Israeli soldiers have depraved “fun” making “Rachel Corrie pancakes”

by Ali Abunimah

Israeli soldiers had a “fun” time making what they called “Rachel Corrie pancakes.”
Photos of the event were posted on the Facebook page of the “Heritage House,” a settlement in occupied East Jerusalem that houses so-called “lone soldiers,” men recruited from overseas to join the Israeli occupation forces.

Above the photos of young men, some in Israeli army fatigues or apparently carrying guns, is the caption “Afternoon of ‘rachel corrie’ Pancakes and fun!”

Rachel Corrie is the young American woman murdered by an Israeli soldier who crushed her to death with a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family home in the occupied Gaza Strip on 16 March 2003.

The depraved joke that these men were presumably making is a play on the English idiom “flat as a pancake.” Their celebration and joking about Rachel Corrie’s death is utterly vile and reflects the culture of dehumanization inculcated into Israeli soldiers.

Ben Packer, the director and rabbi of “Heritage House,” hit back at some negative comments about the images, posting this response:

In honor of the all the hate messages from the anti-Israel/Jewish crowd, one of our supporters has pledged $5 towards Israeli settlements (maybe for additional bulldozers) for each additional comment. keep’em coming anti-semites! We love our Israeli soldiers and will not back down in the face of those who attempt to endanger them!

Packer added, “Anti-Israel activists are all in a tizzy about these pictures! makes them even funnier!!!”

The page also appeals for donations “to support our guests and ‘lone soldiers.’” Residents of the “Heritage House” settlement also take part in colonization activities in other parts of the occupied West Bank, including Hebron.

Alex Winston is the “den mother” of The Heritage House men’s dormitory. Alex Winston is a member of the Israeli army’s Givati Brigade.

Nesim Pasarel (right with weapon) and Jonathan Leibovits (seated)

Update: The gallery was removed shortly after the publication of this post.)

The true face of the “IDF”

In recent months, The Electronic Intifada has highlighted incidents of Israeli soldiers using social media to advocate brutal violence, and acts of sadistic torture and murder of children.

The Electronic Intifada also revealed images soldiers posted on the photo-sharing site Instagram of nudity, drug use and violence and most notoriously of a Palestinian child seen through the scope of a sniper’s rifle.

This week, the army began investigating a video posted online of Israeli soldiers frying a small bird alive, an act that had no purpose but gratuitous animal cruelty.

Israeli army attempts to halt social media scandals

 

The “Rachel Corrie pancakes” photos provide yet another window into the Israeli army’s culture of violence and come just as the occupation forces have tried to staunch the flow of embarrassing incidents on social media that have hurt its propaganda efforts.

The campaign, which includes this YouTube video, urges soldiers to “improve their image online.”

The voiceover in the video commands:

Soldier! Improve your appearance! Always remember: You are the face of the IDF. So improve your appearance - online!

The IDF is glad to invite you to get connected, share, love, tweet, respond, and show the pretty face of the IDF

So go into the official pages and send us pictures, videoclips, and stories. The IDF on the Internet. One army, everybody’s face.

The “lone soldiers” at the Heritage House settler-colony have clearly not got the message.
With thanks to Dena Shunra for assistance with research and translation and Benjamin Doherty for assistance with research

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Gaza Permanent Military Court Issues Judgment in the Case of Italian Activist Vittorio Arrigoni’s Murder

Vittorio Arrigoni: Hero of Palestine

On Monday morning, 17 September 2012, the Permanent Military Court is Gaza issued its judgment in the case of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni’s murder.  The Court convicted the first defendant (M.S.) and second defendant (T.H.) of premeditated killing and kidnapping for the purpose of killing.  They were each sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor and 10 years of imprisonment with hard labor; the more severe of the two punishments will be applied.

The court also sentenced the third defendant (K.E.) to 10 years of imprisonment with hard labor, after convicting him of kidnapping for the purpose of killing.  The fourth defendant (A.G.) was convicted of harboring fugitives and sentenced to one year of imprisonment.

PCHR lawyers attended today’s hearing in their capacity as the legal representatives of the Arrigoni family.  They have also attended all hearings for the case since the court began considerations on 11 August 2011.  PCHR has also followed all of the developments of the case and provided the court’s panel with letters from the Arrigoni family. 

The Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, was killed,after being kidnapped in the evening of 14 April 2011, by a group that called itself the “A-Hammam Mohammed Bin Maslama Group.”  The Palestinian police found his body 15 April 2011 in a house in the ‘Amer housing project west of Jabalya, located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. 

In light of the judgment issued in the case of Arrigoni’s murder, PCHR would like to draw attention to the following:

· 3 of the persons who were involved in kidnapping and murdering the Italian activist were subsequently killed in armed clashes between them and Palestinian security forces that besieged the house where they werehiding in al-Nussairat refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

· PCHR officially demanded the court’s panel, in writing, to abstain from applying the death penalty to the defendants if they are convicted, based on its position rejecting the death penalty and in response to the Arrigoni family’s wish, which they expressed in a letter dated 16 December 2011.  The family wanted a fair trial for the defendants in accordance with the requirements of the international law and called for the death penalty to not be applied against the defendants if they were convicted. 

· PCHR, like the Arrigoni family, is satisfied by the sentences issued by the Court, which can be described, under the circumstances surrounding the case, as fair and legitimate, and considers that the murderers of Arrigoni have been effectively tried.

· PCHR has followed this case in honor of Vittorio Arrigoni’s soul and out of its moral commitment towards international solidarity activists, who may lose their lives because of their support for the rights of Palestinian people, like what happened to Arrigoni and the American activist Rachel Corrie. 

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I Killed Rachel Corrie...

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I Killed Rachel Corrie
by Anonymous
Source: http://othersite.org/anonymous-i-killed-rachel-corrie/


I killed Rachel Corrie.
I never heard of her
but I paid my taxes,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I built the bulldozer
and trained the driver
and gave the orders
that took her life,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I went to watch my team play a big game
and to have a few drinks with them afterwards
instead of reading what Rachel wrote
and hearing what she said,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I go to church on Sunday
and attend Friday prayers
and keep Shabbat holy
but mustn’t upset my community
with painful questions,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I attend dialog groups
and hear both sides
and give them equal weight
as did my forefathers
to the Japanese and the Ainu
the Roman and the Gaul
the European and the Choctaw
the White and the Black
the Nazi and the Jew
and the Israeli and the Palestinian,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I write letters
to newspapers and elected officials
and I demonstrate outside their offices
and I donate to human rights groups
and to send humanitarian aid
and I support nonviolence
and I boycott and divest and sanction,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I travel to Gaza
in freedom marches
and convoys
and flotillas
and I attend conferences in Bil’in
and fly to Tel Aviv
and march to Jerusalem
and I’ve been beaten
and shot
and jailed
and expelled,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I resist with arms
and launch Qassams
and strap explosives to myself
and drop bombs and napalm
and white phosphorous and DIME weapons
and I kill as many as I can
of those who are the enemy
and I torture and terrify them
and their families and children
so that they know they are never safe,
so I killed Rachel Corrie.

I killed Rachel Corrie because it was not enough;

I killed Rachel Corrie because I did not drop everything and devote my life to making this stop;

I killed Rachel Corrie because I did not change the base reality of our world and I, in fact, participated in it;

I killed Rachel Corrie because I cared too much for my career and my comfort and my hobbies and my obligations and my conferences and my projects and my causes and my campaigns and my coalitions and my ideologies and my letters and my articles and my poetry;

I killed Rachel Corrie because I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers;

I killed Rachel Corrie because I could have been one of millions choosing to give up everything and walk in step so that our feet causes the earth to shake and the rivers to change course and the mountains to crumble and the mighty to tremble and bow to our voices as we say, “Al-Sha’ab yureed,” “Si, se puede,” “Never again,” and it will no longer matter whether we are Jews, Muslims or Christians, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians or Hebrews, immigrants or indigenous, men or women, because we are united in ending the injustice and in preventing and reversing the ethnic cleansing of one people in order to pay for the ethnic cleansing of another.

But I am not one of those millions united for justice.

So I killed Rachel Corrie.

Gilad Atzmon: Rachel Corrie and the Kosher Legal Stamp

Gilad Atzmon                    

  

Judge Oded Gershon’s ruling earlier this week that the state of Israel is not to blame for the death of Rachel Corrie, came as no surprise. In fact it reaffirms everything we know about the Jewish state - its politics, legal system and spirit. Israel is surely a most peculiar state - it is impervious to ethical thinking and humanist thought.

Accordingly, Judge Gershon gave this week a kosher stamp to a cold-blooded murder and by so doing, he proved, once again, that Israeli criminal actions are consistent with the most vile interpretations of Old Testament and Talmudic Goy-hating.

As one would predict, Judge Gershon, restricted himself to legalism and litigation as opposed to ethical thinking - he actually blamed Corrie for not ‘behaving reasonably’. Yet, one may wonder what is this ‘reason’ or more precisely, what does an Israeli mean when he or she refers to ‘reason’.

Rachel Corrie was bulldozed to death by an Israeli military D9 Caterpillar on 16 March 2003. She was part of ISM (International Solidarity Movement), a non-violent pro-Palestinian peace activist group. Being an American youngster, Corrie mistakenly believed that Israeli soldiers were humanly driven. Being a reasonable person she must have believed that an Israeli bulldozer driver would never drive over her body. She was wrong. Corrie clearly failed to grasp that Israeli ‘reasoning’ was lethally fuelled by psychosis and fantasies of destruction.

Corrie failed precisely where so many solidarity activists fail. Israel is no normal state. It is a state of one people only - and a people who believe themselves to be chosen. The meaning of this is both simple and devastating. The people of Israel believe that their lives and security is a cosmic asset that must be maintained at the expense of the rest of humanity. However, make no mistake, Israeli psychosis is consistent and even driven by reason, but this ‘reason’ is somewhat different to that of the rest of us. It is certainly far from being universal.

Rachel Corrie, on the other hand, is a universal symbol. She is the epitome of solidarity, empathic thinking and courage, but her tragic death is also a clear indication that something is fundamentally wrong with Israel. Rachel Corrie’s death makes it clear that it isn’t just the Israeli leadership or military elite who are blind to human life and moral conduct.  It isn’t just Netanyahu or Barak who are in a state of dismissal of human life.  We are dealing here with a murderous continuum; it is the leadership, the anonymous soldier, the bulldozer driver – and also Judge Gershon and the Israeli legal system.

Israel could have used Corrie’s family legal appeal to mend its ways. But Judge Gershon was actually honest enough to admit that the murder of Rachel Corrie was the ‘right thing to do’. It was her fault, she shouldn’t have been there in the first place, he said. Judge Gershon provided us this week with the true meaning of ‘Israeli reasoning’. The murder of Corrie was consistent with Israeli survival philosophy and with Israeli interpretation of Jewish statehood. This week, Judge Gershon left us with a kosher stamp for a cold-blooded murder.

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Israeli Court ‘Clears’ Army in the Murder of Activist Corrie

PNN

The Haifa District Court rejected on Tuesday 28th August, the civil lawsuit filed against Israel for the killing of peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer nine years ago in a pro-Palestinian demonstration protesting against house demolition in Gaza.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005 on behalf of the Corrie family by attorney Hussein abu Hussein, charged Israel with responsibility for Rachel's killing and failure to conduct a full and credible investigation in the case.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a ruling read out to the court, judge Oded Gershon considered Corrie's death a "regrettable accident", and said that Israel was not responsible and the army was not blamed because the incident happened in a war-time situation.

"I reject the suit. There is no justification to demand the state pay any damages," Said judge Gershon.

Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein said in a statement on the verdict in the Rachel Corrie wrongful death lawsuit, "This court has given its stamp of approval to flawed and illegal practices that failed to protect civilian life."

While not surprising, this verdict is yet another example of where impunity has prevailed over accountability and fairness. Rachel Corrie was killed while non-violently protesting home demolitions and injustice in Gaza, and today, this court has given its stamp of approval to flawed and illegal practices that failed to protect civilian life. In this regard, the verdict blames the victim based on disotrd facts and it could have been written directly by the state attorneys.

He also revealed that they 'the attorney and Corrie's family' knew from the beginning that they had an uphill battle to get truthful answers and justice, but they are convinced that this verdict distorts the strong evidence presented in court, and contradicts fundamental principles of international law with regard to protection of human rights defenders. In denying justice in Rachel Corrie's killing, this verdict speaks to the systemic failure to hold the Israeli military accountable for continuing violations of basic human rights.

Abu Hussein concluded in his statment,  We would like to thank everyone who supported the family and the legal team; including activists, NGOs, legal observers, US embassy officials, interpreters, reporters who covered the trial, and we look forward to talking to you at the press conference.

It's worth mentioning that Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American came from Olympia, Washington, and was a volunteer with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement.

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PLO Executive Committee Deplores the Miscarriage of Justice in the Rachel Corrie Verdict

PNN

PLO Executive Committee member and head of the PLO Department of Culture and Information, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced an Israeli district court ruling that claimed American activist Rachel Corrie's death was "an accident" and that she was not a "thinking person" at the time of her death:

"Despite the testimonies of eyewitnesses, the audio-visual evidence and the overwhelming proof that Rachel was deliberately murdered, the Israeli court insists on victimizing her again in her tragic death. This proves that once again the occupation has distorted the legal and judicial systems in Israel and that the lack of accountability for its violence and violations has generated a culture of hate and impunity."

Dr. Ashrawi stressed, "We must make sure that Rachel Corrie's death is not a senseless incident. It must be stressed that Israel's habit of blaming the victim and exonerating the criminal is not applied to Palestinian victims, but has also it has extended its reach to international solidarity activists and victims of Israeli violence."

"The U.S. government has been noticeably absent and its silence is deafening. In their lack of engagement and human empathy, both the legislative and executive branches are complicit in compounding the crime," said Dr. Ashrawi.

"The Palestinians as a whole will continue to love Rachel and cherish her memory. Her sacrifice will always be a source of hope and a tribute to genuine humanity," concluded Dr. Ashrawi.

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No Right to Exist: the Corrie Verdict and the Jewish State’s Belligerence

By Richard Edmondson

Will President Obama summon his courage and utter a timid peep of protest at the Israeli court’s ruling in the Rachel Corrie case? As I write this it has been about 13 hours since the verdict was announced, and so far we’ve heard nothing. And my guess is we won’t.

In case you haven’t heard, the Haifa District Court has come to the conclusion that the Israeli military is not in any way liable for the death of 23-year-old Rachel, who was crushed beneath a Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier on March 16, 2003.

Further, while allowing that her death was “regrettable,” Judge Oded Gershon asserted his view that Rachel, and Rachel alone, is to blame for what happened.

“The accident was caused by the deceased,” he said.

We all know, of course, that the only reason the case got the attention it did is because Rachel was an American. Palestinians are killed virtually every day and the media barely yawn. But the verdict in this case highlights Israeli arrogance and impunity in perhaps new ways.

It was not of course as if finding in the Corries’ favor would have cost the state of Israel any money. The suit had sought a total of $1 in damages plus legal costs. So no. It was more an affirmation of Israel’s authority to steal as much land and demolish as many homes as it likes, along with the belief that no one has the right to challenge them on this.

“I reject the suit,” Gershon said. “There is no justification the state pay any damages.”

Not even one dollar.

Interestingly, just a day before the verdict came in, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought to browbeat UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon into cancelling his trip to the Non-aligned Movement conference in Tehran. Reportedly the Israeli leader’s “public appeal to Ban—delivered in what staffers viewed as a condescending tone—backfired, fortifying Ban’s resolve to go.”

The story goes on to report that Netanyahu, instead of exercising discretion about his phone call with Ban, issued a press release detailing everything he had said to the UN official. The prime minister then initiated “a social media drive, calling on Web surfers to send e-mails to the UN secretary-gernal asking him not to fly to Tehran,” the story says.

 

At the same time, a series of Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the World Jewish Congress issued press statements harshly criticizing Ban’s plan to travel to the conference in Iran. Ban’s associates were confinced that the attacks by Jewish groups had also been directed by the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

So what does this have to do with the Corrie verdict? Probably nothing, other than it illustrates the arrogance constantly on display and emanating from the state of Israel. If you haven’t read my article Rachel Corrie and Daniel Pearl—a curious comparison, you might consider doing so. It’s an article I wrote over a year ago comparing the two cases—that of the Palestine solidarity activist and the Wall Street Journal reporter—both of whom died within 14 months of each other. In the Pearl case, justice was swift in coming. The killers were arrested less than two months after the reporter was killed. They were quickly brought to trial and found guilty, with one of them being sentenced to death. The court case was over less than six months after the crime was committed.

The Rachel Corrie case obviously did not go quite the same way. Criminal charges were never filed against the soldier operating the bulldozer, leaving the family with no other recourse than a civil suit as a means of holding the government of Israel accountable. The Corries filed their suit in 2005. It took seven years to hear the verdict we finally heard today. Seven years—just in order for a judge to say, “The accident was caused by the deceased.”

In the Jewish-dominated world we live in, justice is available to Gentiles only when it doesn’t come at the expense of a Jew. This is certainly the case in the “Jewish state,” and it is becoming increasingly so in America. As I’ve said before, apartheid will end up being Israel’s chief export to the rest of the world. This is why the struggle for justice for Palestine is so vital. It may sound ironic, but this isn’t just for the sake of the Palestinians anymore; it is for all of humanity. The creation of a Palestinian state—not just in the West Bank and Gaza, but all of Palestine—is the only way forward at this point. The Jewish state’s belligerence has repulsed people around the planet. Continuing to tolerate its disregard for international law will lead to disaster.

With the Rachel Corrie verdict the candle flame of its “legitimacy” has finally burned out; Israel has no right to exist.
 

In the video below, Rachel’s mother responds to the verdict:


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Which Matters Most, AIPAC’s Power, or Rachel Corrie’s Death?

It is times like this, for these two church bodies, when the rubber really hits the road. To be specific,  decision time for AIPAC or for Rachel Corrie, will come for United Methodist General Conference delegates, between April 24 and May 4, in Tampa, Florida, and for the Presbyterian Church, USA, General Assembly delegates, in Pittsburg, PA, from June 30 to July 7.

In the name of all that John Wesley and John Calvin held to be holy and sacred, why is the choice between AIPAC and Rachel Corrie so difficult to make?

by James M. Wall 

Two events arrive next month on the American political calendar: The annual AIPAC Policy Conference, and the anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death.

These two events are related the way yin relates to yang, a concept from Asian philosophy which “is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn”. (Wikipedia)

"March 16, 03. Rachel nonviolently blocks Israeli

bulldozers from destroying Palestinian homes along

the Rafah/Egyptian border along with nine other

International Solidarity Movement volunteers. Photo

from earlier in the day"

I have referenced this connection before, and it continues to resonate, for me, in the complex interconnection of contrasting approaches to political action.

Rachel Corrie was killed March 16, 2003,  by an Israeli soldier who drove an American-built Caterpillar bulldozer over her. When she died, Rachel, a 23-year old American from Olympia, Washington, was wearing a clearly visible orange vest. She was shouting at the driver through a bull horn, asking him  to stop.

She was crushed to death by the bulldozer.
The Israeli government, which rarely acknowledges the deaths of Palestinian civilians killed during its military operations, went into damage-control mode.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President Bush a “thorough, credible, and transparent investigation.” Later Israel declared the killing a “regrettable accident” and blamed it on overzealous Corrie and the other activists working as human shields.

Subsequent calls for Congress to investigate Rachel Corrie’s death were ignored. A civil lawsuit brought by her family against the Israeli military, has been in Israeli courts since March 15, 2005. A final verdict on the suit is expected this spring.

Before this year’s ninth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC, will hold its annual Policy Conference, March 4-6, 2012, in Washington, DC. These two events recur every year.

The annual gathering of AIPAC receives considerable media attention, while the anniversary of the death of  a young American working for peace through a non-violent protest, registers hardly a blip.


President Obama at 2011 AIPAC Policy Conference

Rachel Corrie – Interview



The difference is easily explained. AIPAC is the power center lobby engine that drives American foreign policy. It reaches, rewards, and where needed, threatens, members of the US power elite.

This year AIPAC has Iran on its mind, prompted, of course, by Israel’s obsession over Iran. Enabling that obsession, Senate leaders sprang into action. Atlantic blogger Robert Wright writes:

Late last week, amid little fanfare, Senators Joseph Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and Robert Casey introduced a resolution that would move America further down the path toward war with Iran. The good news is that the resolution hasn’t been universally embraced in the Senate.
As Ron Kampeas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports, the resolution has “provoked jitters among Democrats anxious over the specter of war.”

The bad news is that, as Kampeas also reports, “AIPAC is expected to make the resolution an ‘ask’ in three weeks when up to 10,000 activists culminate its annual conference with a day of Capitol Hill lobbying.”

Israeli leaders Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli President Shimon Peres will attend this year’s AIPAC gathering. They are also expected to speak.

The partial list of the American power elite invited by AIPAC to speak during its March 4-6 conference, includes President Barack Obama.

From the US Congress, invited speakers include Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), and Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA).

Senator Levin, a Democrat, is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; Senator Joseph Lieberman, an Independent who votes with the Democrats,  is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs;

Senator Johnny Isakson, is a Republican from Georgia.

Among media notables invited to speak are CNN contributor and former advisor to President Bill Clinton, Paul Begala, Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile, Fox News contributor Liz Cheney, and Jane Harman, former member of Congress, from California, now President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Cheney is the daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Harman, since the death of her husband, is an owner of Newsweek magazine. She is a longtime AIPAC loyalist.

From a political power standpoint, that is a lot of fire power. Which brings us to the question, which matters most, AIPAC’s political power or Rachel Corrie’s witness for peace?

Two Protestant denominations will soon face that question in a most pragmatic and public fashion. The United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church, USA, will hold national decision-making meetings, starting in April and June.

At those meetings, delegates representing United Methodists and Presbyterians will be asked to instruct their leadership to divest or not divest their denominational funds from corporations that are currently supporting Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian population.

The 2012 United Methodist conference was originally scheduled for Richmond, Virginia, until it was discovered that Richmond violated a United Methodist church policy “regarding meeting in cities that are home to professional sports teams with Native American names”.

According to the United Methodist press office:

At the time of the initial selection, commission members were unaware that Richmond is home to the Richmond Braves, a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Atlanta Braves.

These United Methodists have their standards, which they adhere to closely, John Wesley would expect no less.  This could portend something about how they will vote between April 25 and May 4, depending, perhaps, on whether they go with their yin or their yang.

The Presbyterian Church USA, General Assembly in Pittsburg, PA, will consider resolutions on divestment from corporations involved in Israel’s occupation.

Like the United Methodists, the Presbyterians will target three specific corporations, Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard.

The Presbyterians will be asked to vote for or against a resolution instructing the denomination to stop investing in the three companies ”until they have ceased profiting from non-peaceful activities in Israel-Palestine.”

In their two national assemblies, United Methodists and Presbyterians will choose between the way of AIPAC , and the way of Rachel Corrie.

When the Presbyterians meet in their General Assembly, they will have as a biblical theme for their deliberations, Isaiah 40:31 (NIV):

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

In the name of all that John Wesley and John Calvin held to be holy and sacred, why is the choice between AIPAC and Rachel Corrie so difficult to make?

The picture above, of Rachel Corrie, is taken from a poster produced and distributed by If Americans Knew, a program and web site, developed and directed by Allison Weir. Copies of the posters and other material related to Rachel Corrie, may be ordered from this site.

Editing : Debbie Menon

 About the author:

James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois. From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine. He has made more than 20 trips to that region as a journalist, during which he covered such events as Anwar Sadat’s 1977 trip to Jerusalem, and the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. He has interviewed, and written about, journalists, religious leaders, political leaders and private citizens in the region. Jim served for two years on active duty in the US Air Force, and three additional years in the USAF (inactive) reserve. His website: Wall Writings

 http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/29/which-matters-most-aipacs-power-or-rachel-corries-death/