Israel's compassion in Haiti can't hide ugly face

[Middle East News Service comments: Virtually since this Haiti earthquake I’ve been bombarded with messages from people praising the great work done to assist the Haitian people by their respective side, Jewish and/or Israeli ; and Muslim. Thankfully there has only been one message downgrading the other side’s effort. Having been brought up on the Jewish concept of matan bastar (donating in secret) I would preferred more attention being given to the work and donations and the donors being more circumspect but I’ve decided to tolerate the boasting as a necessary part of life in this century.

For the last two nights Australia’s SBS TV news has shown rescue efforts where, as far as I could tell, no reference was made to the rescue team nationality but the distinctive Hebrew markings of IDF were there for all to see. In some ways SBS’s silence makes up for the self aggrandisement. [Disclosure: I am often critical of Israel but that does not prevent me from (rarely) feeling proud of my country of birth when it is doing something good. SBS should have acknowledged the Israelis’ role.]

Of course it is all about politics and as the Hebrew version of this article suggests there’s always room on the plane for the military correspondents to do their national duty and tell Israelis (and the world) about the good work. I will leave it to Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar to put the whole thing into context –Sol Salbe.]

Who said we are shut up inside our Tel Aviv bubble? How many small nations surrounded by enemies set up field hospitals on the other side of the world? Give us an earthquake in Haiti, a tsunami in Thailand or a terror attack in Kenya, and the IDF Spokesman's Office will triumph. A cargo plane can always be found to fly in military journalists to report on our fine young men [and women] from the Home Front Command.

Everyone is truly doing a wonderful job: the rescuers, searching for survivors; the physicians, saving lives; and the reporters, too, who are rightfully patting them all on the back. After Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon became the face we show the world, the entire international community can now see Israel's good side.

But the remarkable identification with the victims of the terrible tragedy in distant Haiti only underscores the indifference to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza. Only a little more than an hour's drive from the offices of Israel's major newspapers, 1.5 million people have been besieged on a desert island for two and a half years. Who cares that 80 percent of the men, women and children living in such proximity to us have fallen under the poverty line? How many Israelis know that half of all Gazans are dependent on charity, that Operation Cast Lead created hundreds of amputees, that raw sewage flows from the streets into the sea?

View the rest of the article here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1143313.html

[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements]

© Scoop Media