by Rabbi Ira Youdovin
former ARZA Executive Director and current chair of ARZA's Rabbinic Cabinet

Televised images of Gaza, Israel's security barrier and alleged mistreatment of the Palestinians have undermined the Jewish State's standing in world opinion. CNN footage from Haiti tells a very different story, and reveals much about Israel's soul, and the circumstances under which Israelis live.

By last Thursday evening, only 48 hours after the devastating earthquake, Israel had assembled and sent airborne a flight loaded with military and civilian medical personnel, including 120 doctors and nurses, rescue teams, search dogs, and equipment and supplies for establishing  a sophisticated field hospital capable of treating 500 patients daily.  The hospital went operational in Port-au-Prince Friday afternoon, serving as the only facility in Haiti offering advanced treatment to the seriously wounded.  "It came from halfway around the world", an astonished CNN's reporter notes.  The United States, which lies only a few hundred miles north of Haiti, had yet to put its mission in place.

The sad aspect of this heroic story is that Israel was able to mobilize so quickly because its people have had much experience----too much experience--- in addressing emergencies in which human lives hang in the balance.  The rapid response skills displayed in Haiti have been honed through years of rescuing critically wounded victims of suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism. 

Among other Israelis responding to the Haitian crisis is a team of Israeli ultraorthodox Jews from ZAKA, an organization founded during the first wave of suicide bombings to collect the scattered body parts of victims in order to bury them in conformity with halacha.  But ZAKA discovered early on that its rapid arrival on the scene also positioned its workers to rescue the living, which they do with incredible speed and ultimate skill. 

Arriving Friday afternoon, the ZAKA team was immediately dispatched to a collapsed school building, where it pulled eight students from the rubble. They worked straight through the Sabbath---as mandated by halacha to save human lives---breaking briefly to welcome Shabbat with the traditional wine and bread, an experience they reportedly shared with rescue workers from Egypt and Qatar. 

But having all the experience and skill in the world is worthless without a commitment  to share it. Israel has repeatedly provided assistance to victims of crises such as the 1998 floods in Central America, and earthquakes in Turkey (1999), El Salvador (2001) and India (2001).  Additionally, Israel has aided refugees from Kosovo, and welcomed Vietnamese "boat people."  Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a list of Israeli contributions to the welfare of others.  It includes more than 140 recipient states and authorities.

Israel is often accused of being "disproportionate" in its use of force.  In fact, its enormous contribution to the well-being of people everywhere is entirely disproportionate for a tiny nation of only 7.5 people.  Of that, we can be enormously proud.

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