Israel's compassion in Haiti can't hide our ugly face in Gaza

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Who said we are shut up inside our Tel Aviv bubble? How many small nations surrounded by enemies set up field hospitals on the other side of the world? Give us an earthquake in Haiti, a tsunami in Thailand or a terror attack in Kenya, and the IDF Spokesman's Office will triumph. A cargo plane can always be found to fly in military journalists to report on our fine young men from the Home Front Command.

Everyone is truly doing a wonderful job: the rescuers, searching for survivors; the physicians, saving lives; and the reporters, too, who are rightfully patting them all on the back. After Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon became the face we show the world, the entire international community can now see Israel's good side.

But the remarkable identification with the victims of the terrible tragedy in distant Haiti only underscores the indifference to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza. Only a little more than an hour's drive from the offices of Israel's major newspapers, 1.5 million people have been besieged on a desert island for two and a half years. Who cares that 80 percent of the men, women and children living in such proximity to us have fallen under the poverty line? How many Israelis know that half of all Gazans are dependent on charity, that Operation Cast Lead created hundreds of amputees, that raw sewage flows from the streets into the sea?

The Israeli newspaper reader knows about the baby pulled from the wreckage in Port-au-Prince. Few have heard about the infants who sleep in the ruins of their families' homes in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces prohibition of reporters entering the Gaza Strip is an excellent excuse for burying our heads in the sand of Tel Aviv's beaches; on a good day, the sobering reports compiled by human rights organizations such as B'Tselem, Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel on the situation in Gaza are pushed to the newspapers' back pages. To get an idea of what life is like in the world's largest prison, one must forgo "Big Brother" and switch to one of the foreign networks.

The disaster in Haiti is a natural one; the one in Gaza is the unproud handiwork of man. Our handiwork. The IDF does not send cargo planes stuffed with medicines and medical equipment to Gaza. The missiles that Israel Air Force combat aircraft fired there a year ago hit nearly 60,000 homes and factories, turning 3,500 of them into rubble. Since then, 10,000 people have been living without running water, 40,000 without electricity. Ninety-seven percent of Gaza's factories are idle due to Israeli government restrictions on the import of raw materials for industry. Soon it will be one year since the international community pledged, at the emergency conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, to donate $4.5 billion for Gaza's reconstruction. Israel's ban on bringing in building materials is causing that money to lose its value."

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[Behind the Aegis]

1. Predictable turd from Akiva Eldar.

Narrow-minded, pompous asshole that he is, it is not at all surprising he would pen this, or that it would be posted when it was.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. That comes across like a rather ill-informed opinion...

You should really go and read the article, because you seem to have missed where he praised those who were there to help after the earthquake. Maybe you could try to expand on the vitriolic and hyperbolic opinion and explain what it is about the article that you object to.

[Tripmann]

5. Attack the man, ignore the message

Thats like the crap you see on fox. Although the article is opinionated, its also pretty factual.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Facts matter, even if not reported by the US media.

Or acknowledged by the haters/supremacists.

They lie and claim that other Arab nations are not providing aid when the fact is that that aid is not allowed past the blockade. They tout this small gesture as meaningful, but regard mass murders and collective punishment as ho-hum/who-cares/they-were-Palestinians-after-all.

[pelsar]

4. facts matter?....they are supposed to....

but to many who post here, they are usually not that important....in general those who make sweeping generalizations, show zero tolerance for others are the ones we can count on to ignore facts......

note the sweeping generalizations and zero tolerance for other opinions, two signs of the fanatic, whos has little use for facts,-except of course when they agree with ones viewpoint.


signed

bloodythirsty hater supremacist
ok i admit im a bit grouchy this morning, i neither killed anybody on the subhuman level today, nor drank their blood.

[Scurrilous]

6. Haiti mission winds down

Israeli team expected to return to Israel within days after performing more than 200 surgeries

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3838445,00.html

<snip>

"The IDF's rescue and medical care team in Haiti is expected to complete its work in the disaster zone within days.

IDF Home Front Command Chief, Major General Yair Golan, said Saturday that the army is preparing to end the mission, after more hospitals have been opened up in Haiti following the establishment of Israel's field hospital in the quake-ravaged country.

Officials will discuss the situation via video conference Sunday and decide on the team's return date."