{"id":431077,"date":"2010-03-15T15:55:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T19:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011351892_israelcorriesposthumoustrialholysitesandendingusaid.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-15T15:55:40","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T19:55:40","slug":"israel-corries-posthumous-trial-holy-sites-and-ending-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/431077","title":{"rendered":"Israel: Corrie’s posthumous trial, holy sites and ending aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blame ISM for Rachel Corrie\u2019s death<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

Rachel Corrie\u2019s death was a sad and senseless death of a young woman [\u201cRachel Corrie\u2019s day in court,\u201d Opinion, March 12]. She was close to the age of my daughter. To hear of her death, as a mother, was extremely heartbreaking. But why was she in Gaza?<\/p>\n

Why did she allow herself to be used by the International Solidarity Movement? The ISM knowingly endangers the lives of \u201cinternationals\u201d by placing them in harm\u2019s way in an active military zone.<\/p>\n

During the Intifada, my daughter went to Israel to work as a volunteer medic with Magen David Adom to help Jews, Arabs, Christians and anyone else who was harmed or sick. At the same time Rachel Corrie was duped into standing in front of a bulldozer and was no help to anyone.<\/p>\n

The ISM also encourages violent responses to the Israeli army and the army has an obligation to protect its citizens as any army of a legitimate government has an obligation to do so. The Israeli Defense Forces were engaged in legitimate counterterror operations in order to protect it\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n

The ISM brainwashes young, impressionable people to its way of thinking and uses them to deliberately interfere with the Israeli army. The ISM uses \u201cinternationals\u201d to achieve this goal and make Israel look like the aggressor. The army did what it needed to do in order to thwart more killings of Israeli citizens \u2014 and tourists.<\/p>\n

It is the ISM that the Corries should be suing for using their daughter, taking her to a military zone and leaving her there to interfere with the army of a legitimate country that was protecting its citizens from further bombings in Israel\u2019s cities.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Iris Langman, Mercer Island<\/em><\/p>\n

Glaring inaccuracies in story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amy Goodman\u2019s article about Rachel Corrie in The Times concerning the tragic event surrounding her death contains some inaccuracies and distortions of facts. Goodman inaccurately states that the Israeli army was building a \u201clarge steel wall\u201d to separate Rafah and Egypt. It was Egypt, not Israel, that built the wall.<\/p>\n

While I share the sadness about Corrie\u2019s passing on March 16, 2003, I am concerned why so much has been made about it when compared with the numerous untimely deaths of American and Israeli innocent victims of Palestinian suicide bombings. Is there a double standard here?<\/p>\n

Goodman ignores the role played by the Palestinian-based ISM, which must share some of the blame for Corrie\u2019s untimely death when it encouraged her and other members to put themselves in harm\u2019s way in a war zone.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army was engaged in legitimate counterterror operations to protect Israeli civilians from indiscriminate Palestinian terrorists attacks. I do believe her death was accidental.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Josh Basson, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Preserve Jewish connection to holy sites<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, violence instigated by Iran-backed Hamas struck Israel yet again. Those bent on harming Israel caused dozens of injuries to people at Jerusalem\u2019s holy sites, including at the Western Wall \u2014 Judaism\u2019s holiest place.<\/p>\n

The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, urged Palestinians to unleash a new intifada. \u201cJerusalem is ours, the land is ours, and God is with us,\u201d Haniyeh said. His threat of mass violence came in response to an Israeli plan to include two holy sites in the West Bank as part of a comprehensive package to preserve Israel\u2019s national heritage and religious sites.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem\u2019s holy sites must remain safe and open to all religions \u2014 and have been only since Israel took control of Jerusalem in the defensive war of 1967. Before then, when both Christian and Jewish holy sites were under Jordanian control, Jews were forbidden to pray or visit these sites. In recent years, Palestinian terrorists and rioters have desecrated and destroyed Jewish and Christian holy places in areas under their control.<\/p>\n

Christians, Muslims and Jews alike have ties to sacred areas around Jerusalem and consider Jerusalem to be their home. Nevertheless, Jews who live in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem recently have come under fire in news reports around the world. There is no reason Jews should be prohibited to live in Arab areas, just as Arabs aren\u2019t criticized for living in Jewish neighborhoods \u2014 such as Pisgat Ze\u2019ev.<\/p>\n

No one should question the right of Jews to live in the united city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the core of the Jewish people \u2014 with thousands of years of history connecting them to this holy city.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dennis M. Trepanier, Poulsbo<\/em><\/p>\n

End Israeli military and economic aid<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for being courageous enough to mention an obvious answer to the intransigence and arrogance of the government of Israel in pushing settlement activity in the occupied territories of Palestine [\u201cExpensive stalemate,\u201d Opinion, March 14].<\/p>\n

The U.S. must, as The Times editorial board suggests, take a first step of stopping its military aid to Israel. It is morally wrong to contribute to this kind of egregious abuse \u2014 no matter how profitable it might be for arms manufacturers here and in Israel.<\/p>\n

U.S. military aid in the billions has only convinced Israel that it can get away with \u2014 in addition to the land theft of the settlements \u2014 outrageous human rights violations up to and including bombing innocent refugees in Gaza last year.<\/p>\n

And to add insult to injury, Israelis have universal health care \u2014 unlike their patron U.S.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Linda Jansen, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blame ISM for Rachel Corrie\u2019s death Editor, The Times: Rachel Corrie\u2019s death was a sad and senseless death of a young woman [\u201cRachel Corrie\u2019s day in court,\u201d Opinion, March 12]. She was close to the age of my daughter. To hear of her death, as a mother, was extremely heartbreaking. But why was she in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}