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Israel And Haiti

Posted by Jon King on Feb 01, 2010

Tagged with: benyamin netanyahu, earthquake, gaza, gaza blockade, gaza massacre, goldstone report, haiti, IDF, israel, israeli army, occupation, operation cast lead, palestine, palestinian, relief effort, the daily mohsin, west bank

Was the recent and highly publicized Israeli relief effort in Haiti a genuine humanitarian response or a well-planned PR stunt…?

Israel And Haiti

The Daily Mohsin

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, which may have wiped out up to 3% of the population, one of the most publicised national aid and rescue efforts was provided by Israel.

The day following the quake, a delegation including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Home Front Command and IDF Medical Corp Personnel left immediately to see how they could assist, and between then and the 27th January, the 218 IDF soldiers and officers, and 18 civilians treated more than 1,110 patients, conducted 319 successful surgeries, and delivered 16 births.

The IDF Search and Rescue force also rescued or assisted in the rescue of 4 individuals.

During that same time period, the same army shot 11 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, overwhelming during peaceful demonstrations; conducted 41 military raids into Palestinian communities, arrested 63 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, as well as continuing the annexation of Palestinian land and destruction of homes in the West Bank, and the suffocation of Gaza.

Israel And Haiti

“The Goldstone threat”

The goal behind the rapid and enthusiastic Israeli response is clearly therefore not a concern for human life, but rather the logical alternative, namely a conscious and well-planned PR operation.

This much was indeed admitted by the IDF Home Front Command Chief, Major General Yair Golan, who stated that “we had three missions: Saving lives, providing medical services, and representing the State of Israel honourably”.

Given that the latter element overarches the first two, it follows that the prime motivation behind Israel’s activities in Haiti was to clean up the nation’s tarnished image on the world stage.

This is a need that is seen as being so urgent following the Goldstone Report into the Gaza massacre (note, not the massacre itself), as to be almost existential.

Benyamin Netanyahu, addressing the Knesset in December, stated that there is a triple threat facing the state: “the Iranian [nuclear] threat, the missile threat and a threat I call the Goldstone threat”.

The nature of the “Goldstone threat” is clearly one solely of image, and so Israel needs to do what it can to ensure that this threat, namely that of negative perception in the West, is neutered.

Israel’s leaders largely felt that the mission to Haiti had been a major step towards achieving this. As Netanyahu stated gleefully to the returning soldiers, “You have raised human spirits and elevated the name of the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. As many plot against us, distort and muddy our names, you have shown the real IDF.”

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi (left) said that “Many have tried recently to tarnish our image. With your deeds, you have proven that the opposite is true.”

Ashkenazi was taking a break from his own efforts to prevent such “tarnishing”, namely by stymieing any attempts the remote possibility of a moderately serious internal probe into Israeli conduct during Operation Cast Lead; it is thus only natural that he should praise the soldiers for sharing some of his burden.

Read Full Article HERE…

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main image: The Daily Mohsin