Seven years ago, a 23 year old American woman, Rachel Corrie, stood bravely on the Gaza Strip in front of an armored Israeli bulldozer, peacefully protesting with a bullhorn the razing of Palistinian settlements in the area. She was no stranger to this kind of activism; she’d done it numerous times, and the Israeli ‘dozer drivers, all military personnel, while partially burying her with dirt, would always back off.
March 10, 2003, however, turned out to be different. Rachel Corrie was run over, crushed, and killed. A month’s “investigation” by the Israeli military, not surprisingly, found no soldier at fault. Now, Rachel Corrie’s parents are attempting to sue the Jewish State at a courtroom in Haifa, Israel. Here’s what an article from CNN’s Paula Hancocks had to say about Ms. Corrie and her parents’ thoughts:
“Corrie’s parents are proud of what their daughter did, recalling how important it was to her to help Palestinian families in Gaza.
“In an interview shortly before her death, Rachel Corrie, who grew up in Olympia, Washington, said, ‘There are just countless ways in which these children are suffering. I want to support them.’
“Her mother, Cindy Corrie, told CNN, ‘She deserves the attention that she’s receiving in this case. Every human being who is assaulted and whose life is taken in this way deserves some accountability, some explanation for why this happened, particularly when it’s done by a military and particularly when it’s a military supported by me and my tax dollars.’”
I was a bit surprised by this rare flash of mainstream media candor from CNN – even if they were only aquiescing to print a quote from an interviewee: To wit that American taxes pay for a good portion of Israel’s military. Is it any wonder the Arab World is committed to violent “jihad” in the name of this gross bias of America towards Israel, not to mention being militarily occupied and assaulted themselves by U.S. troops – again paid for by Americans through taxes extracted under threat of violent force?
Where Cindy Corrie is naive is only where most Americans – along with most of the world – are equal babes in the woods: Government is by its very nature disprone to “accountability.” As an institution, the very foundation of which is the use of violence to accomplish goals, it ought to be readily apparent that no particular moral standard can be ascribed to or expected of it. Sadly, Rachel Corrie’s death was not an aberration or anomaly. It was and is the norm when dealing with governments. Human life means little or nothing when it comes to the perpetuation of the elitists’ power cycle. Control, domination, and mastery become all-important. Ethics and scruples are mere laughable impediments and distractions. As Benito Mussolini was fond of shouting: “Everything in the State! Nothing outside the State! Nothing against the State!”
I, like any anarchist, prefer to turn that psychotic sentiment inside out and advocate the converse. I would’ve liked to see Rachel Corrie live. Both proverbially and literally, that means abolishing all political governments outright, in favor of voluntary non-violent free markets. If that makes me crazy in anyone’s view, so be it – though that view is a tragedy. As was the death of Rachel Corrie. As is the existence of government.
