Israeli aid to Haiti is not "image building"

The ironic satire below is a light version of the well meaning but mistaken effort to get accolades from  Israel's aid in the Haitian disaster (see also Exploiting Israeli aid to Haiti for politics and Israel bashing ).

 

I haven't seen a lot of Israelis write in this vein. Please don't turn what we do into cheap "PR." If the degenerates of the other side want to invent horror stories about Jewish doctors, it is their problem. If Israel's efforts get no coverage from the BBC or Al Jazeera or anyone else (and they did get coverage) the Haitians will still know what Israel did, and we will still know that we did the right thing. The more people try to harness the rescue effort to improve Israel's image, the less likely it is that biased media like BBC and certain wire services will report it. They like to report news about babies being born after heroic rescues. But they are not interested in being a part of a PR campaign for the evil Zionists.

 

We do not do these things to improve the Israeli "image" or gain the love of the world. Bitter experience taught us that no good deed goes unpunished. African nations that received so much aid from Israel in the 60s broke off diplomatic relations in 1967. Uganda, which had been the recipient of agricultural aid and student exchange programs, repaid us by hosting a plane hijacked by terrorists. Anyone who expects that Haiti will establish diplomatic relations with Israel just because we saved some Haitians will probably be disappointed. As for anti-Zionists, nothing will change with them. It doesn't matter what we do, they still know that we all have horns and tails and eat babies. Don't confuse them with the facts.

 

We need also to keep our efforts in perspective. 200,000 people are probably dead in Haiti and many many more are injured. The US is mounting a gigantic effort, but it is not enough either. Every person who is saved by the aid of the various countries is a victory for humanity and for human fortitude and solidarity in the face of disaster. But the depressing fact is that at this stage most of the aid is symbolic. A major medical center, leave alone one or two field hospitals, would not be enough to treat all the injured, and an unimaginably large effort will be needed to provide housing, food and clothing to large numbers of people who never had much, and now have nothing. For the baby that we saved and his or her family, we have done a wonderful thing, but it is only really symbolic. It is no wonder that news reports concentrate on the misery and chaos in Haiti and may devote only a few lines to the worthy Israeli rescue teams.

 

One should never do good deeds in the expectation of reward. That is not only immoral, it is also unrealistic. The world does not work that way. We do this sort of thing because that is what we were taught that one is supposed to do. It is part of our education and outlook. Perhaps it is part of the Zionist ethic, perhaps not. I remember several instances where Palestinian Arabs helped Israeli Jews after accidents. Perhaps it is a local shared ethic. This was always a rough country and people always were in trouble from floods, disease, road accidents, earthquakes, marauders and famine and always needed help. On the other hand, the spirt of humanism pervaded all of the writings and work of the early Zionists. One of the most remarkable aspects of the work of the Hadassah medical charity is that from the very beginning of their work, they offered medical aid in Jerusalem to both Jews and Arabs without discrimination. Organized help of this type, available to anyone, is evidently a "genetic" part of Zionism and a part of the Jewish tradition. It should not be remarkable, but it is.  

 

Many of the private Israeli aid efforts have been initiated and administered by the "leftist" kibbutz Artzi of Hashomer Hatzair, and the estate of peace advocate Abie Nathan has been active in them. If it is a part of the Zionist ethic, it is not necessarily related to religious injunctions or "advocacy" by far right groups.

 

The anti-Zionists and Israel bashers will respond, and have responded, with the expected sort of drivel. It doesn't occur to them that the IDF that rescued children in Haiti is unlikely to have engaged in war crimes in Gaza. Instead they insist that the aid to Haiti can't cover up Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

 

The "theory" that the evil Zionists are collecting victims who will be dismembered for organ transplant trade is mentioned by a talkbacker below as a half-joke:

 

"Great," said someone identifying himself as 'Smart Alex', "I just hope the IDF soldiers don't harvest any of the dead Haitians' organs without the permission of their families.

 

Reality is always much worse than anyone's notion of an ironic joke. The accusation is already on the Web -  evil Zionists are collecting bodies for illegal organ transplant traffic in Haiti according to a conspiracy theorist.

 

How many will believe it? How many will lend it some credence in the form of "I wouldn't put it past those Zionists?" How many Jewish doctors were accused, in the past, of poisoning their patients? That should not stop Jews from doing the right thing.

 

Ami Isseroff 

 

Israel builds a field hospital in Haiti. Anti-Zionists not fooled!

Stephanie Guttman

Clever people the Jews… oops, I mean the Israelis. Look at the lengths to which they have gone to distract the world from their daily ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The latest trick is an Israeli field hospital, rushed into Haiti last Friday and erected in a soccer field.

 

The US, with all its resources, hasn't yet managed to set up a field hospital in Haiti (undoubtedly the State Department is still drafting the crucial legal papers needed) but the Israelis, operating with their usual disregard to the niceties of law, slapped one up and have already delivered a baby there. The father, obviously paid off by the Mossad, rapturously declared that the baby would be named "Israel".

 

According to Israeli government sources the hospital includes 10 tons of medical equipment, 40 doctors, 24 nurses, medics, paramedics, x-ray equipment and personnel, a pharmacy, an emergency room, two surgery rooms, an incubation ward, a children's ward and a maternity ward.

 

Information from Israeli government sources should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, but footage of this tent-city/hospital has now been seen on SKY, Fox and CNN, ABC and CBS and the video seems to confirm (Mossad video fabricators are tricky) at least that the facility is large, clean, and full of modern equipment. CBS's piece called the hospital the "Rolls Royce of medicine in Haiti".

 

Thankfully, the BBC has kept its head and is not colluding with the Israeli government's attempt to make the world forget its sins.  However, that has not stopped Jewish…er…Zionist propagandists, who are already triumphantly calling the field hospital "Israel's Disproportionate response", a reference to the charge last year that Israel reacted to Hamas rocket fire with "disproportionate" military force.  The word "disproportionate" in this case refers to the fact that this country of 7.5 million has sent 220 people, compared to say, China, which as of last week had sent 60.

 

Thankfully, many people are onto the ploy, as these comments from the Los Angles Times show:

 

"Great," said someone identifying himself as 'Smart Alex', "I just hope the IDF soldiers don't harvest any of the dead Haitians' organs without the permission of their families.

 

"I know, I know," he wrote, "that was a cheap shot. But I believe well-deserved for a country that tries to use its U.S.-funded humanitarian efforts as propaganda to paper over its disastrous and vile treatment of the Palestinians."

 

A clever fellow and brave too! It takes guts to make such a deduction and publish it from behind the cover of a moniker like 'Smart Alex'.