From "Harry's Place"

Billy Bragg's Rachel Corrie song
I was, for many years, a huge Billy Bragg fan.
I saw him perform three times when I lived in St. Louis in the 1980s and early 1990s.
When I lived in Israel, I joined a listserv of Bragg fans, made some online friends, and-- during a visit to the UK in 2000-- met some of them and saw him play at Tolpuddle.
I still think he wrote and performed some of the great songs of the past 25 years.
Which is why I'm so disappointed by his ripoff of the classic Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" in a misbegotten tribute to Rachel Corrie.
Rachel Corrie's death was a tragedy. But she was terribly wrongheaded, and the organization she was involved in-- the International Solidarity Movement-- is far from the noble upholder of "non-violent resistance" suggested by Bragg's song.
The implied comparison of Hattie Carroll to Rachel Corrie is as ridiculous as the implied comparison of William Zanzinger to the Israeli army. I hope I don't need to explain why.
At least the song mentions suicide bombers in passing. But it fails to note that the Israeli military operations in Gaza, which Corrie was trying to stop, were part of an effort to stop those bombers from killing more Israelis. It would have been good if Bragg had included a verse about other Rachels who were victims of those bombers. Some of them may have had lives at least as compelling as Corrie's. And their deaths were no less tragic.
The song mentions that a New York theatre cancelled a production of the play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" and suggests it was part of an effort by powerful forces like Fox News to turn her into a "non-person." The play should have been produced in New York, and probably will be. But with more than three million Google entries, Corrie is not about to become a non-person.
I've paid tribute here to Fern Holland, a young American who came to Iraq after the invasion to work for women's rights and was murdered by the "resistance." I've wondered if anyone would ever produce a play based on her life. It is, unfortunately, as unlikely as Billy Bragg writing a song called "The Lonesome Death of Fern Holland."
(Note: With trepidation, I'm opening this post to comments. But I won't put up with any comments ridiculing the way Corrie died.)
Update: Now this is disgusting.
Posted by Gene at March 28, 2006 03:59 AM

More Proof that Rachel Corrie died for her sins

Maybe, just maybe, Rachel Corrie knowingly aided and abetted cold-blooded murderers.
Many of you will probably call me naive and roll over having belly-laughs. It took me long enough, right? [Laugh? Who, me? —ed.]
When Corrie died more than a year ago, it was no great stretch to suspect that she and others who converged on Israel’s territories knowingly supported terrorists. There was certainly no proof and it was just as difficult to figure out any hard connection. ...
The raid on Rafah brings new facts to light indicating that Corrie and other ISM members had to know they were aiding and abetting terrorists, if they were not participating in terrorism themselves.
The 23-year-old Corrie, who traveled more than 8,000 miles from Olympia, Washington, was run over by a bulldozer when she tried to block the vehicle from demolishing a house in Rafah - a house where she had been staying. The Israeli military ruled that this was an accident and ISM members accused the driver of murder even before the military could investigate the incident.
It may pass the “reasonable person” test that these ISM’ers knew very well they were helping terrorists. What would a reasonable person conclude?
Consider: The Israeli government revealed that 90 weapons-smuggling tunnels were constructed between the Egyptian border and Rafah. At least some of these tunnels were known to end underneath the homes in Rafah.
With 90 tunnels running underneath Rafah, there must have been lots of suspicious activity. Corrie and her friends would have had to be blind not to notice.
First, there are the tunnel connections underneath the homes. ISM’ers who stayed with Gazan families might have seen the tunnels themselves, or they at least spotted people going back and forth from the basement of the home. During deliveries, people would have been hauling the goods out of the homes. Maybe Corrie herself did some heavy lifting.
The weapons then had to be transported somehow. Vehicles appear to be the natural choice. They would have had to be driven to the tunnel entrances and the weapons would need to be loaded onto the trucks.
Would you wonder about this kind of activity if you were personally on the scene?
Wherever ISM members mingled and even lived among Gaza and West Bank Arabs, it is possible that many of these Arabs were terrorists or helped the terrorists by feeding and housing them. The ISM’ers could have been at gatherings where they were introduced to suspected terrorists, heard stories about violent activities or noticed otherwise suspicious activity.
Actually, there is not only evidence, but proof of ISM aiding and abetting terrorists. When terrorists seized a church in Bethlehem, a few ISM’ers smuggled food to them.
If you put it all together, a reasonable person must conclude that the ISM members knew they were aiding and abetting terrorists.
The instant that it dawned on any of them that they might be helping terrorists was precisely the time for them to end their involvement. That’s what a sincere and honorable person would have done.