Bulldozer Bait: Rachel Corrie (1980-2003)
The shameful slaughter of innocents, on tape, is part of a larger tragedy.
by Shelton Hull
Rachel Corrie’s life ended at age 23 in the town of Rafah, with a crushed skull, both arms and both legs broken. She was not the first to die as she did, nor the last, but she was the first American citizen. She was pulverized while protesting at a Palestinian home, slated for demolition because it was illegally built on illegally-occupied land. She was blond and skinny; she weighed maybe 130 pounds, unarmed– not even a rock or slingshot or F-130 gunship. An Israeli bulldozer ran over her twice. He could not see her because her jacket was not red enough; perhaps the sound of her screaming into a megaphone (and maybe the pleadings of her colleagues at the International Solidarity Movement) was drowned out by the noise of the bulldozer’s engine, and surely the various photographers who documented Corrie’s death were, shall we say, invisible. (Pictures are online at: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml – footage aired on Al-Jazeera, but it only made the crawlers in America.) That she is now a martyr should be obvious; less so is the cause with which her name will forever be linked: saving Israel, and by extension, the world.
Much has been made lately of certain members of the US Administration whose allegiance to Israel is taken by some as a problem as we head into a war against nations and organizations whose hatred for Israel and its number one supporter, the United States of America (maybe you’ve heard of it), is a matter of record. Names like Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Wurmser, Libby and Abrams are dropped as punchlines when our foreign policy gets weird, as if the presence of Jews working beneath Cheney and Rumsfeld is the major factor behind all this, as opposed to simple hubris in the Executive Branch. Even though I disagree with their ideology, at least their views are consistent, in a way that has been absent from the Federal government since Nixon.
It is axiomatic that any public critique of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, and especially of the role played by American Jews in relation to the Homeland, will get one branded as anti-Semitic and end one’s career in politics or media faster than anything except perhaps the word “nigger.” If history is any indication, it’s likely that Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) will lose in his quest for an eighth term in the House after suggesting that American Jews have a decisive impact on the drive for War in Iraq. Of course, it’s true, in a way that is not true of blacks, Asians and Hispanics in a country that is still firmly controlled by Anglo-Protestant interests. As a result, the Israeli military has operated in a near-total vacuum of mainstream debate, creating a situation where that country is run by its most extreme elements.
I’ll concede that America’s relationship with Israel may have some impact on policy (perhaps for the better), but I call it a day when the talk comes around to Israeli involvement in 9/11 or the failed attack on Mexico’s parliament and other cooky conspiracy theories. It is enough to simply say that the entire world is in a state of crisis, and that the Jewish people are now being prepped to resume their historical role as all-purpose scapegoat for the intellectual failings of Europe and its offshoots. The problem has less to do with the scope of worldwide Jewish influence, and more to do with 1) the sorry-ass borders drawn up by the British as it retreated from Empire and 2) the latent suicidal impulses inherent to fundamentalists of the “Christian” and free-market faiths.
It’s worth mentioning here that “Christian” fundamentalists, who have been strong “supporters” of Israel in the 30 months of this second Palestinian Intifada, base their long-term outlook on the guaranteed destruction of Israel. The Book of Revelation clearly implies that a coalition of nations (likely to include Iran and Russia, geographically speaking) will launch a massive assault on Israel in the final days, a war that will not stop until the return of Christ. It will draw in the United States, leading to a nuclear exchange that kills one-third to one-half of the world’s population within hours; this may be what some have euphemistically called “the Rapture.” If, by chance, there is no God, then Israel will be destroyed. In fact, everyone will be destroyed.
The irony of the Bush doctrine of preemption– a doctrine he did not run on in 2000, and which existed elsewhere long before his ascent- is that it will provide the legal precedent for other such adventures. If anyone ever decides to move on Israel, Iraq will be the justification. When the IDF and its offshoots dispense with all caution and restraint in dealing with its perceived enemies, from Palestinians to American activists to UN relief workers like Iain Hook, they merely expedite the madness they seek to prevent.
The escalation of violence by the Sharonists of Likud and their enablers in America (of whom more are “Christian” than Jewish) have effectively turned off an entire generation of young Arabs to even the idea of peace with the Jewish state, and have thus greatly increased the danger to everyone. The Jewish people have been exploited, abused, and manipulated by state after state for longer than we have had a written word, and the only difference now is that they can fight back. Having stood up to the bullies who imposed the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Witch-Hunts, the forced conversions and so forth, the bullies should stand down and let the Israelis live in peace. The Arabs and Jews of that region must, for their own sake, make peace and defuse their real primary threat– the state of animus imposed on them by, first, Europe and now America. Europe and America must encourage not just a truce, but an atmosphere of brotherly love, respect, and mutually beneficial development. This tit-for-tat shit in the Middle East is so 12th century– modernize!
One has perhaps one good chance per generation to squash historical beefs, one or two to effect major shifts in policy. The ideals of our youth, for better or worse, mark us for the future, and the time always comes when one has to look back and ask: “What did we do?” The events of September 11, 2001 (as with September 29, 2000) changed the world forever, but the historical nature of that change has not been decided yet. I should hope that the cause for which Rachel Corrie died on March 13, 2003 will involve no longer allowing our minds and our hearts to be ruled by our darkest instincts. Anything less would be an insult to her and to ourselves. Rest in peace.