Even in the face of all evidence
the truth can be denied. I find this is especially true
when it comes to news that pertains to Israel. There are
times that all the data points one way and still there
is disbelief about the facts.
In what can only be called
"unbelievable," one of the more than 200 terrorist
prisoners scheduled for release as part of Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert's "good will" gesture to the
Palestinian Authority said "no" to the offer of freedom.
The other prisoners on the list
were releasedafter having signed a
statement promising not to return to their former
occupation of attacking Israeli citizens.
This prisoner chose to remain
in an Israeli prison, according to Pardons Department
director Emmy Palmor, because he prefers to continue
receiving free medication for arthritis. Though this
highlights the lack of proper medical care in the
Palestinian authority it also brings another point to
light: The humane treatment of Israeli prisoners and the
amount of medical care that Palestinian prisoners get in
Israeli jails. If the prisoner was living in inhumane or
intolerable conditions he would obviously have grabbed
the chance to leave the Israeli penitentiary system. I
suppose prison in Israel is better than "freedom" among
Palestinians.
What I find fascinating is
how the
whole world is oblivious to any of Israel's humanitarian
deeds. Here is a prisoner that is turning down a chance
for freedom because he knows that the only way he can
get the medicine he needs is by staying in Israel and
though he is a prisoner he is getting the help he
needs. And because of the acts of terror he has
committed against Israel, the only way he can stay there
is to stay in jail. Israel's value of the human being
and human life has caused them to behave in ways that
defy logic.
This prisoner is not the only
enemy
that is being helped with Israeli medicine. Israeli
doctors are known to help the very enemy that is out to
destroy them. They routinely treat patients that come
from enemy territory without asking questions.
During the recent fighting
between
Hamas and Fatah, dozens of Arabs wounded in Gaza -
including several terrorists - were brought to Israeli
hospitals for free treatment. Incredibly, terrorists are
often taken to the very same Israeli hospitals as
their innocent victims, when wounded during their
attacks, and are given the same care as their victims,
although they are under heavy guard.
When a Palestinian teen
that attacked two police officers in Hevron last April
was taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment after
being shot by a commander, questioning by security
forces was deferred until medical clearance was given.
Humanitarian gestures such as these are not practiced in
any Muslim country if an unfortunate Jew should fall
into Muslim hands.
In February, more than
a dozen PA residents received treatment at Ashkelon's
main medical facility for Israelis who are injured in
Kassam rocket attacks fired from Gaza. Treatment of the
patients continued even as one of the rockets narrowly
missed a strategic target in the port city.
Most of the PA men
who were treated in Ashkelon were allegedly part of the
Gaza police force or the Fatah militia. However, doctors
refused to comment on their patients' terrorist
connections, saying that medicine has always ignored
political conflicts.
Dr. Ron Lobel, the medical
director,
said "We certainly don't check if someone belongs to
Hamas, to Jihad or if he comes from Sderot - we treat
everyone exactly the same way."
An Israeli doctor once told me,
"I don't mind servicing wounded Palestinian patients
because that's what we were taught to do, but it does
bother me when the television news reports detail how
many Jews were killed in an attack and the Palestinian
patients break into cheers." Yet he still treats
patients without asking religion and affiliation as do
all the other doctors.
I applaud the Israeli medical
staff their humanitarianism. It's a good thing. It's a
Jewish thing. Training one's self to be giving to all
creatures - maybe even vile terrorists - helps mold a
kind and giving nature.
What bothers me is the
attitude of those who criticize Israel. Of those who
boycott Israel. Of those who say Israel is a
totalitarian regime that doesn't care about anyone
besides their own. When the facts tell us that it's the
enemy that bars all religions besides their own, the
enemy that kills anyone who doesn't believe what they
do, the enemy that tortures anyone unlucky enough to
fall into their hands, then I can't understand how
anyone can be blind enough not to see the facts for what
they are.
In fact, I can't remember the
last time a Muslim country had a prisoner who wouldn't
be freed.