Encountering Peace: Israel - a leader among the community of nations
Gershon Baskin , THE JERUSALEM POST
Humanitarian disasters around the world bring out the best in Israel and in Israelis. The horrific devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti and the scenes of unbearable human suffering brought about an immediate enlistment of both civilian and public efforts to come to the aid of the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.
The sight of the El Al jet laden with medical aid and almost 200 IDF and civilian personnel brought pride to each and every Israeli and to Jews all over the world. Israel is on the ground in the heart of the disaster and we are making a difference. Our experience and capabilities in providing the world's best humanitarian aid in times of real crisis is something that we can certainly be proud of.
Unfortunately our skills and expertise were gained in having to rescue the casualties of terrorism in our own streets and homes. But from that need and from the darkness of those experiences, we spread our goodwill to thousands of innocent victims of nature's mysteries in lands far away where we have no military, strategic or economic interest.
This is truly tikkun olam in its purest form. We are there because we are Jews, we are there because we are human beings and we are there because we are a responsible member of the community of nations.
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This is the essence of Israel.
You can find the rest of this article at Jpost.com.. I don't really like what the author of this article goes on to say, comparing Gazans to the people who suffered from this horrific earthquake in Haiti. The people of Haiti were terrorized by a brutal dictatorship for decades, and are the victims of terrible disasters such as the recent one that we've all heard about.
The only disasters the people of Gaza are victims of are self-imposed. The people of Gaza have certain things the suffering people of Haiti never did: choices and chances. Each time when offered a chance or a choice, the Palestinians have consistently chosen misery over prosperity, war over peace, time after time.
The people of Gaza have not been terrorized by a bloody dictatorship either. They have been at the hands of many changing governments (normal protocol for a democracy) and each have reached out a number of different hands to the Palestinians in the territories, with the Palestinians patented 'clenched fist' given in return.
In the 2000 Camp David Accords, Arafat failed the Palestinians by rejecting a most generous offer of Israel (East Jerusalem, 92% of the West bank, all of Gaza, international aid) curiously, without even giving a counter-offer. After this the second Intifada started.
The Palestinians have also failed themselves. The Palestinians used their chance of democracy in 2006 to elect the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. We held the German people accountable for electing Adolph Hitler (see Dresden), why should Gaza be any different? The organization of Hamas, so bent on murder & power, even violently ousted the marginally different terrorist organization of Fatah, to keep its grip on power and to control Gaza's borders. Would the Palmach violently oust the Haganah, with methods including throwing them off buildings, leaving them so fearful that many dressed in womens clothing to escape alive? This is what Hamas did to Fatah in Gaza.
Since then, Egypt has enacted a complete blockade with its border of Gaza, while Israel has enacted only a partial blockade of Gaza. Gaza recieves food, medicine, water, gasoline and other types of energy from Israel. The only thing Israel blocks from Gaza are materials that are commonly used to fashion rockets to maim, kill and terrorize the Israeli civillian population.
The US and the UK firebombed a full city of its enemy civillians in Dresden, Israel supplies its enemy in Gaza, what other country in the world would ever do that? Would Russia supply the civilians of Georgia, or Chechnya?
(The answer is no, but that doesnt stop Russia from holding chairs on both the Security Council and the Human Rights Commission of the UN, a weapon of delegitimization of Israel through disproportionate amounts of dubious 'human rights resolutions' while conveniently ignoring Chinas repression against its own people and Tibet, and Russia's repressive regime and its bloody wars against Chechnya with civilian casualties astronomically higher than any Palestinian deaths caused by Israel, but thats a different post!)
There are many people suffering on the planet, but the people Haiti and Darfur do not have choices, and are not living in a condition that is self-imposed. The 'suffering' people of Gaza are.
There is NO comparison!!
G-d bless Israel
G-d bless Haiti
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