Enormous catastrophy in Haiti - Israel is first to help

Click the Haiti Aid map to enlarge

TAP editorial - 2010Jan17

This Map of international aid indicates that France sent 125 ‘rescue workers', Portugal & Iceland 30 +, China 60, and mentions Israeli aid. But it doesn't detail that Israeli aid is probably the fastest and largest, largest not only relative to the country's size, but probably absolutely too.  Israel's plane landed already on Friday (15^th) with 250 ‘medical officers & nurses for the 90-bed field hospital' .   

While some experts say no more survivors can be expected, the only too well experienced Israelis do not know the word "hopeless": As the Jerusalem Post reports, a ZAKA (Israeli religious volunteers - ed.) rescue unit, deployed at a collapsed multi-story university building, managed to extricate eight students from the rubble over the weekend - underlining the conviction among the Israeli rescue teams that it is not too late to save lives.

It seems that, when fast and efficient help is needed, Israel is in the first line with the superpowers. Tragicomically enough, Israel's Muslim and other fierce enemies and critics stand out by their absence from the list of aid given to Haiti.  (em)