Differences Between Hamas and Israel's Democratic Government in Regards to Life

Nadene Goldfoot


Since the beginning of 2010, rockets have been flying into Israel from Gaza fired by Hamas terrorists. There has not been a month that goes by without rockets landing in civilian neighborhoods. That said," more than 11,000 patients with escorts have left the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Israel." This was in 2009. Usually Ashkelon's hospital receives them. By taking in the enemy, Israel is taking great risks, but being a humanitarian society, they have continued to do so.


"Israelis ask that Palestinians change cars at the border because cars had been rigged to explode. A woman on crutches was changing cars. She fell down. Three Israeli soldiers ran to help her get up. She blew herself up, killing the four of them. The Hamas government is preaching genocide of Israel, yet Israel is treating Gaza's sick."


180,000 Palestinians have been treated in 2010 in Israeli hospitals. Judea and Samaria also have their casualies and come to Israel for treatment. "To Israel, the answer to these questions is clear. According to its Division Medical Officer “The treatment of the Palestinian population is first and foremost a moral and professional obligation for every one of us. Do we treat them? There is no question about it. "

What does Hamas do? It has become their practice to target hospitals where Palestinians are being treated. Ashkelon's hospital has had to create a hospital underground in order to continue its work. Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center is Israel's front line hospital on the Gaza border. They have medical care for the surrounding 502 square miles with a 500 bed hospital and a level 2 trauma center. They target civilian towns such as nearby Sderot and schools and hospitals as well as anyplace within reach. Their reaches have been lengthening. 1600 Kassam missiles attacks happen each year since 2006. They have treated 1400 patients with acute and post traumatic stress disorders and diseases since then. Each year they admit 100,000 emergencies. They have 150% constant occupancy each year. Even their cafeteria has regularly been converted into hospital bed space. This is not unusual for Israel. In 1981 I was admitted into the army hospital in Haifa and had to be kept in the hallway immediately after surgery. There was no room for me then. The next day, I was brought to a ward with many women.

Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch in 1978, commented "that it struck him as bizarre that in an asymmetric war of attrition, which we're still learning about how to fight, a nation cares for the sick of a neighbor that is preaching genocide to its people, and the only human rights comment has been that they are not doing it well enough. " Robert has spoken out criticizing the group he had founded.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=196646.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6883034.ece
http://haifadiarist.blogspot.com/2010/11/180000-palestinians-treated-in-israeli.html
http://www.mererhetoric.com/2009/01/03/israeli-hospitals-treating-wounded-palestinians-plus-hamas-unleashes-another-round-of-missiles-at-israeli-schools-and-hospitals/

Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon

Human Rights Watch Leader Joins Critics of Own Group Over Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

Robert L. Bernstein is the founder of Human Rights Watch and has been the chairman for the past 20 years. He finally stepped down from this responsibility in 1998 when it was active in 70 countries. Now he finds himself in the awkward position of having to publicly criticize it because of it's unfair attacks on Israel.

Israel is a country of 7.4 million. There are about 80 human rights organizations within it. They have a free press, a democratic government, a judiciary that often rules against the government so that they do have self criticism, a politically active academia, many many political parties and more jounalists per capita than any other country in the world. The journalists come there mainly to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Arab and Iranian regimes rule over 350 million people. They are still brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no dissent. The plight of their citizens are being ignored by any human watch group as they are too busy trying to attack Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah are attacking Israel and are using their own people as human shields. They are supported by Iran who has declared its intention to destroy and murder Jews everywhere. Everyone knows that these terrorist groups chose to choose their war arena amongst dense populated areas on purpose. They don't care that this war deprives Palestinians of a peaceful life because it suits their purpose to gain sympathy and condemnation against Israel. Here we have Israel, the victim of aggression, being the ones that are criticized unfairly.

Members of Human Rights Watch are not out on the field to see which laws of war have been violated. They are relying on witnesses with unverifiable stories who testify for political advantage or because they fear retaliation from their own rulers. Col. Richard Kemp, an expert on warfare has said that the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. He is not being listened to by the Human Rights group.

People should understand that there is a difference between wrongs committed in self-defense and those perpetrated intentionally. This Goldstone report does not enforce the difference. As Kemp stated, Israel did their utmost to preserve life. It was to their advantage to not bring down attacks from the world on their course of action. Regardless, they are dammed nevertheless. Perhaps only army personnel in the world will see this fact. Knowing that their peer group understands is not changing the United Nations' verbal attack.

Reference: Robert L. Bernstein, former president and chief executive of Random House, former chairman of Human Right Watch from 1978 to 1998.