Halpern: Israel can do no right: Finding hate in Haiti

I'm thinking

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of January 29, 2010/ 14 Shvat 5770

Israel thought it was sending a rescue team of two hundred and thirty workers to Haiti. What Israel really sent was a team of saviors. The aftershock of the earthquake is being measured not only in human terms, but also in diplomatic terms.

The international coverage that the Israeli team has been receiving in Haiti rivals the coverage received on July 4, 1976 after the daring rescue at Entebbe. Israel often merits mention in the news, but rarely are the stories positive. In Haiti, it is all positive. Israel is doing what Israel does well — reacting in the face of crisis, saving lives, easing the struggle, assessing the situation and bringing experience and expertise to a country and a people in need.

By now almost everyone around the world has heard the story of the baby girl born in the Israeli mobile surgical hospital and named Israel by her mother. Almost everyone has seen video or stills of the only real surgical center set up in the field of Haiti, a testament to the creativity and commitment that Israel has to saving lives across the world. It’s not that there are no other field hospitals, after all. The United States produced a hit movie and very successful television program called MASH whose title is an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. But those units are cumbersome, unlike the Israeli version.

Good PR is priceless, but it does not buy medicine, manpower or supplies. Israel is donating far more to Haiti than countries that are far bigger and far, far richer. The Israel business website The Marker claims that its figures come straight from the desks of those who are allocating the money — and it reports that the first week following the earthquake cost Israel 30 million shekel. That is equivalent to about $8 million. And every additional day after will cost another 1.5 million shekel or about $400,000. The entire operation is expected to cost 90 million Israeli shekel. Putting it into perspective, Israel dedicates 40 million shekel, or about $11 million to its entire public relations campaign in North America.

A famous saying says no good deed goes unpunished. For all the good that Israel is doing, for all the help that Israel is providing, for all the lives saved and the quality of life improved, I am beginning to hear rumblings of resentment and critique.

The question some people are asking is, if Israel is so good at helping others and if Israel is willing to go half way around the world to save victims of a natural disaster, why do they not help the Palestinians? Sometimes the question is even more biting: how it is that Israel saves one group and causes the suffering of another?

The fact that these questions are being asked is more important than any answer I or any Israeli leader can give. These questions show a fundamental disconnect with reality. They show that Israel can be admired and despised by the same people at the very same time.

We are witnessing the revelation of a new face of anti-Semitism. An anti-Semitism that is different than any anti-Semitism that has come before. It is born of pride in Israel and gratitude to Israel and is so subtle, yet so destructive, that many of its adherents are themselves Jews.

This new anti-Semite takes pride in Israel when she protects others, but is repulsed when she protects her own. Their numbers are still small. Their voices are still relatively hushed. But pay attention, their message is ominous.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com