Dear Friend of FLAME:

Two weeks ago terrorism struck the United States again. As you know, on the eleventh anniversary of September 11th, the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, resulting in the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American officials.

This tragedy has stirred up the turbulent and violent atmosphere throughout the Middle East, precipitating a spate of anti-American protests. Meanwhile, Syrian president Bashar Assad continues to terrorize his citizens; Saudi Arabia and Egypt continue their horrendous treatment of minorities, especially Christians; and Iran continues on a path toward obtaining nuclear weapons.

However, strangely, if you were to get your news about the Middle East only from the largely liberal world media, or base your opinion about the Middle East on what the ultra-left International Solidarity Movement (ISM) tells you, it be logical if you concluded that Israel is to blame for all the dissension in the Middle East.

Naturally, you won't find ISM supporters protesting in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Syria. And you certainly won't find them protesting the attack in Libya. Their main concern is not to promote truth and justice, but to demonize Israel at every turn.

A recent court case in Israel dealt with events the ISM put in motion in 2003, when one of their protesters, Rachel Corrie, was accidentally run over by a Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza. Abraham Miller, former professor and the author of this week's FLAME Hotline article, analyzes a long trial that just ended in Israel, in which the court found Corrie's death to be an accident and not the fault of the military.

What was Corrie was doing in Gaza? Miller explains that, "Corrie joined the anarchist International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which takes naïve leftists like Corrie and puts them in dangerous situations with the hope that their death or injury will make them poster children for the Palestinian cause."

Interestingly, it is only in Israel that ISM members feel they have the right to obstruct military operations, cause a death, and then afterwards go to court to place blame on the Israeli Defense Forces. Would such a case even be heard in a country like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Saudi Arabia? Of course not. It is a testament to Israel's democratic principles that this case was not duly investigated, but also tried in a court of law.

If the ISM truly wanted to do some good in the Middle East, they could begin by heading to Libya, to protest the callous attack that took place there, and demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

Unfortunately, the ISM will continue to work towards their ultimate goal---the destruction of Israel.

Abraham Miller's powerful article below should inspire each of us, Jew and non-Jew alike, to rise to this occasion to increase our support of Israel. I urge you to pass these powerful thoughts along to friends, colleagues, and fellow congregants using the "send to a friend" button at the bottom of this email, or using the buttons above to share it via social media.

Thanks for your continued support of Israel, and thank you for your support of FLAME.

Best regards,

Dave Nogradi
FLAME Hotline Contributor

P.S.

In a world turned upside down by outrageously false Arab propaganda---which contends Israel is responsible for most of the world's ills---FLAME has been fighting with facts and logic to publicize the truth in mainstream media. A great example is our recent hasbarah (public relations) effort published in the wake of the outrageous attempt by CBS's "60 Minutes" to blame the flight of Christians from the West Bank on Israel. We promptly published a refutation, "Why Are Christians Disappearing from the Middle East?," in media reaching more than 10 million people, and delivered it to all U.S. Senators and Representatives. It's one more example of FLAME's determined efforts to tell the truth about the enemies of Israel (and the U.S.). Ask yourself: If FLAME doesn't tell the truth in mainstream media about the Arab persecution of Christians, who else will do it? If you agree that these kinds of outspoken advocacy efforts on behalf of Israel and the U.S. are essential, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needs---from the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people.

P.P.S.	As of today, nearly 10,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. It keeps them up to date on the top news of the week and gives them greater confidence in discussing Middle East issues with friends and colleagues. Won't you join us to start receiving these timely updates: Just go to free subscription.

Rachel Corrie Died for Her Parents' Sins
by Abraham H. Miller, PJ Media, September 3, 2012

After a lengthy trial, an Israeli court found that the death of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie was an accident. Rachel Corrie's death was an accident, but it was not a tragedy. The tragedy is to be seen in the deaths of all the other Rachels — there are about a dozen of them — and the hundreds of other innocents who died at the hands of the people Rachel Corrie was trying to protect. Rachel Corrie was a willing and active accomplice helping people bent on committing mass murder. If her intended victims were not Jews, the world would not be beatifying her as some sort of saintly peace activist.

The entire Rachel Corrie episode is an encounter with the absurd. Corrie joined the anarchist International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which takes naïve leftists like Corrie and puts them in dangerous situations with the hope that their death or injury will make them poster children for the Palestinian cause. The ISM does not support a two-state solution. The only outcome it envisages to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is the destruction of the Jewish state and, of course, with it, the Jews. The ISM makes no secret of its goals and aspirations. When Corrie signed on to go to the war zone known as Gaza and stand in front of Israeli bulldozers that were destroying tunnels and homes being used to smuggle and store arms and munitions designed to kill Jews, she knew she was helping mass murderers.

Corrie stood in front of a bulldozer whose uplifted blade made it impossible for the driver to see her. She was simply too close to the bulldozer to be in the field of vision, like being too close to an SUV backing up in reverse. By the time Corrie realized that the bulldozer was not going to stop, she started moving backward and fell into a trench, which the bulldozer drove over causing her to be crushed by the falling dirt. Her death was exactly the kind of event the ISM wanted: an American student dying at the hands of a bulldozer operated by the Israeli Defense Forces.

Since her death, Corrie's activist, militant, and Israeli-bashing parents have transformed her death into a cottage industry. The Corries can be seen making the rounds of the liberal churches talking about the Palestinian cause and how the Israelis maliciously killed their daughter. For audiences predisposed to hate Israel and support the Palestinians as an oppressed people, the Corries and their "martyred" daughter comprise a saga that reinforces their jaundiced views.

It is not just the liberal churches that venerate the Corries. Yasser Arafat, too, showered them with adulation for donating their daughter to the cause. Just as their daughter put her life at risk to help mass murderers, the parents stand for photo ops with people who speak of past crimes against Jews and openly boast of those they are about to commit.

The Corries have learned nothing from their daughter's experience. Mrs. Corrie openly brags of two nieces who are active members of the ISM, and she hopes their activism will emulate her daughter's.

Clearly, the Corries are trying to expiate their own guilt. What parents encourage their daughter to go into a war zone to stand before bulldozers that are trying to protect innocent people by destroying tunnels and buildings used to transfer munitions for suicide bombers? What parents encourage their child to join an anarchist organization that thrives on placing the naïve in harm's way while lusting after the inevitable and ensuing propaganda benefit from their death and injury? Did the Corries hate Jews more than they loved their child?

It is as if through speaking engagements and appearance at cinema and stage performances about their daughter, the Corries have not only helped perpetuate the myth of Saint Rachel, the peace activist, but also absolved themselves of any responsibility for their daughter's death.

Rachel's parents filed a suit in Israeli court against the Israeli Defense Forces for being responsible for their daughter's death. Now, let's think a moment about this picture. Is there any other country in the Middle East, or in the world for that matter, where your daughter can stand in a war zone and have no expectation that harm will come to her? The ISM has sent no one to Syria to protect its citizens from the murderous Bashar Assad. The ISM has sent no one to Egypt to protect Christians and secularists from the murderous zealotry of the Muslim Brotherhood. The ISM does not stand in the streets of Saudi Arabia and campaign for an end to gender apartheid. The ISM is not standing in the streets of Tehran demonstrating against Iran's nuclear program. Only in Israel does the ISM believe it has a right to enter a war zone and interfere with a country's military operations. And only in Israel does it somehow have a right to go into court and sue the state for conduct that would earn it a bullet in most Middle East countries. To add insult to injury, it is Hillary Clinton's State Department that is assisting the Corries in this exercise in the absurd.

I doubt if the Corries ever thought they had a case. The trial and the verdict were merely a means for the Corries to do what they do best — to mobilize the Israel-bashing left and its sycophants in the press to further attack the Jewish state. If an Israeli court ruled against the IDF, which it indeed has done in some cases, then that would have been a further testimony to the beatification of Rachel Corrie. And if, as predicted, the court ruled against the Corries, that would have provided a means to further push Saint Rachel into the headlines and for such rags as the Guardian to spill their anti-Semitic bile. Indeed, the Guardian condemned the verdict, calling it a further whitewash of the tragedy. The Guardian's Harriet Sherwood brought to her analysis the fatuous, progressive cliché about the cycle of violence, as if destroying a house that stores weapons and munitions for killing civilians is the moral equivalent of using those weapons and munitions to blow up a pizza parlor.

It would seem to me that if you go out in a combat zone and stand in front of a bulldozer, especially one with its blade raised, maybe you're responsible for your own stupidity and the harm that comes to you. And, perhaps, the militant and activist parents who encouraged you to be there are also responsible.

What are the Corries due? They're due the same concern and compassion they have shown to the victims of the suicide bombers their daughter was enabling. To date, that has been nothing, not so much as an iota of regret, compassion, or condolence. And of the dozen or so Jewish Rachels that have been killed by suicide bombers, the leftist media has not found one worthy of the adulation that it has conferred on the naïve girl who stood in front of a bulldozer to enable mass murderers to carry out their operations.

If the Corries want to comprehend who really is responsible for their daughter's death, they should start by first looking in the mirror and then convincing their nieces not to follow in Rachel's footsteps. Of course, we know that would be terribly unlike the Corries, for it would deny them the veneration they have discovered for themselves and which they so desperately need to give some meaning to the death of a daughter who sought to enable mass murderers.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science and a former head of the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association.