Sunday, May 7, 2006
The Boston Globe is reporting on the growing health crisis in the Palestinian Authority -- dialysis patients being the latest people held hostage in order to prevent Palestinian Arabs from suffering any consequences for their choices. Of course it's natural and proper to feel sympathy for the average folks, particularly kids, who may just be victims of their leaders' political fantasies, although I can't help, upon reading these emergency room tales of sadness, to keep from turning my mind's eye to the other visions of hospital horror -- the shattered and punctured bodies that turn up in Israeli hospitals when the people these folks support send their murderers to do their dirty-work...while many of the people now crying for sympathy danced and handed out candy.
I also can't help but recall the frequent tales of hospital deprivation that came out of pre-Saddam Iraq, when the only thing keeping medicine from the people was corrupt Iraqi officials. Israel and the US have said they're allowing humanitarian aid in, and maybe they need to do better at that, but cash, which current sanctions are stopping the flow of, shouldn't be an issue. The biggest welfare nation in the history of the planet is finding out that killing Jews doesn't pay like it used to.
Palestinian medical crisis looms
For the first time since he became director of the Ramallah Hospital in 1998, Dr. Husni Atari said, the facility is running out of medicines, sterile dressings, and other disposables. None of his 346 doctors, nurses, and ancillary staff has received salaries from the Palestinian Ministry of Finance since February, he added in an interview...
Nice work today,Sol. You did a great job dissecting the Sunday Globe, particularly in this post.
Best Wishes,
h
Sol, you know that they have a lot of money in the palestinian authority. But the guys who got the big $$$ like abu mazen and erikat, etc., don't want to share it, and besides, if the common folk suffer then they earn brownie points in world public opinion. Look how WE are suffering. The guy who says WE, is not suffering. He's the one whose children study in the US or Europe, he has a big house, maybe a servant or two or three or four. He's well fed and well clothed [by the way, did you ever see Muhammad Dahlan's wardrobe?]. Expensive duds. And these "leaders" are the ones who whine to the international media, although the rank and file can whine and lie pretty well too when they want to. Today there was a shootout in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas. Unfortunately only a few got killed. But the common folk in those zones are in more danger of the shots from their heroic mujahidin brethren than from Israel.
My letter to the Globe - not published
Sir,
Actions have consequences.
The Japanese made a choice to bomb Pearl Harbor. The consequence was that millions of Japanese died in a war of their own making.
The Palestinian Arabs, including, those needing medical care, made a choice to vote for an Islamist, terrorist government. The consequence is that the international subventions that have paid for medical care under the Palestinian Authority has been cut off.
The consequences - ill health and even death - are horrendous. But the cause was the free choice of a regime committed to the murder of innocent civilians and to the elimination of a neighboring nation.
"See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. ... I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live" (Dt 30:15, 19)
If Palestinain voters regret having chosen Hamas, let them make a new and wiser choice.
write to the Globe
letter@globe.com