Thursday, January 14, 2010
Just thought I'd pass on some of the links I've received about what Israel is doing to help the people of Haiti right now. Sadly, they have a lot of experience with rescuing people out of collapsed buildings, cleaning up and finding bodies... Not bad for a supposed racist state. Imagine the country that created the wealth and knowledge capable of sending teams of rescuers halfway across the globe being dragged down to the lowest regional common-denominator...there would be none of this:
The IDF Spokesperson's Office has all the details: Details on IDF Humanitarian Aid Delegation to Haiti
...The IDF delegation will construct a field hospital in the disaster area that will include 220 personnel, among them Home Front Command rescue teams and IDF Medical Corps teams.
The field hospital will include 40 doctors, 25 nurses, paramedics, a pharmacy, a pediatrics department, a radiology department, an intensive care unit, an emergency room, two operating rooms, a surgical department, an internal department and a maternity ward.
The hospital can treat approximately 500 patients each day, and in addition will perform preliminary surgeries, and will house approximately ten tons of equipment.
The Home Front command forces will include 30 rescue workers, task force intelligence, logistics forces and a communications department, in addition to search and rescue and population aid experts from the Home Front Commands Search and Rescue Unit...
More at the link.
Also: Head of IDF Medical Corps on Preparations for Haiti Aid Delegation, and IDF to Establish Field Hospital in Haiti.
Background on the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Stand With Us has CBN video here: ISRAEL SENDS 220-STRONG RESCUE TEAM TO HAITI; TENS OF THOUSANDS FEARED DEAD
Devastating Haiti pictures at The Big Picture here and here.
1,200,000,000 Muslims.
You would think that out of that Ummah, there would be at least ONE Muslim country sending aid to Haiti.
How disappointing that there is no compassion for the people of Haiti from the Ummah.
That is very sad if true Eddie.
I noticed that China made a big spectacle of having 2 ornamented personel with giant Red China flags parade around first off the plane.
They dont know enough to be embarrassed by that.
Not that the Israel-haters will care, but I like the fact that it's not just a team of Israeli doctors going to Haiti... it's an IDF rescue team!
Remember them? The IDF is supposedly the occupying brutal army that regularly commits [insert atrocity-of-the-day here] upon helpless Palestinians.
I've said before that there is no fighting force anywhere in the world more ethical than the IDF. This is one example of the sort of thing I mean... and the IDF does this regularly, anytime there's a major catastrophe and the host country doesn't explicitly keep them out.
The IDF doesn't issue uniform medals or insignia for those who go overseas on humanitarian missions. (IDF uniforms are known for their plainness; with very rare exceptions, you get one medal for one war, and that's it.) But I wish they did; it's something to be proud of.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Update, Israeli team is in Haifi now:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142919.html
Sorry, obviously I meant Haiti - excuse the typo (oy)
By the way - there have been some disgusting comments on the 'net politicizing Israel's aid efforts - by which I mean people are actually comparing Haiti to Gaza which is obnoxious on its face.
Also, I've read nasty comments suggesting the Israelis should build field hospitals in Gaza (as if Israelis haven't built hospitals in Gaza and as if Palestinians aren't treated all the time by Israelis, in Israel - sometimes hospitals have even been attacked by Palestinian patients) and as if aid isn't sent to Gaza all the time even though the government of Gaza continues to threaten Israel with extinction and has waged open war on its civilians.
As opposed to Gaza, the situation in Haiti is so terrible that just getting aid delivered is a challenge. The situation for its several million citizens is dire. Even before the earthquake this was so; now we're looking at a death toll probably in excess of 100,000 people. Who knows what the long term prospects for 9 million people will be? Even the trees have been cut down, the long-range sustainability of this nation is in doubt without problems like major earthquakes and hurricanes.
In short, I believe it's time people got some perspective on the whole Arab/Israeli situation.
Also, we should take a good look at what humanity can accomplish when we want to. The desire to help the weak, injured and helpless is real and so are the efforts - the time, money and expertise focused on helping people - in fact this is the exact opposite of the sort of idea represented by Scheuer, the former CIA agent who sees only short-term expediency.
Helping other people regardless of their "value" or our "interests" is one of the best parts of humanity - perhaps our saving grace.
So - why are sincere efforts tarnished and abused by cheap shots (and there have been some from the US as well directed at our own president).
It just adds a layer of distress to an already terrible situation.
"I mean people are actually comparing Haiti to Gaza which is obnoxious on its face."
I was actually thinking about this- we've been hearing about the "devastation" of Gaza after Cast Lead, but there has been pitifully few visual images- none of these panoramas of death and destruction we see from Haiti. If you ask the haters, they talk about a media blackout, but with 70 % of Gaza having internet access, you'd think these images would have been leaked out....if they actually existed.
This incident is a real humanitarian crisis- Gaza is a fake humanitarian crisis.
You show yourself strong Israel by being on the spot in Haiti with enormous aid. I don't see any moderate Muslims sending oil or money, not even sand. God bless Israel! Even faster and better than our sorry attempts.
god bless Israel - always trying to improve the world . its a shame there neighbors with all there oil wealth show no real assistance. shame on the muslim world!!!!!!!!!!!
Israel thank you for always being there
Thanks for ISRAELI trafficking in human organs
Taqiyya West, "Thanks" for ARAB trafficking in slaves, heroin, jihad, honor killing, female genital mutilation, plane hijacking, ship hijacking, piracy, assassinations, genocide, overpriced OPEC oil, baathism, fascism, bombing of Pan Am 103...