RUTHFULLY YOURS

After fighting for his life for three days, Sgt. Yehonatan Ben-Yishai died on Thursday in Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. The 20-year-old soldier in the Golani Brigade sustained critical injuries when he was run over by a Merkava tank during a military exercise. An investigation of the incident was immediately launched by the Israel Defense Forces, but it will take a while before all the facts are in. Still, initial reports indicate that the tragic accident occurred while Ben-Yishai and two other soldiers in his unit were lying on the ground – where, it seems, they had fallen asleep. The driver of the tank, who was backing up the vehicle, was unable to see his comrades-in-arms, and inadvertently drove over Ben-Yishai’s torso. Miraculously, the other two boys emerged unscathed.

It goes without saying that everyone in this country feels for Ben-Yishai’s grieving parents. Less talked about, but equally obvious, is the sense that the driver of the tank must be in the kind of pain that few of us can imagine.

Unwittingly crushing another human being is certain to have life-long emotional repercussions – no matter what the investigation reveals, and regardless of who or what is determined to be at fault.

Which brings us to another IDF accident that was in the news this week – the one that led to the 2003 death of Rachel Corrie. Corrie, a 23-year-old American member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was among a group of foreign activists who had come to Israel – and crossed the Rafah crossing into Gaza – for the purpose of preventing the IDF from carrying out demolitions of buildings used as terrorist bases and other security-related activities. After days of screaming at and taunting Israeli soldiers via megaphones, and of attempting to block them physically in spite of repeated warnings to evacuate the dangerous military area, Corrie met her tragic end under the blades of a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.

On the day in question, the solder driving the bulldozer wasn’t even in the process of demolition. He was actually clearing away vegetation and rubble, when the young woman stood in his path. But, due to the height and thick bullet-proof windows of the clunky vehicle, he was unable to see her. As soon as she was run over, she was rushed to a nearby Palestinian hospital, where she died from her injuries.

Since that day, nearly a decade ago, Corrie has become a celebrity martyr and her death has been deemed a murder by self-proclaimed, misnamed “human rights” groups the world over. When a Haifa court exonerated the IDF and bulldozer operator this week, the Corries and their Palestinian and European cheerleaders were not the only ones to go into the anti-Israel frenzy that Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin predicted.

A number of prominent American officials have made it plain that they don’t consider Corrie’s death to have been an accident. That Richard Falk is one of these comes as no surprise. Indeed, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories has been siding with anti-American and anti-Israeli groups and individuals for decades, among them Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. When Falk was an international law professor at Princeton in the 1970s, he made a pilgrimage to visit the aging mullah in Paris prior to his return to Iran from exile. He then penned a puff piece in The New York Times (“Trusting Khomeini”) – which he did not refute, even after the U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran were taken hostage by Khomeini loyalists. He has been wreaking similar havoc ever since. Of the Corrie verdict he said, “It is a victory for impunity.”

Then came the response of State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. “We’ve worked with the family all through this process, and we will continue to provide consular support,” she said. “We understand the family’s disappointment with the outcome of the trial. Under Israeli law, the family has the right to appeal the verdict, and we’ve seen reports that they are considering doing that. So we will see how this proceeds going forward.”

This was nothing compared to the utterance of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, however, who told the Corries that even the investigation into their daughter’s death had been unsatisfactory.

And well he might be perturbed by it.

During his questioning by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2011 to seal the deal on his appointment as ambassador, he had vowed to see to it that Israel conduct a proper investigation into Corrie’s death. This was after he was asked by Senator John Kerry what steps his embassy would take to make this happen.

“For seven years, we have pressed the government of Israel at the highest levels to conduct a thorough, transparent and credible investigation of the circumstances of her death,” Shapiro replied. “The government of Israel has responded that it considers this case closed and does not plan on reinvestigating the incident.”

But he did mention that, as a result of the above, the Corrie family had decided to file a civil suit against the Israeli government. “We hope this … will finally provide them with the answers they seek,” he said.

So when the ruling was released this week, the American administration felt that what emerged were the wrong answers.

Never did it occur to anyone involved in this case to consider the trauma caused to the IDF – particularly the soldier manning the bulldozer that ran over Rachel Corrie. But doing so would have run counter to the motive behind the whole affair, starting with the young woman’s purposely ignoring repeated warnings to get out of the way so that she wouldn’t get hurt.

Too bad that Sgt. Yehonatan Ben-Yishai didn’t have the same opportunity.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring,’” now available on Amazon and in bookstores in Europe and North America.

Download Israel Hayom apps for iPhone and Android.