A Light Unto the Nations
We write this with a tremendous amount of sadness and solidarity for the victims of the Haitian earthquake, but with overwhelming pride over the extraordinary compassion, skill and dexterity with which the Israeli army, rescue workers, and physicians have flown into that devastated nation, set up life-saving equipment and field hospitals within forty eight hours, and took extraordinary measures to save human lives. The Haitian medical system in that poor, devastated nation had broken down completely, but there was Israel, first on the scene, to fill the void called by many on the scene as “a model for emergency medical care”.
Over the last several days, multiple media reports have captured how efficient and effective Israeli aid efforts have been to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Despite being 6,243 miles away, Israel was the first nation to have set up a full-service, makeshift hospital.
A CNN report quoted American doctors saying the only place accepting their patients for care was the Israeli hospital.
A CBS report showed Israeli medics relocating to an Israeli facility patients who had been receiving care at a first-aid center sitting on land owned by the United Nations but which the UN needed back. The CBS reporter called the Israeli facility the “Rolls-Royce” of hospital care.
Fox News Geraldo at Large program reported that, at one Israeli medical care facility, an Israeli doctor even donated his own blood to save the life of a premature baby and that the facility was providing “the best of care.”
As of January 20, Israeli teams in Haiti had cared for 367 patients in Israel’s field hospital and performed 104 life-saving operations. President Bill Clinton, surveying destruction in Haiti, said he was “profoundly grateful to the Israelis. They’re doing a great job.”
A team of Israeli rescue workers and a Mexican military delegation pulled eight people from a collapsed university building in an operation that took 38 hours to complete. The Israelis took time out for Saturday prayers, praying toward Jerusalem on the ruins of the building, while curious locals watched. When the prayers concluded, a crowd of locals gathered around the Israelis and kissed their prayer shawls.
At one of the field hospitals, Israeli doctors helped a woman they had rescued give birth to a child. The child was given the name, “Israel.”
Despite being constantly demonized in the press for trying to defend its own civilian life, the facts speak for themselves. Israel has unfortunately had to gather knowledge hard-earned wisdom and experience setting up life saving measures under the worst of circumstances with great dexterity.
This demonstrates once again that the Jewish nation, despite all the hardships it has been forced to confront in its 61 years of existence, has been imbued with Jewish values. As one Israeli doctor on the scene said, “When we save the lives of one person, we feel that we save the world. We feel that we have saved the world, several times, on this mission.”
Written by Sarah Stern and Jess Sadick