As nations scrambled to obtain desperately needed medical
equipment, Israel quietly coordinated a massive 150
medical cargo flights operation, involving El Al and Israel’s fabled Mossad
intelligence agency, to scour the globe for much needed drugs, ventilators,
protective clothing, and test kits.
Huge El Al Dreamliners
were converted into cargo planes as part of Israel’s emergency measures. Israir
Airlines also sent planes to the Far East including to Shenzhen for medical supplies, and to bring stranded
Israelis back from Vietnam.
Thanks to these efforts, Israel was quick off the mark and
ahead of the field which helped keep the nation's damage rate remarkably low.
Part of the incoming medical equipment was send into
Palestinian controlled areas, including into Gaza, through the coordination of
the Israel and Palestinian Health Ministries.
On May 19, an unmarked Etihad
Airlines plane landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, making it the
inaugural flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, to bring medical supplies for
the Palestinian Authority.
In a survey carried out by the Palestinian Center
for Public Opinion in March, the majority of Palestinian Arabs polled (68%) said
they were satisfied by the coordination between Israel and the PA to prevent the
spread of the virus in Palestinian-controlled areas.
Despite Israel’s coordination with the Palestinian to reduce
the spread of the virus, in April the official PA spokesman was corona-washing
Israel by accusing the Jewish State of spreading the disease among the
Palestinians.
By May, COGAT,
the Israeli Unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the
Territories, had been assisting the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian
medical personnel in stopping the spread of the virus in territory under Palestinian
civilian control.
Then, when news came through that the United Arab Emirates
had sent a cargo plane with essential equipment for the Palestinian Authority
to Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, Mahmoud Abbas began to rant against accepting anything
from Israel.
By the time the unmarked Etihad plane landed in Israel, the
Palestinian Authority was in full-throttle rejectionist mode. 14 tons of medical equipment flown in
specifically for Palestinian needs stood on the tarmac as the PA objected to
the “normalization of ties”
between the Arab world and Israel.
This was a United Nations coordinated flight of urgent
medical supplies. As the UN Special Coordinator, Nikolai Mladenov, said, “The
aid includes personal protective equipment and medical equipment. Most notable,
it includes ten ventilators that are acutely needed.”
Yet, as other nations are in desperate need of such equipment,
the Palestinian Authority have put their political agenda ahead of the health
and safety of their own people.
At the outbreak of the pandemic Israel acted rapidly and
nimbly to scour the globe for essential supplies of medical equipment. Pride had no preference over the health of
its citizens. The health of its citizens, the medical necessities of its people,
were paramount. Even the economy was put on lockdown along with the population.
The Israeli Government went to extraordinary and expensive
lengths to obtain the material without which the battle against the virus could
not have been won. Israel was prepared to approach avowed enemies and dictators
for the greater good of its people. Politics were put aside for the physical
protection of its population.
Not so the Palestinian leadership.
The Palestinian leadership has developed a history of jeopardizing
its own people’s health for political and ideological machinations against the
Jewish State.
In June
2010, after a failed Gaza flotilla charade, Israel attempted to deliver
medical aid and other items from the impounded boats to the people of Gaza via
the official route between Ashdod port and the Gaza Strip. But Hamas refused to
accept the Israeli delivery at the Gaza crossing point.
In July 2014,
Israel prepared to send millions of shekels’ worth of medicines, chemotherapy
and medical equipment, even blood donations to Gaza but the Palestinian
Authority refused to accept it over its feud with Hamas.
In May
2018, it was Hamas’s turn to reject medical aid from Israel when it
rejected shipments of medical supplies for Gaza hospitals. Eight trucks entered
Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing with items from the Palestinian Authority,
two trucks had supplies from the UN, and two were donated by the IDF
Technological & Logistics Directorate. The IDF convoy included fuel for the
hospital generators, disinfectants, bandages, IV fluids, beds, hospital gowns and
pediatric equipment. Hamas rejected the IDF donations saying they were not
prepared to accept medicine “from the murderers of our people.”
In May
2019, Jason Greenblatt, then President Trump’s Special Representative for
International Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, when questioned
why the United States had stopped funding Palestinian hospitals, replied, “"The PA incurred bills @ the
hospital & assumed someone else would pay. We want those patients to
receive the best care, the PA could easily pay its own bills to the hospital by
ending incentive payments to terrorists/their families & use the $ to care
for their people,” referring to the Palestinian Authority “Pay to Slay”
policy of rewarding their dead or imprisoned terrorists.
The politicization of medical aid
to the Palestinians was covered In a detailed research paper by NGO-Monitor
back in March
2015.
It began way before 2015. It continues
today. The evidence shows a decades old weaponization of the medical needs of their people against Israel. And the people suffering the most are those living under the
anti-normalization boots of both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Barry Shaw, Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
No comments:
Post a comment