American radicals court tragedy, get it, and then proceed to
blame the tragedy on others. U.S. student activist Rachel Corrie
went looking for trouble in the Gaza Strip and found it. Don’t
blame her death on Israeli “radicals”; blame it on American
ones.
Like John Walker Lindh, Corrie was a product of a left-coast
radicalism which treats reality as a fantasy and game subject to
juvenile manipulation. Corrie imbibed this radicalism at Evergreen
State College, which is known as a “hippie school” built inside a
rain forest in Washington state.
The professors denouncing Israel for Corrie’s death should look
themselves in the mirror: You are the fools who encouraged her
self-destructive protest.
Members of the International Solidarity Movement, to which
Corrie belonged, don’t run away from Israeli bulldozers in the Gaza
Strip. They run at them. This is why Corrie got crushed.
According to Israeli officials, the bulldozer driver tried to
avoid the protesters earlier in the day. But they followed him.
Operating with limited vision, the driver didn’t see Corrie below
him.
Corrie’s school lionizes her for “trying to stop a bulldozer
from tearing down a building in a refugee camp in Gaza.” (Israel
says it is tearing down the buildings to clear away Palestinian
explosives.) Her parents, meanwhile, are “appalled by the reports
of the Israeli government accusing her of ‘acting irresponsibly,
putting everyone in danger’ as she attempted to stop the demolition
of Palestinian homes by the Israeli military.”
Sorry, but she did act irresponsibly, as did her elders who sent
her off to a combat zone to play at faux radicalism.
An honest radical accepts the inevitable price of his
radicalism; the fake radicalism which yuppie parents and profs
underwrite ignores that price and then demands that others carry
it.
Was the choice Corrie made well-informed? No, because older
heads who could have informed it — by simply saying, “If you go
play chicken with bulldozers in a war zone, you will probably die”
— didn’t. They considered it wonderfully idealistic that she had
joined a group which serves as a “human shield” for
Palestinians.
Evergreen State College, which grew out of the bomb-throwing
activism of the 1960s, breeds the narcissism that leads to
self-inflicted tragedies. The school doesn’t give grades or offer
majors and academic departments, instead encouraging “personal
engagement” with the “real world,” after which students “work with
a faculty advisor to create a SUMMATIVE SELF-EVALUATION, reflecting
on their entire undergraduate experience, and their achievement of
their own learning goals.” It aims to produce graduates who will
“struggle for a more just world” and “will assume responsibility
for your actions.”
But no sooner had Corrie died before her supporters at the
school began shifting responsibility for her actions to the Israeli
government. A case of straightforward stupidity now rises to the
level of an international incident.
Like bums who run out in front of cars then sue the drivers, the
protesters who encouraged the self-destructive protest are using
its tragic consequences to foment more audacious protests.
Samia El-Moslimany, vice chairperson of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations Seattle Chapter, says the Bush
administration must condemn Israel for the death of Corrie, and
Congress must reject a recent $12 billion Israeli aid request.
“We are here today to not allow Rachel’s death to be in vain,”
she told the Washington state press. “Rachel’s message of
nonviolent peace activism must be remembered.”
Amnesty International says that “U.S.-made bulldozers have been
‘weaponized’ and their transfer to Israel must be suspended.”
The U.S. State Department, which likes to make a show of
criticizing Israeli soldiers even when they are behaving
reasonably, obliged the protesters with a non sequitur: “We urge
the Israelis to consider the consequences of their actions and to
respect the dignity of Palestinian civilians, the vast majority of
whom are not involved in terrorist violence.”
When foreign radicals come to our country, disrupt lawful
activities, and suffer the consequences of their radicalism,
Americans shrug and say, “What did they expect?” Why should we
absolve American radicals for causing similar mischief in other
countries?
The American left is too churlish to concede this point.
America’s radical minds speak of “responsibility” but never take
it. They encourage “choices” but disown bad ones made and disclaim
any role in the consequences that follow from them.
Corrie was one of their conscripts. They sent her into battle
and she died. But Israel will be blamed for the radicalism the
American left incited and the fate of the troublemaker they
trained.
