RUTHFULLY YOURS

According to the press report ^[3], “An IDF investigation determined that the soldiers were  not to blame and said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen her and did not intentionally run her over.”  The Israeli army accused Corrie and the International Solidarity Movement of “illegal, irresponsible and dangerous behavior” as part of her attempt to prevent ^[4] it from destroying houses hiding a smuggling tunnel, through which Palestinian terrorists were bringing in explosives to murder Jewish civilians.

Since her death, Rachel Corrie’s parents have traveled the globe as a two-person anti-Israel propaganda SWAT team in their quest for vengeance.  They have tried to ignite a boycott the Caterpiller ^[5] company for the crime of selling bulldozers to Israel, some of which are used to fight terrorists.  They have filed suits in Israeli courts, which, until recently, were laughed out of court.  But there are now reports that the Obama administration has been putting pressure on Israel to let their suit go forward and even to allow other ISM collaborators with terrorism ^[6] to enter the country as “witnesses.”  The Corries and their coterie are now scheduled to renew their efforts in Haifa in a court down the street from me on March 10.   I am hoping some students show up with photos of the other women named Rachel ^[7] murdered by the terrorists that the Corries support.

Ironically, the Corrie parents were themselves briefly kidnapped by the Hamas terrorists a few years back when they were in Gaza to show the local jihadis their support.  Here is part of ^[8] the news report:

“Palestinian gunmen burst into a Rafah house early Wednesday and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town, according to a witness.  The five gunmen appeared to be affiliated with the Fatah movement, according to Samir Nasrallah, the Corries’ host. The gunmen eventually relented after being told who their targets were, he said.”

This might have been an opportunity for the Corrie parents to learn first hand just what Palestinian terrorism is all about and just why Israel needs to fight terrorism with a variety of means at its disposal, including bulldozers.   But instead they saw a quite different moral, summarized in the press release they issued blaming Israel: “The continued Israeli occupation undermines the ability of Palestinians to have a free society.”  This statement was reprinted in several media outlets, including the Guardian ^[9] and the viciously anti-semitic Counterpunch magazine ^[10].

Now the Corries are coming to Haifa to renew their suit against Israel and to try to revise the history of their daughter’s death. Haifa, you recall, was the target of hundreds of rockets fired at it in the summer of 2006 by the Hezb’Allah terrorists, another group of “peace activists.”  In the name of all of us, the embattled citizens of Haifa, I have drafted a letter to hand Rachel Corrie’s parents when they arrive:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Corrie:

You are coming to our town to sue Israel, claiming that your daughter was “killed by an Israeli bulldozer.” We are, of course, sorry for your pain, but you say Rachel “had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization, the International Solidarity Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells.”  In the interests of the truth you say you are seeking, you should have mentioned the real circumstances under which Rachel was killed ^[11] (and the fact that she died from her injuries while under Palestinian medical care).

Rachel was trying to prevent the demolition of tunnels used to smuggle weapons for Palestinian terrorists seeking to murder Jewish civilians. The group that sponsored her openly collaborates with terrorists ^[12].  It has hidden wanted terrorists and their weapons ^[13] in its offices.   Two Arabs who entered Israel under its auspices ^[14] blew up a Tel Aviv pub and murdered Jews.

Let’s be frank: your daughter was in Gaza to serve as a human shield to defend and promote Palestinian terrorism ^[15].  When you were nearly kidnapped, you were there for the same reason, which is the only reason you were released, rather than being killed or held for ransom.

You pretend that your daughter died trying to protect an “innocent house,” but in truth it was camouflage for a terrorist smuggling tunnel and the residents of that “innocent house” knew exactly what the tunnel was being used for.

Your daughter was in a war zone as a belligerent, as one who had – perhaps wittingly and perhaps not – allowed herself to be recruited by a genocidal movement seeking to destroy Israel and murder as many Jews as possible.   Your daughter died while interfering with an anti-terror operation carried out by an army in a land where she shouldn’t have been.  You demand that we feel your pain at the loss of your daughter.  We do, but we also know that she willingly became a conscript for those seeking to murder our children.  Why can’t YOU feel OUR pain?

Your daughter foolishly put herself in harm’s way ^[16] by challenging a large bulldozer and placing herself in a position where the operator could not see her.  You know quite well that the bulldozer operator was not seeking to harm your daughter.  And you know quite well that no harm would have fallen her had she not decided to “play chicken” with the machine.

You smugly praise the propaganda play about your daughter in London, which ignored all the other Rachels ^[17], the Jewish women victims ^[7] of terror in Israel, who were murdered by the genocidal terrorists with whom your daughter’s ISM friends collaborate ^[18].

Your daughter, and apparently you as well, never had any understanding of the Middle East conflict.  The Middle East conflict is NOT about the right to self-determination of Palestinian Arabs, but rather is about the right to self-determination of Israeli Jews.  For a century the Arabs have attempted to block any expression of Jewish self-determination, using violence, armed aggression, and terrorism.   The Arabs today control 22 countries and territory nearly twice the size of the United States.  They refuse to share even a fraction of one percent of the Middle East with Jews, a territory smaller than New Jersey.

Your write, “Clearly, our daughter has become a positive symbol for people.”   I am afraid you are mistaken.  Your daughter has become a symbol for dangerous foolhardiness.  She committed suicide as an empty gesture meant to assist murderers and terrorists.

You demand on the pages of anti-Semitic propaganda web magazines that the world mourn your daughter, but you do not have a single word of sympathy for the families of the thousands of innocent victims of the terrorists with whom your daughter chose to ally herself.

On behalf of the citizens of Haifa, all of whom your daughter’s Hamas friends are trying to murder, I ask you to stand back and consider the nature of the cause and the organizations to which you have turned, in your campaign to hold Israel responsible for your daughter’s death.

Signed, Steven Plaut