In the intense anti-Semitic and anti-Israel atmosphere we see evidence of constantly, it is always my pleasure to remind my readers that even though Israel makes mistakes common to any other legitimate democracy, she and her people at their very core, have a heart of Gold. So, it’s unlikely you are going to hear about the story that just surfaced, indicating that Israel has allowed the daughter of one of Hamas’ top leaders, into the country for critical emergency medical treatment.
Ismail Haniyeh is the leader of Hamas in Gaza. His daughter, whom confidential sources in Palestine, decline to identify for privacy reasons, was admitted for a week long stay at a hospital in Tel Aviv. Israel officials, according to Reuters, were not at liberty to discuss the case, but did disclose that referrals from Palestinian doctors for cases requiring urgent treatment are routinely approved by Israel.
During and following the recent war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, dozens of victims of the conflict have been admitted to medical centers and emergency facilities in Israel, due in part, to the superior technology, equipment and expertise of Israeli surgeons.
In July, when some of the fiercest conflict was raging, Israel’s Defense Forces established a field hospital just inside the Erez border crossing, which provided humanitarian care and emergency treatment for Palestinians. The hospital was equipped not only with doctors and medical assistants, but also lab technicians, radiologists, pediatricians, OB-GYN specialists and even a delivery room.
Within this same time frame, three Palestinian girls, 4 and 7 years old and a baby, 8 months old, were brought to Wolfson Hospital near Tel Aviv. The two older girls had Ventricular Septal Defect (holes in the heart) and the baby also required open heart surgery for a congenital heart defect.
“The operations were successful and the girls are doing well,” said Dr. Akiva Tamir, head of cardiology at Wolfson Hospital near Tel Aviv. “We ignore all the politics and we are on great terms with the doctors in Gaza, despite violence and wars,” said Tamir, who performed the operations with Dr. Rula Awwad, a Palestinian surgeon from the West Bank.
The Israeli organization that Dr. Tamir and his fellow physicians belong to and that provides funding for such treatment is called Save A Child’s Heart. Since it’s establishment in 1996, doctors and facilities affiliated with the group have treated 900 children from Gaza and more than 1,000 from Iraq and other Arab states that have no relations with Israel, as well as countries across Africa, program director Simon Fisher said.
Israel lends lifesaving care to citizens of nations that subscribe to it’s destruction. They have taken in the critically wounded in the civil war raging in Syria.
Michael Curtis, writing in the American Thinker, describes the willingness of Jews to adhere to the dictates of Leviticus 19 – “The stranger that dwells with you shall be unto you as one born among you,” but also the Hippocratic oath:
Among the Syrian patients are fighters, some with serious battle wounds, who come from both sides in the civil war; some support the regime of President Assad, and others from the Free Syrian Army oppose it. They are receiving complex treatment and surgery from Israeli doctors and nurses.
One can imagine the human drama and mixed feelings of the Syrian patients receiving this treatment from Israelis, whom the Arab states have categorized as citizens of the “Little Satan” and as Zionist oppressors. One cannot expect them to become lovers of the Jewish state, but they may become less suspicious of Israel, perhaps appreciate its reality, and see Israelis as fellow humans with whom they can make peace.
You might have heard that Israel, in its efforts to limit civilian injuries and casualties in its defensive responses, provides warnings to evacuate, whenever possible to residents in areas that Israel is going to be launching counter attacks against. Hamas, in complete disregard for the fellow countrymen they purport to represent, tells Palestinians to stay put, exposing them to injury and death.
It should be mentioned that Amnesty International, has published reports accusing the IDF of firing on and shelling Palestinian hospitals and medical facilities. All of the reports are based on testimony from Hamas officials and other individuals affiliated with the Palestinian authority.
Amnesty International also mentions that they have been told that Hamas used schools and medical facilities to direct missile attacks against Israel, but they say they have not been able to “confirm” them. But the anecdotes of Palestinians, they consider to be confirmed essentially by default.
Some of the stories involve al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza. This facility was used by Hamas to initiate strikes at IDF defensive positions in Israel. The hospital was empty, and Israel gave advanced warning when the Israeli military decided to take action against the facility being used as a command center by Hamas.
In the video below, you will hear a phone conversation between an IDF official and a member of the al-Wafa staff, in which efforts are made to confirm that the hospital has been evacuated.
Incidentally, Israeli media has reported that one of Hamas leader Haniyeh’s granddaughters was treated in an Israeli hospital last November, while his mother-in-law sought treatment in a Jerusalem hospital in June.
The next time you hear from someone how terrible the State of Israel is, and that she is the catalyst for all problems in the Middle East, you might want to share these stories of goodwill and compassion. Ask them if they can cite you any similar examples from any other nation in the region. That’s probably when you will be called a Zionist or something worse.
