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

  • NEWS
  • photo credit author Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho www.NGPhoto.biz and Wikipedia
    Emergency Court Motions to Stop Elbit Drone Parts Shipment via Frankfurt Airport 
    June 7, 2025
  • American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh murdered by Israeli soldiers May 11, 2022
    Documentary names soldier it says killed Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022
    June 1, 2025
  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • Faisal Abbas Book Anecdotes
    Book Review: Arab author shares his anecdotes living in the United Kingdom
    October 22, 2024
  • Columnist Ray Hanania at the ADC Convention in Dearborn with the author Susan Abulhawa
    Book Review: Mornings in Jenin bySusan Abulhawa
    September 14, 2024
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • Television set and remote. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
    MBC GROUP unveils MBCNOW, its brand-new groundbreaking entertainment service aggregator
    February 24, 2025
  • ArabCon 2024 Gala Program features Dr. Cornel West, Macklemore, and more
    September 6, 2024
  • New-iTunes-1400-x-1400-The-Ray-Hanania-Show-Podcast-Icon-300-x-300.jpg
  • Podcast-iTunes-Logo-Chi-City-Hall-1985.jpg
  • powerpr300x300ad.jpg
  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png
  • terroristbookcover-300-x-300.jpg
Arab News Newspaper Logo
Read the Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in the MIddle East

Follow Ray Hanania at
Twitter
Facebook
TitkTok
BlueSky
RayHanania Columns

Click here to get information on The Ray Hanania Radio Show and its podcasts

Copyright © 2025 The Arab Daily News.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme