"Within his first two hours in Rafah he was shot at repeatedly," she said. " He said they had huge bulldozers coming at them, sand bombs thrown at them and gas..."

The diabolically astute "let's kill the Palestinians and torture everybody else" Alan Dershowitz seems to back up Said's premise. Dershowitz has come up with a road map to peace he says is guaranteed to curb terrorism. He says -- now, stay with me here -- there's no reason for Palestinians to die one at a time by blowing themselves up. Israel should publish a list of all the villages inhabited by Palestinians -- sort of a "to do" destruction-derby list. Then, any time there's an "act of terrorism," Israel would just destroy an entire village. The inhabitants would be given a couple of hours to vacate their property.

Speaking of property, Dershowitz has an even better idea if the first one doesn't fly. He says Israel could announce in advance that "every act of terrorism will result in an automatic and permanent decrease of a specific portion of the land mass that eventually would constitute the Palestinian state."  In the event of a terrorist act, Dershowitz says, that land would be immediately annexed to Israel and become a permanent part of the Jewish state.  Neat, huh? Sounds like a plan to me...

With plans like that floating around, is it any wonder that investigations into the deaths of peace activists are open and closed in such a cavalier fashion? Do we not at least sense why the world remains shamefully silent? Palestinians -- and those who would protect them -- are, in Said's words, "nothing but rats and cockroaches that can be attacked and killed...without so much as a word of compassion or in their defense..."

In May 2003, just four months before he succumbed to lukemia, Said met with Rachel Corrie's parents during one of his cross-country lecture jaunts. They told him that, upon returning to the US with their daughter's body, they immediately sought out their US senators, Democrats Patty Murray and Mary Cantwell, and told them their story. After receiving expressions of shock, outrage, and anger as well as promises of investigations, the two legislators returned to Washington. The Corries never heard from them again. The promised investigation simply didn't materialize.

"As expected," Said explained, "the Israeli lobby had explained the realities to them, and both women simply begged off. An American citizen willfully murdered by the soldiers of a client state of the US without so much as an official peep or even the de rigeur investigation that had been promised her family."

Yet, the Hurndalls refuse to remain silent. They refused to accept an initial IDF report exonerating Israeli soldiers from blame. The case of Tom Hurndall became the case that wouldn't close.  After relentless campaigning and exerting pressure upon both Britain and Israel, and after launching a months-long investigation on their own, which yielded 14 eye-witnesses, photographs and ballistic evidence, Israel arrested a soldier just one day before Turndall died, charged him with aggravated assault, and promised a "vigorous" investigation.

Even with Israel's dismal track record on investigating its own atrocities, one can always hope that Tom did not die in vain; that he will receive the justice and honor he so richly deserves. And -- by extension -- so will the valiant Rachel, Iain and Brian.

Only then will the case be closed.