International Committee of the Red Cross and Anti-Semitism

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has decided that Jews who reside in a general region they have decided unilaterally is to be Judenrein and any Israeli services in that area are to be forbidden or minimized to the point of uselessness. The region has a Jewish population approaching if not exceeding half a million. But that is but half of the problem as that region also has a sizable Arab population who were also served by Israeli services. But the ICRC has decided that it will enforce a BDS type of policy on all of Judea and Samaria. This includes an area which according to even the Oslo Accords is to be civically, militarily and governance under Israel and is know as Area C. It is only Arab and Islamic propaganda which refutes this and it is easily verified through a simple reading of the Oslo Accords. But since when has international law, treaties or any other legally binding rules, agreement or laws ever stopped the anti-Semites. It was the ICRC which forced Magen David Adom (MDA) to completely alter their official logo simply because the Arab and Islamic world threw up a fit over the large Star of David which they stated was racist against Islam. Of course, there is no problem with the crescent used by the Arab and Islamic branches of the Red Cross, just the Israeli emblem was found offensive. The emblem below was a compromise reached after years of conflict and a threat by MDS to simply leave the not so fertile ranks of the ICRC otherwise Israel was to be forced to utilize simply a red diamond with no reference to the Jewish emblems. So, the history of the ICRC and MDA has been a fairly rocky one and perhaps it is time for Israel to go her own way and start to simply ignore the world gone mad.

 

Traditional and ICRC Approved Forced Logos

 

The current problem is that as far as the ICRC is concerned, Israel is to be banned from providing services to anybody beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines when Jordan occupied lands which were legally a part of Israel. Ever since Israel liberated these areas, the world and most of its international organization have been pressing Israel to leave these lands and give them to terrorists so that they can launch rockets at their hearts’ content into central Tel Aviv. This is the latest assault by the ICRC in their attempt to push the MDA ambulance and other life-saving services from the regions that they desire all Jews be removed. What they are ignoring is that the MDA also saves countless Arab lives in these regions as well. Are the Arabs also to go without ambulance service? And what happens when Arabs start to die because the MDA was not allowed to fully man ambulances throughout this region? We can tell you exactly what the ICRC will say and then the European Union, United Nations and countless human rights NGOs will all say. They will start on how Israel has cut back on ambulance service in Arab areas and are allowing Arabs to die. Israel will be castigated as heartless in allowing ambulance service to be cut back so that Arabs are no longer receiving timely medical assistance which could very well mean the difference between life and death. The fact that the ICRC policies and demands were responsible for the cut in the number of ambulances and emergency services which produced the situation in the first place will be ignored and it will be only because the Israelis (read Jews) are so heartless and are intentionally limiting these services to Arabs. The fact that these restrictions are also affecting Jews will also be ignored completely as Jewish lives lost are not something to get all upset about, only other than Jews matter to these international organizations.

 

But none of this is new. The European Union and United Nations and the numerous organizations and NGOs that they bankroll have been playing the double gambit for years. They demand, for example, that SodaStream build their new factory somewhere within the Green Line (1949 Armistice Line). Then when over five-hundred Palestinian Arabs lose their positions with the company, there are calls to boycott them for not employing the Palestinian Arabs. This is an old ploy which has been the calling card of the anti-Semites for centuries. Way back in those fun times around and before the Middle Ages the Jews were forbidden from owning land. Since the Muslims and Christians were not permitted to lend money and businesses needed some means of trading goods other than bartering, the Jews were often what were called moneylenders. Then the Jews were persecuted for charging interest. Further, many courts would not prosecute anybody who owed a Jew money because it was the Jew’s fault for lending to one who could not pay. This is the same game on a different board and different times, but it is the same old game of force the Jew and then condemn the Jew for doing what you demanded. This is the game being played by the ICRC as they demand that MDA pull most of their ambulance and rescue personnel from the regions the ICRC has decided does not belong to Israel and they are looking at it now as denial of decent service to half a million Jews. But when Arabs also end up being affected, then it will be the fault of Israel for this lack of emergency service just as it was the fault of SodaStream for most of their Arab workers not being able to gain the security approvals in order to work inside Israel. Of course with SodaStream they wanted these Arabs to have free entry into Israel along with all the Palestinian Arabs despite their not being citizens of Israel. This is the same ICRC which was less than thrilled when President Trump refused to allow the caravan of illegal immigrants entry into the United States when they reached the border. For some reason, it appears that the entities which are always harping about Israel also seem to have difficulties with the United States whenever a Republican is in the White House but these same groups never appear to have any problems with China over Tibet or the Arab world over their human rights abuses.

 

Israel will continue to try and mollify these groups such as the ICRC, United Nations, European Union, various presumed human rights NGOs and countless governments from Europe to the Americas to the Middle East and North Africa to whatever extent is not proven to be lethal, and even sometimes things which prove lethal such as the Oslo Accords and Gaza Disengagement. What might be a more prescient and wise plan of action would be to simply distance Israel from these groups and inform them that they no longer hold any sway over Israeli policies. Even many Israelis look at such a plan and exclaim that Israel must not isolate herself from the rest of the world. That is not about what this idea is. What it is about is those nations and organizations which have a proven track record of hatred for Israel to the point of anti-Semitism as they single out Israel and set standards that only Israel must meet and that no nation could ever possibly attain and then castigate Israel for not meeting those standards. There has been a small move in this direction with certain United Nations agencies, but only when done in concert with the United States thus far. Israel need act on her own against these blatantly hostile entities. No nation would put up with half of what Israel faces with only the United States even coming close. The ICRC though has a particular problem when it comes to Israel and this latest foolish demand for Israel to refuse to properly service a region which by international law she is responsible for such services, that is a criticism just awaiting the right time to lower the boom. The reality is that should the world continue on its dizzying drive into anti-Zionism, anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism, it will not be too much longer before Israel really will be a nation apart. This is not what Israel or her people wish, but it sure is beginning to appear that it is what the world desires.

 

For proof, all one need do is look up United Nations votes on condemning Israel, look at the European Union and its preoccupation with criticizing Israel, United Nations agencies and their condemnations of Israel, the ICRC and their continued harassment of MDA, the numbers of NGOs whose main emphasis is attempts to cripple Israel through BDS or other means and the growing anti-Semitism riding alongside growing anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism across Europe and now taking root in the United States including in the House of Representatives. How much longer will friends of Israel be capable of preventing the foaming at the mouth rabid hatred for the Jewish State. Nothing Israel could do and remain the Jewish State will turn back the coming tsunami of hatred and bile from the rest of the world. When regularly the United Nations General Assembly votes over one-hundred nations condemning Israel no matter what the reason as the reason is not what matters, what matters is the condemnation of Israel for any and every possible reason. The root of this problem is that anti-Semitism has become an international plague infecting virtually every corner of our globe. The infection is growing at an alarming pace and it shows absolutely no sign of abating any time in the coming future. If anything, this growing tidal swamping appears as if it could easily overtake every nation even in the remotest parts of the world. When investigations are performed on anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism and it is found that almost one-third of those who have measurable levels of either or both anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism and also make the statement that they have never knowingly met anybody who was an Israeli or Jewish, then there is a problem without a cure. In all too many ways, it appears that the only means to combat this raging insanity is by divine intervention, and that may be exactly what will happen. Looking at history and what has happened to every empire which has persecuted the Jews, one would think that the world might have learned that hating and persecuting Jews is not exactly a promising path for success and continued existence, but no. If anything the world has decided to double down and double down again, then now considering going all in on Jew-hatred. This has proven to be a horrible idea in the past and will probably work just as horribly in the future as some things just do not appear to change. Let us pray that the human race decides that hate, any and all hate of one people by another is wasteful and never productive, and let us hope this awakening comes really soon before the world topples over the edge of no return.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Hard Truth in Action

 

We need to establish a small matter for defining what makes a civilized human being. Does a civil human being assist people in distress? How about if it is a group of women? A group of women in their eighties out for a stroll when they are assaulted and two or three are hurt, even bleeding? Do you agree with me that any normal human being with an ounce of human emotions and compassions would jump in and at the very least call for an ambulance if not apply basic first aid? I would hope we are in agreement on at least this much as a true test of humanity and moral humanity. Now we can proceed with the article. We can examine a morning in Jerusalem and a string of events which scream a reality which, until the world wraps their arms around this, are faced in Israel almost daily.

 

The news I read the other day in this article about a group of five octogenarians, grandmothers or potentially great-grandmothers, but that is simply some additional information which makes these ladies potentially even more deserving of civility, was shocking in its inhumanity. Unfortunately that was quite the case this past week as they set out as they had many times before for their stroll around the Promenade near their assisted care residence. These lively ladies, well, lively for octogenarians of either gender and may we be capable of such a stroll when we reach that fine age, faced a horror purely shocking in its remifications. There was something these ladies had not prepared for, as how does one prepare to be violated walking right next to their residence. That was when they heard one of their company scream out, not in pain but in warning. Marina Fuchs, 86, shouted to her friends: “Girls, run, run!” Further information on this cowardly attack can be read here. The attack was as horrific as it was disgusting, completely disgusting and carried out by some really depraved excuses for human beings as no normal human would ever commit such an assault against women for starters and octogenarian women at that.

 

So we have an assault of five octogenarian women by a pair of bold, brave, stout, masked terrorists and also unbelievably vicious risk adverse terrorists who had been obviously seeking the easiest prey they could find and who have more to be ashamed over than they have to their credit for drawing blood from a couple of eighty year old plus women. Such boldness should never go unpunished, even by their fellow jihadists. These women who ended up as the targets for these brave soldiers of Allah were walking by the Haas Promenade as has been their habit. Perhaps having their promenade on the promenade take place around the same time day after day made them targets. Who chooses a group of eighty plus year old ladies as their target, we do not care how regular and dependable these ladies walking the promenade happened to be. Eighty year old ladies are far from appropriate targets unless the aim is to murder every last Israeli. That may not be all that far from their target, but that we will reach later. The immediate problem is entirely separate for now. These assailants, terrorists, set upon two of the women, eighty year old women, stabbing them multiple times, one stabbed from behind, and then fled before the remaining three actually knew what had struck their friends. As noted above, one of the stabbed victims shouted out her warning, not necessarily that concerned for her own welfare but thinking of the welfare of her friends. She immediately warned the others with her yelling of, “Girls, run, run!” The rest were taken aback by their friend’s scream but turned and saw their friends fallen onto the pavement with one obviously bleeding from her chest. The attackers had run off probably scared defenseless that the remaining three eighty year old women might turn on them and disarm them beating them senseless with their purses. These two brave attackers had seen how vicious old women with purses are capable of becoming when seeing Monty Python.

 

Seriously, the other women did not flee but instead returned to assist their friends as best as they were able. This was where the story became really sickening. They turned to some construction workers who were taking a break near to the scene for assistance. They did not expect these men to be physicians; they simply requested that they call for an ambulance. The workmen refused to assist initially pretending not to understand Hebrew and then feigning to be having important discussions on their phones making them unable to disconnect and phone for help, or possibly place their all-important call on hold pausing it to call for help. Marina Fuchs revealed that Arab laborers at the scene of the attack refused to help the Jewish victims, even as they bled from their stab wounds. She reported that, “We walked and next to the bathrooms stood Arabs who were cleaning there. We asked them to call an ambulance. They wouldn’t agree to do so, and acted as if they were talking on the phone.” The assailants were an evil enough representation but this was even a worse representation of the depth of the Arab hatred for the Jews residing amongst them as they desire the Jews not just gone but dead, and that was what this refusal indicates and is what everyone in the world needs to understand. There are far too many who would instead of criticizing the Arabs would claim that if this is so bothersome, then maybe the Jews should heed this hatred and simply leave and return from whence they came. The question then has to be where does the half of the Israeli population, Jewish population, who were spat out by their former Arab nations go? These Jews had never resided in Europe or elsewhere and their families had resided in their Arab homes through thick and thin for, in many cases, over a thousand years. Where do these Jews go, suggestions?

 

Eventually help was called and the Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics treated the victims and evacuated them to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital. The MDA senior paramedic spokesperson Shlomi Tedgi reported, “We saw two elderly women, about 80 years old, lying on the dust by the promenade. They were fully conscious and suffered from stab wounds, one in her limbs and her upper body and the other in her upper body. They talked and interacted with us. We gave them field medical treatment an evacuated them to the hospital. They were in moderate but stable condition.” Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital reported that the elderly ladies they treated are both in moderate condition with wounds to their backs and limbs.

 

Octogenarian Women Haas Promenade Terror Scene

 

Were this refusal be the Arab worker an isolated instance, then perhaps the argument could be made that it was an outlier, an isolated incident and dismissed as a boorish response to fellow human beings in distress. Unfortunately it is simply reminiscent of a more tragic incident just this past October in the Old City sections of Jerusalem. This incident was in many ways even worse scenario as in this attack Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, age forty-one, and Aharon Banita Bennett, age twenty-one, lost their lives while Bennett’s wife was seriously wounded and his two-year-old son was lightly wounded. The deadly attack took place on Hagai Street immediately adjacent to a medical clinic. This Arab health clinic was open and fully staffed at the time of the incident yet not a single staff member went to the aid of the injured and dying despite pleadings for assistance. This was not the end of the disgusting behavior as the residents of this Arab neighborhood mocked and laughed at Bennett’s wounded wife as she tried to escape the attacker and was seeking assistance, any assistance. This has not always been the response and to be fair there have been Arab families who have taken in Jews in distress hiding them from mobs which would have easily murdered them. These instances are instructive as the Arab families who decide to take such bold actions are often at the behest of the head of household who pleads to never be identified as they fear their governing Palestinian Authority, if not their neighbors, would murder them. Assisting a Jew is almost always punished as it is seen as supporting the Zionist enemy. The unfortunate thing is those willing to risk everything and act humanely are in the minority and often pay the price for their heroic deeds. Still, when physicians refuse to give aid, what may have been life-saving aid, that is a whole new area which can only leave one to wonder how any peace can be reached when the population holds such animosity.

 

This hatred has been cultivated through the Palestinian Authority and related media, schools, entertainment industry and enforced through laws making interactions such as selling an apartment or land to a Jew or Jewish institution punishable by death. The indoctrination has been instituted for over two generations and has taken such a poisonous affect that even if peace were reached tomorrow it would take numerous generations to undo the damages already inflicted. It is the deep-seated animosity and visceral hatreds which now prevent any peace from being initiated as Mahmoud Abbas, even if he desired peace, which his actions prove he does not, he would be murdered in the most horrific of manners imaginable by his own people for making such an agreement. It would not matter how he would plead that he had tricked the Jews, just the picture of him in a signing ceremony with an Israeli would be sufficient cause for his lynching. The reason Abbas demands ever more ludicrous concessions from the Israelis just to simply meet once, shake hands, and never meet again and end all even motions of negotiating a peace can be traced to the absolute poisoning of the waters separating the Arab Palestinian society from the Jews. The proof of which way the animosity and hatreds flow is easily represented as the above is indicative of Arab refusal to even call an ambulance for an eighty year old woman victim of a terrorist stabbing and the refusal by medical “professionals” to treat Jews stabbed right outside their clinic while the examples of Israeli hospitals treating Arab Palestinians are long and documented well. Here are just a few stand-out examples of Arabs treated by Israeli hospitals, Ismail Haniyeh’s daughter’s week-long admission to a hospital in Tel Aviv, Mahmoud Abbas’s wife treated in Israel, mother-in-law of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Gazan child with severe burns is being treated in an Israeli hospital after a devastating house fire in Gaza and we could continue this for hours as this search in Google proves but one would be beyond hard-pressed to find a single case of an Israeli, Arab, Jew or other, being treated in a Palestinian Hospital. This does not mean to overshadow this terror attack against these elderly women and the refusal to even lift a finger and call an ambulance by nearby Arab workers which itself speaks volumes.

 

Beyond the Cusp