What Is Behind the Israeli Hand in Haiti?

Marco Villa

I have written about this, and this debate has taken on strong passions not only in the blogosphere but also in the so-called ‘paper-of-record’ the New York Times. The debate merits a collection here on IB so you can decide for yourself if I am right or wrong. First my writings:

Israel and its Zionist supporters should not bother to spend hundreds of millions in propaganda in the U.S. - which they do - since the U.S. media is happy to offer Israel billions in dollars of worth in free promotion.

ABC News, which under Peter Jennings used to be the only reliable nightly newscast on the Middle East; is now under the auspicious of fluff-news journalist Diane Sawyer. And Sawyer is all about the human interest angle devoid of any real information or context.

Last night, she had a story about an Israeli operated tent-hospital in Haiti. She gushed with praise about how Israelis were the first on the scene in contrast to the United States which has yet to set up an equal organization. About how skilled Israelis are, they even have specified tents!, and the Haitian people are so grateful one baby girl was named “Israel”.

Admittedly, Israelis are technically doing good work in Haiti. But this is shameless P.R. Israelis are flying half the globe to help people in Haiti, but miles from Tel Aviv 1.5million Palestinians suffer under the man-made tragedy of the Israeli (and Egyptian) government. Palestinians in Gaza are also going without medical help and supplies. Palestinians desperately seeking medical leave are often denied by Israel and Egypt and are turned around to die. Many have died. And Israel only allows some Palestinians to seek medical help if they agree to become collaborators for the occupation.

The Israeli campaign in Haiti so acutely reflects Israel’s aspiration to be a noble society while failing to recognize that humanity must begin at home. Israel wants to market itself as a liberal project, but it cruelly represses and kills the indigenous population while feigning concern for people elsewhere. This is in league with Israelis who just finished their time with the occupying IDF traveling to Tibet and wearing “Free Tibet” shirts. It is incredible that there isn’t even the slightest hint of irony.

Israel wants to be seen as a normal society and one that seeks to do goodwill, but only those in the gullible and pro-Zionist U.S. media will fall for blatant Israeli P.R. campaigns in Haiti and elsewhere while the nation continues to refuse to recognize the humanity of the Palestinians. Israel is not a caring society, they are selective in their concern and when they do offer help do so for political exploitive reasons hoping to distract from their oppression of the Palestinians. This is the worst form of charity. Israel wants to kill over 400 children in Gaza and then pretends it is a decent society by inventing the media into its Haitian tent. Shameless photo-op.

If Israeli doctors really cared they’d go to Gaza.

An Israeli doctor notes that the Israeli presence in Haiti is all about making the news and that Israel really does not care:

“The extreme right wing in Israel is using the Haiti operation to reframe the fallout from the Goldstone report in the eyes of the world,” Dr Yoel Donchin, an Israeli anesthesiologist and a veteran of Israeli rescue operations told The Media Line. “They know the Haitians are not part of the agenda and this is just for propaganda. But if it’s good for Israel they don’t care.”
“You can’t save everyone, and anyone who has studied mass casualty situations knows that the first thing you have to do is not rush in but to send a small team to evaluate what is the best way to help in the long run,” he said. “So the fact that Israel wants to race to be the first to be there means nothing in the big picture, because Israel is usually the first to arrive but also the first to leave.”

“If, for example, Israel were to bring water purification systems and chemical toilets it would be much more helpful,” Dr Donchin said. “But their logic is that then it wouldn’t get on the news.”

As soon as the Western media leaves Haiti, the Israelis will immediately pack up and not even bother to leave token aid to the Haitians. Israel will not be a donor nation to Haiti.

Many people agree with me and have taken to task the critics who say that Israel is of pure intentions in Haiti. Richard Silverstein of Tikun - a left-wing Jewish organization and weekly - was best in this regard:

A baby named Israel...who, if he reaches adulthood, would never be welcome in Israel (IDF)

I couldn’t have made this up myself if I’d tried (and a big h/t to Paul Woodward). It seems that despite Israel’s best hasbara efforts, it manages to shoot itself in the foot on a regular basis. Comes word that Maariv, Israel’s rightist daily, features this headline:

PAINFUL TRUTH: HAITI’S DISASTER, GOOD FOR JEWS
The article is a veritable roadmap to the uses of hasbara amidst world disasters. Here’s a sampling:

With all the suffering in the face of the Haitian horror, the attitude toward Israel thanks to the emergency relief team teaches that the State is obligated to initiate hasbara and not just to respond.

Indeed. Israel’s apologists will claim that this is but a single headline and doesn’t necessarily represent the real feelings of Israelis or of the military or government that sent the relief teams. But I’m afraid that this is a truth that must be faced–or at least should be faced by those with conscience. Israel’s relief effort is a perversion of Maimonides levels of tzedakah, of which the highest is the anonymous gift. You can rightfully argue as many have here that no nation does good merely for its own sake these days. While this is generally an accurate statement, Israel’s transparent effort to divert the world’s attention from Goldstone and Gaza is almost self-evident except to her die-hard supporters.

The post I wrote about Israel’s PR bonanza in Haiti elicited an enormous outpouring of interest, anger and support due to interest from social networking sites like Reddit. The die-hard pro-Israelists were shocked that I could question Israel’s motives in bringing a field hospital to Haiti along with a full contingent of IDF press handlers, full TV video transmission equipment, and Israeli TV and print reporters.

Prof. Yoel Donchin of Hadassah medical center was also derogated when he claimed that Israeli disaster crews must stay on site for 2-3 months instead of 2 weeks to make a difference. One of my commenters took umbrage claiming that Israel’s medical team will remain for five weeks. Another of my readers relayed that Israel Radio reported this afternoon that Israel’s delegation would leave the island at week’s end. That would mean the team stayed even less than two weeks (10 days to be exact). There seem to be few remaining babies to be named “Israel,” and no more survivors to be pulled from the rubble, and no more heart-warming human interest stories for CNN and ABC News. Likely, the IDF will move on to greener hasbara pastures–like the brand-spanking new report designed to rebut Goldstone (more about that later tonight).

To add insult to injury, Israel is contemplating adopting Haitian children orphaned by the earthquake. I don’t know how you would approach adopting such a child. But one of my first considerations given I am Jewish and white and the adoptee is Christian and black, is to figure out a way to honor the child’s religious and ethnic background. Not so Israel according to Social Welfare Minister (Labor) Isaac Herzog:

Herzog said that all children adopted from Haiti would undergo the standard conversion process to Judaism.

A few pointed questions: you’re going to force 8, 10 or 12 year-old boys to undergo brit milah? You’re going to bring Creole-speaking, black Christian children 5,000 miles from their home to live in a country which already faces ethnic discrimination against its Ethiopian immigrants. Why are you doing this? To flatter your vanity as a humanitarian? Wouldn’t it be better to work on improving Haiti’s ability to care for its own orphans and placing them for adoption either in that country or neighboring majority-black countries?

To me, Israel’s effort is the white man’s burden run amok.

A blog War in Context takes up the story:

If I came up with a headline claiming the devastation in Haiti is “good for the Jews”, I could reasonably be accused of being anti-Semitic. But it’s not my headline. It comes from this report on a site run by Israel’s popular Hebrew daily, Maariv.

Every disaster needs a hero, the report says, and the heroes in Haiti are the Israelis.

The message that Israel is saving Haiti was likewise captured in an editorial cartoon in Yediot Aharonot which shows American soldiers digging for earthquake survivors. A voice from beneath the rubble calls out, “Would you mind checking to see if the Israelis are available?”

Bnei Akiva, the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, in partnership with Latet, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, launched a Haiti appeal saying: “We are not only helping Haitians with their tragedy, but uniting the Jewish world and demonstrating the Jewish values of the State of Israel. We believe that it is a Jewish duty to help the people of Haiti. As the representative of the Jewish people, the State of Israel is leading the relief effort.”

An Associated Press article I linked to yesterday describing the exodus of Haitians fleeing from the ruins of Port-au-Prince, strangely was subsequently replaced by a report describing the rescue of a 22-year-old man by an Israeli search team 10 days after the earthquake leveled much of the capital.

In Haaretz, Bradley Burston writes:

Over the past week, the work of the Israeli medical team has become a kind of Rorschach for how people view Israel and Israelis. Most of the comment, it must be said, is supportive. Even on the part of those who cast the humanitarian misery in Gaza in contrast.

But for a shocking number of others, the bottom line is simple: Israel, and Israelis, can do no right.

In its most extreme form, there are those who have accused Israel of using the Haiti catastrophe as a new reservoir for harvesting organs.

But even many of those who shun blood libels, have seized on the Haiti mission to bash Israel, revealing in many cases a hatred - and a bigotry - that borders on the visceral.

Would Burston lump me in with the anti-Israel commentators? Maybe.

Do I think the Israeli doctors, nurses and rescue teams now working in Haiti are all toiling away purely in the service of Israel’s international image? I doubt it. I would expect that for most of these individuals, their response is like that of most of the other foreigners now providing relief to Haitians: it is above all a human response to human suffering.

Is there such a thing as an Israeli response or a Jewish response or an American response to human suffering? If so, it is laced with vanity.

To say this is what we do because this is who we are is to preen oneself in front of a mirror of self-praise. It is undignified. It spies a reward in someone else’s loss.

In this mirror, Israel now sees an image of itself as a big-hearted nation admired around the world for its humanitarian efforts in Haiti. But the self-satisfaction will be short-lived. Before long this glimmer of goodwill will once again be overshadowed by the enduring reality that in the minds of most Israelis the suffering of others seems just as likely to provoke callous indifference as it does an open heart.

The big Israeli heart shrivels at the sight of a Palestinian.

As Larry Derfner wrote in the Jerusalem Post:

… the IDF field hospital in Haiti is a reflection of something very deep in the national character.

But so is everything that’s summed up in the name “Gaza.” It’s the Haiti side of Israel that makes the Gaza side so inexpressibly tragic. And more and more, the Haiti part of the national character has been dwarfed by the Gaza part.

Gaza, too, is a matter of life and death - not just for the people who were trapped in the rubble there not long ago, but for Israel. When will this big-hearted nation stop being heartless to the people in Gaza?

And, finally, Hybrid States also addresses the critics and clarifies the criticism on its behalf:

In today’s Ha’aretz, Bradley Burnston writes an op-ed in which he fulminates against the critics of Israel’s current mission in Haiti. He starts by saying “thank you” to the IDF medical team, continues by saying “That’s it”, suggesting that’s all he wants to say, and then launches into a tirade against “Israel bashers.” Quick on his heels, Jeffrey Goldberg reprints some of the key paragraphs in the original:

The contention is that Israel sent aid to Haiti on purely cynical motives, harnessing public relations to divert attention from the Goldstone Report, to divert attention from Gaza, to divert attention from its never-ending, always expanding internal crises.

The implication is that Israel, and Israelis, are constitutionally incapable of doing good for its own sake. Or that whenever they appear to do good, people of conscience should recognize that the evil designs behind it render any good that may be done, complicit in wrongdoing.

True, it is willful blindness to contend that Israel can do no wrong. But it is nothing short of racism to maintain, in Haiti and in general, that Israelis can do no right.

Burnston and Goldberg deliberately misunderstand the main contention of the critics. Well, I can’t speak for all the critics, especially not the most extreme that believe Israel is only doing this to harvest organs from Haitian victims. Let’s just leave that disgusting question for when there might actually surface evidence of such wrongdoing before we go asserting such gibberish all around.

But I have criticized Israel’s efforts, as have a number of Israelis and American Jews, including Dr. Dochsin, Akiva Eldar, Mondoweiss, and so on.

Our arguments are the following:

It is not that Israel sent aid to Haiti on purely selfish motives. Sending aid is a valuable and, indeed, necessary thing for a country to do in the face of such a disaster. This is, of course, precisely why 43 countries have sent teams to Haiti and many more have sent money and supplies. Moreover, I am certain that for many of the medical professionals there on the ground, they are acting because of a deep commitment to human life.

But there is no other country, except the US, that has used their relief effort to bolster their own image in such a transparent and self-serving way. I challenge any reader to find quotes from any other aid team that mirror, say, this headline: “Israel’s aid effort helps Haitians—and Israel’s image.” Or a country whose Prime Minister gets on TV to talk about how the aid effort reflects the religious ethics of the country’s citizenry. Therefore, the point is that in addition to helping Haitians, Israel is consciously exploiting the tragedy to help itself. And that doesn’t sit well with people.

The whole point, as explained in this blog, and in Dochsin’s article, and in Akiva Eldar’s article, and in many, many other Israeli sources, is that Israel is trying to use the very good deed of saving lives, in part, for the purpose of boosting its shitty image. And it is sending medical teams and fancy medical machinery when there are other cheaper, much more effective aid options available. It does this precisely because medical services are photogenic and Israel treats the whole affair as a public relations exercise (the medical teams come with their own spokespeople, media representatives, and so on).

Let us not forget. Why is it that Israel’s image is in the dumps? In large part because it has done to Gaza what the earthquake did to Port-Au-Prince (with far, far fewer casualties, thankfully, despite similar destruction to infrastructure and housing). But instead of doing absolutely anything for the Gazans, it imposes a near total siege, including on Gazans seeking medical treatment for the wounds sustained when Israel attacked them.

This is the definition of chutzpah. Moreover, its the reflection of a hypocritical and therefore impoverished ethics that fails to appreciate the humanity of Palestinians.

That is what we are criticizing.

Here is the “The Painful Truth: The Haiti Disaster is Good for the Jews” editorial published in Israel that everyone is referring to:

The Painful Truth: The Haiti Disaster is Good for the Jews

As sorry as we are about the horror in Haiti, the current positive attitude to Israel – thanks to the IDF delegation – shows that the country must engage in proactive as well as reactive hasbara.

Tamir Haas 21/1/2010, Maariv-NRG

At a time when our country is under media attack on the basis of harsh and anti-Semitic reports, and we are forced to contend with terrorists who have assumed the winning image of victims of war, one could say that the Haiti disaster is the best thing that could have happened to us. So why are blood, destruction, poverty, hunger and orphans good for the Jewish State? First of all because global attention has been drawn elsewhere and the international media have a more interesting story to cover. Second, because every disaster-area needs a hero, and right now we are it. I must admit that I would not be surprised if the image aspect of setting up a hospital in Haiti, as well as the IDF rescue efforts, was given greater weight than humanitarian considerations. If I am right, then finally, someone in the Knesset has done the right thing, deciding to take advantage of the opportunity to prove to the world how kindhearted and capable we are. And if the Foreign Ministry manages to make further use of the Israeli success stories in Haiti and market them to the world, all the better. We can only hope that none of our talented politicians is caught in front of a camera saying “We showed the world. We were really awesome in Haiti,” or something like that – a distinct possibility considering the recent mess with the Turks. Better to be modest.

Those in Charge Don’t see Hasbara as Warfare

The tough question raised by our success in Haiti is why we do well in the media only when we have the opportunity to star in another country’s disaster, and not on a regular basis? After all, you can’t have a natural disaster every day. The answer to the question is a lack of concerted effort to garner sympathy from the countries of the world, alongside behaviour that actually creates antagonism, such as humiliating ambassadors on camera. Before criticizing current hasbara practice however, we must realize that our biggest problem lies in the way we approach the entire issue of image. First of all, our elected representatives see themselves as politicians rather than statesmen, and so prefer to focus on their own personal interests, rather than on those of the country. Every Israeli citizen is knows this, to the point that we can’t stand our own leaders, so why does it come as surprise that the rest of the world isn’t too crazy about us either? Second, those in charge of the country’s PR don’t see hasbara as warfare, just like any military operation, intended to safeguard and promote our national and security interests. If hasbara were to receive the attention it deserves, with the kind of funding that security gets, our media performance would be better, Foreign Ministry officials would be more professional, foreign ministers would not act like rookies, and most importantly, we would have long-term plans and strategies.

Proof of Amateurishness and Lack of Professionalism

You want proof of the amateurishness and lack of professionalism I’m talking about? Here: “Hasbara is the responsibility of the IDF, not the Foreign Ministry”. This is what Danny Ayalon told participants at a recent conference of the Israel Public Relations Association. Does this mean that there is no hasbara coordination between the IDF and the Foreign Ministry? Is this how Ayalon washes his hands of Israel’s image problem? If so, is it any wonder that he behaves so recklessly, setting the Turkish Prime Minister up for a slam dunk? After all, he seems to think that the consequences, in terms of Israel’s image, are not his responsibility. In the above statement, Ayalon doesn’t even bother to hand some of the responsibility to Information Minister Yuli Edelstein. If the Foreign Ministry doesn’t give a damn about the Information Ministry, why should anyone else?

We have to stop concentrating all of our efforts on reaction and start taking the initiative. There are a lot of things we can do to facilitate hasbara: subsidizing tourism from countries in which Israel suffers from a relatively poor image, or a hasbara unit that would focus on marketing the stories of victims of terrorism (like they do in Gaza), or hasbara designed specifically to appeal to countries with strategic importance, etc. But before we do anything, we must first understand that hasbara is war and should be treated like any other aspect of homeland security. After that, we can move forward.

The New York Times has picked up the story and I’ll finish with that:

A week ago, ahead of most countries, Israel sent scores of doctors and other professionals to Haiti. Years of dealing with terrorist attacks combined with an advanced medical technology sector have made Israel one of the most nimble countries in disaster relief — a factor that Western television news correspondents have highlighted.

But Israelis have been watching with a range of emotions, as if the Haitian relief effort were a Rorschach test through which the nation examines itself. The left has complained that there is no reason to travel thousands of miles to help those in need — Gaza is an hour away. The right has argued that those who accuse Israel of inhumanity should take note of its selfless efforts and achievements in Haiti.

The government has been trying to figure out how to make the most of the relatively rare positive news coverage, especially after the severe criticism it has faced over its Gaza offensive a year ago.

“Israelis are caught in a great confusion over themselves,” noted Uri Dromi, a commentator who used to be a government spokesman. “There is such a gap between what we can do in so many fields and the failure we feel trapped in with the Palestinians. There’s nostalgia for the time when we were the darlings of the world, and the Haiti relief effort allows us to remember that feeling and say, you see we are not as bad as you think.”

“Now They Love Us,” was the headline Wednesday on the column of Eitan Haber, a close aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s and a Yediot columnist. “In another month or two, nobody will remember the good deeds” of Israeli soldiers, he wrote. “The very same countries and very same leaders who are currently lauding the State of Israel will order their representatives to vote against it at the United Nations, proceed to condemn I.D.F. operations in Gaza, and again slam its foreign minister.”

Israeli journalists flew into Haiti with relief teams. And while the contours of the catastrophe have been well described, inherent in the coverage is the question of what Israel’s performance says about it and its place in the world.

Much noted has been the absence of rich and powerful Persian Gulf countries in the relief effort, a point made here when the 2004 tsunami hit large parts of Asia and Israeli relief teams swung into action there as well.

But on the same page, another commentator, Larry Derfner, argued that while Israel’s field hospital in Haiti is a reflection of something deep in the nation’s character, “so is everything that’s summed up in the name of ‘Gaza.’ ” He wrote: “It’s the Haiti side of Israel that makes the Gaza side so inexpressibly tragic. And more and more, the Haiti part of the national character has been dwarfed by the Gaza part.”

Early in the week, Akiva Eldar, a leftist commentator and reporter with the newspaper Haaretz, made a similar point: “The remarkable identification with the victims of the terrible tragedy in distant Haiti only underscores the indifference to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza.”

Israelis have a phony humanitarian and are opportunistic. They do not care about Haitians and will soon leave - of not left already - because the cameras are soon leaving too.

It is disgusting that the exploit death and suffering for P.R.

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Source: http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/what-is-behind-the-israeli-hand-in-haiti/