THE NYT "HEARTS" RACHEL CORRIE

"Naïve" Anti-Israeli Activist Rachel Corrie? (TimesWatch)
In today's New York Times Jesse McKinley's "Theater Addresses Tension Over Play" addresses concerns that a pro-Palestinian play is being squelched in Manhattan, on the front page of the Thursday Arts section.

"Today is the third anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old from Washington State who was killed by an Israeli Army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip as she tried to protect a Palestinian home. But the focus of many of the commemorations scheduled by supporters around the world is a small nonprofit stage, the New York Theater Workshop, that recently delayed a production of a British play based on her e-mail messages and diary entries, "My Name Is Rachel Corrie.""

McKinley presents a false choice on how to take Corrie's activism: "Given the sharply divided opinions of Ms. Corrie -- idealistic or recklessly naïve, depending on one's political point of view -- Mr. Nicola said on Monday that the workshop needed "more time to learn more and figure a way to proceed.""

But was Corrie truly "naïve" about what her group, the International Solidarity Movement, was doing?

ISM supports "armed struggle" against Israel. When Corrie was killed the ISM group was stopping Israeli army bulldozers from destroying homes concealing tunnels, through which explosives were being smuggled from Egypt.

None of this necessary political back-story made it into the paper. The Times in the past has tended to take the radical ISM's side of things against Israel.

The paper's prominent hand-wringing over the postponement of the play can be compared unfavorably to the paper's harsh and hypocritical treatment of another, far more benign piece of politically provocative art: the Danish newspaper cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammad.