Israel’s “Disproportionate Response” in Haiti

Interesting title. Well, it should be. While the rest of the world looks for any reason to condemn Israel for “disporportionate response” to terror attacks on its citizens and rocket attacks from Gaza they also casually ignore another “disproportionate response.” In this case it’s Israel’s humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. The American Thinker blog has a wonderful piece detailing Israel’s response to the tragedy in Haiti compared with others in the world. Consider that Israel has sent “[t]wo jumbo jets carrying more than 220 doctors, nurses, civil engineers, and other Israeli army personnel, including a rescue team and field hospital, were among the first rescue teams to arrive in Haiti. In fact, they were the first [emphasis added] foreign backup team to set up medical treatment at the partially collapsed main hospital in Port-au-Prince.”

Let’s compare that to the response by others:

1. The U.S. has pledged 100 million and sent supplies and personnel
2. The U.K. pledged $10 million and sent 64 firemen and 8 volunteers
3. China, a country with a population of 1,325,639,982 sent 50 rescuers and seven journalists
4. The 25 Arab League nations sent nothing

Hmmm…makes one think, doesn’t it? Even CNN can’t find mud to sling at the Israeli’s with regards to this. In their video the CNN correspondent notes that only the Israeli’s have a functioning hospital and has been taking in patients. Such a “disporportionate response”! Wonder how CNN, Al-Jazeera and The Guardian are going to spin this story against Israel.

Whither Common Sense?

Now that the Goldstone Commission has released their report on alleged war crimes by Israel (note: the U.N. Human Rights Council‘s original mandate on this was to investigate Israel’s conduct of the war and not Hamas’ or the Palestinians…wonder why?) during the recent Gaza offensive, Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak has finally responded with an excellentopinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Where has common sense gone to in this day and age? Israel suffers for 8 years the ceaseless rocket attacks (aimed specifically at civilian targets) by terrorist organizations (one of whom then takes control of the Gaza strip) and, when Israel responds to the attacks, it is chastised and demonized. This from a group (the UNHRC) which seems to be fixated and obsessed with condemning and demonizing Israel while ignoring and only expressing “deep concern” for human rights abuses in places like Somalia and Burma.

A Reflection on Yom Ha’atzmaut

I recently stumbled upon Daniel Gordis‘ article on the purpose of the state of Israel.

It’s an excellent piece and I highly recommend that you read it. Dr. Gordis hits the nail smack on the head. He contrasts two different pictures of Jews. In one there is the little boy, hands held high in the air in surrender, completely vulnerable while a Nazi points a gun in his surrender. We know what his fate is — the fate of Jews for centuries past — death. In the second we have a different photo of a Jew. One where the Jew determines his own destiny, his own fate. A picture where the iconic image of the Jew as defenseless and a victim is transformed into an image where the Jew is now the soldier — strong, at home in Jerusalem not in Europe — able to defend himself and his loved ones.

Warsaw Ghetto - WWII

Six Day War soldiers at the Temple Wall

These two pictures provide a dramatic contrast — in one the fate of the Jew lies in the hands of others while in the second the fate of the Jew lies in his own hands. As I read Dr. Gordis’ article I find myself agreeing with him that the world has changed seems to regret it’s decision of November 29th 1947 to partition the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish and Arab state. The world seems to regret having created the state of Israel and restoring the land to it’s rightful heirs — the Jews. Why?

Perhaps it’s because the rest of the world wishes to return all Jews to the ghetto where they can be periodically harassed and murdered without consequence. Or perhaps because the rest of the world needs a victim and a scapegoat on which it can blame all the ills of their society on — which in turn leads harassment and murder of Jews. Or perhaps it’s because the rest of the world knows that we are God’s chosen people and they hate us for that simple fact. No matter. We will not accommodate them. We wish for peace with our neighbors and with the rest of the world but we will not do so at the expense of our lives. As Dr. Gordis put it at the end of his article

[O]ne fact must remain clear: we [Israel] will not end the conflict at all costs. That is what the international community must demonstrate it understands. For on this Erev Yom Ha-Atzma’ut, as on all the others, we, at least, know well what is at stake. Given the choice between sending our children off to fight yet again, or of returning to the world of that first photograph in which someone else will decide if we live and for how long, almost all of us will choose the former.

(Gordis, Daniel, “Erev Yom Ha-Atzma’ut – A Brief Reminder About Purpose”, danielgordis.org, April 28, 2009)