By Daniel Chejfec
Israeli nurses, doctors and medical technicians arrived in Port-Au-Prince within 48 hours of the earthquake, set up a mobile hospital like the ones you normally see in MASH, and started receiving 50 to 60 patients a day in need of critical care because it was the only hospital with that level of equipment and professional care on the ground. On January 26th, the started winding down to return to Israel. In the process, they performed 361 urgent surgeries, delivered 16 babies, and treated hundreds of non critical patients. This should be all that's needed to be said about such a Humanitarian effort, but when it comes to Israel, nothing is simple and passions run high.
On example was an editorial on the London Telegraph, using sarcasm to praise Israel when it published an Editorial entitled "Israel builds a field hospital in Haiti. Anti Zionist are not fooled", fully dwelling on highlighting the double standard under which the world - and by the way, the British media - judges Israel; this was a very rare praise to Israel in European media. The internet and email forces of anti Israel propaganda found however something to pin on the Israelis; while the Belgian hospital had difficulties operating and was rejecting patients and dumping others for lack of space, the Israelis were being universally praised by physicians in Haiti; an email circulated, however, attaching the Belgian Hospital performance to the Israelis in order to counter the praise they were receiving.
The creative interpretation of facts did not end there. An Israeli newspaper - HaAretz- reported on the state of malnutrition of the patients in the Israeli Hospital, and the Arab Media immediately used it to blame the Israelis for the situation. We all know that Haitians were filthy rich before the earthquake and that malnutrition didn't exist at all...(just being sarcastic).
So why all this fixation with demolishing whatever the Israelis accomplish? Simply put, those who would like to see Israel disappear cannot recognize any positive role for Israelis because it would make them Human. They suppressed the news of Israeli Hospitals treating Gazans during the military operation, or treating even captured terrorist on a regular basis. But all this is depicted by Israel's enemies as "Zionist propaganda" intended to "make Israel look good".
Last time I checked, Israelis, especially those raised in Israel, don't care much about what others think of them; they spend most of their time arguing with each other about it. When it comes to propaganda, there is no doubt that Israel is vastly outclassed by the anti-Zionist propaganda especially in Europe. This is nothing but another case of what somebody once called "slingshot talk" - that is attacking your enemy for doing what you are doing - whether they are actually doing or not. The preemptive accusation allows you to point the finger to the other for what you do. Remember the "Massacre" in Jenin? How many people know that subsequent investigations determined that there was not such a massacre? Examples are plenty.
Israelis speak with actions. When faced with such a catastrophic event as the Haiti Earthquake, they don't ask themselves whether they should help, but how can they help; as they did in the Armenian earthquake or the Indonesian Tsunami - because that is the Israeli - the Jewish - way.
Where are the Arab doctors? the Arab Hospitals? Arab donations for reconstruction? I guess Haitians don't merit the support of the Faithful...
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