Israeli soldiers set up a field hospital together with the Nepalese army in Nepal following the deadly earthquake on April 29, 2015. (IDF Spokesperson)
Israel frequently sends aid teams to countries hit by natural disasters such as post-earthquake Haiti and tsunami-stricken Japan. Nepal is no different. The Times of Israelreports:
Israel’s aid team to the earthquake-battered Himalayan nation of Nepal is the largest in manpower of any international aid mission.Over 250 doctors and rescue personnel were part of an IDF delegation that landed Tuesday in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, in the wake of Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake that devastated large swaths of the mountainous country, killing at least 5,000 and leaving some 8,000 wounded and tens of thousands seeking shelter and food.
The Israeli group set up a field hospital with 60 beds that began operations on Wednesday in coordination with the local army hospital.
By comparison, according to the BBC, the United Kingdom has sent “a team of more than 60 search and rescue responders and medical experts” and Time magazine reports that the United States is sending “about 70 American personnel”. Remember, Israel has a population of approximately 8 million. The United States is a nation of roughly 350 million. In that context, the magnitude of Israel’s efforts is even more staggering.
But instead of lauding Israel’s extraordinary response to Nepal’s distress, the mainstream media seeks to cast Israel in a bad light, highlighting of all things the fact that a number of Israeli couples employ Nepalese women as surrogate mothers to carry their children. A Time magazine headline states that “Israel Evacuates Surrogate Babies From Nepal but Leaves the Mothers Behind” although, if a reader managed to make it to the sixth paragraph of the article, he would read that, of the women in Nepal still carrying Israeli babies:
The Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he would allow the most heavily pregnant to be flown to Israel to give birth and outgoing Interior Minister Gilad Erdan promised to remove immigration hurdles for the rest.
Newsweek also chose to highlight the surrogacy issue with its article, “Israel Evacuating Babies Born to Surrogate Mothers in Nepal” as did UPI with “Israel evacuates surrogate babies and their Israeli parents but left behind expectant mothers”.
Worse still, instead of clebrating Israel’s herculean humanitarian efforts in a country half way around the world, as someone who cares about those in need would be expected to do, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, actually tweeted, “Easier to address a far-away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza. End the blockade!”
And here’s something else interesting that the media chooses to completely ignore: the commander of Israel’s field hospital in Nepal is a Druze, IDF Colonel Dr. Tarif Bader.
To keep abreast of Israel’s aid efforts in Nepal, follow Libby Weiss, the Head of the IDF Spokesperson’s North American Media Desk, on Twitter. You certainly won’t hear about it from the popular press because… Where’s the coverage?
ArnoldHarris Said:
So would I, but I don’t believe you will see anything more than building in the existent major blocks and some in Jerusalem. as for annexation of C I believe that will even disappear from discussion now that the strongest voice for that has been neutered by BB and sent to the education ministry far from any effect on Jewish settlement in YS. With the election of BB and the deflating of Bennett the YS issue will move further left.
Arnold is right yet it thrills me that Jews do this.
Because its historical failure at positive public relations (could it be because of arrogance and over-selfconfidence?) it’s about time Israel hired a substantial and successful PR firm in an attempt to reverse the universal worldview. As a Canadian, although I am proud of my country’s support of Israel, I am disgusted by its failure to put its money where its mouth is and build its new embassy in Jerusalem.
The author of this tripe makes it sound as though Israel is spending so much time on tikun haOlam bullshit in the far reaches of the Himalayan Mountains because you want the world to love us Jews and especially Israel’s Jews.
Frankly, I do not care what goes on in such a remote location, and I would prefer the money to be spent building Jewish homes and villages in all parts of Area C, the more of which will help seal the fate of Obama’s two-state non-solution.
Does such totally focused selfishness on my part sound un-Jewish? Tell me all about it after all parts of the ancient homeland of the Jewish nation are restored to the Jewish nation and the Jewish state.
In any case, wheat Eric comments is true. Americans really don’t care about earthquakes that rip apart Nepal. And the care even less so when any such news competes with the dramatic events unfolding in Baltimore, Maryland, which is right here in the heart of the American homeland.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The antisemitic mass media have a black-out on anything Made in Israel.
Ted, a couple of things:
First of all, Newsweek is no longer even a mainstream liberal/left rag. It is considered radical far left, on par with “The Nation” magazine. This is not the Newsweek you knew 25 years ago.
Second, to be fair, Nepal has been getting almost NO coverage here in the USA, due to the Baltimore riots. Nobody’s help in Nepal is getting any coverage here.