Op-ed in Palestinian newspaper criticizes Arab nations for not providing global disaster relief, which enables Israel to take their place and to present itself as a “beneficial state" for propaganda purposes
Op-ed by Tawfiq Abu Shomar
Headline: “Bad neighbors and good neighbors”
“Assistance, generosity, doing kindness, easing sorrow, saving the oppressed, charity, helping the poor, responsibility for orphans – Arab slogans that the Arab preachers repeat… These slogans are not being implemented in practice, especially when the nations are subject to disasters and wars… Most of the Arabs are absent from participating [in providing assistance during] the global disasters, and therefore Israel takes their place, derives benefit from [the Arabs’] absence, and establishes its presence as a cultured and strong state, and a partner [during] global disasters… This is not Israel’s only goal – spreading propaganda to the world that it contributes to its assistance, that it is a beneficial state and does not constitute an additional burden to the world, like many of the Arab states – but rather its goal is training rescue teams and [gaining] experience with the equipment it invents, in order to market it to the world, in light of the fact that it has been tried and checked! I still remember 2010, when an earthquake occurred in Haiti and 250,000 of Haiti’s inhabitants perished, how Israel intervened in the incident and established a special school for children and a hospital, and brought hundreds of orphans to Israel in order to adopt them, convert them, and so that they would become soldiers! Likewise, in the earthquake in Nepal, on April 26, 2015, Israel sent a team made up of 260 rescuers and doctors, and gave the children of the mothers bearing Israeli sperm (i.e., surrogate mothers) Israeli identity cards, as Nepal allows its women to serve as alternative mothers for the Israelis (sic., Nepal allowed surrogacy for all foreigners, not just Israelis, until banning it in 2015). These facts make a laughing stock of most of the Arab states, as they are absent from the global rescue [missions] and from participating in easing the pain. Someone who is ironic will say: ‘How can they help others when they do not help members of their [own] people, but rather even strive to harm members of their people and their relatives, and they are not good neighbors to members of their people, but rather bad neighbors?’
And another will say: ‘Most of the Arabs are a virtual nation. They are absent from the world’s daily agenda at the beginning of the 2000s. And they are considered an unnecessary nation.’”
Headline: “Bad neighbors and good neighbors”
“Assistance, generosity, doing kindness, easing sorrow, saving the oppressed, charity, helping the poor, responsibility for orphans – Arab slogans that the Arab preachers repeat… These slogans are not being implemented in practice, especially when the nations are subject to disasters and wars… Most of the Arabs are absent from participating [in providing assistance during] the global disasters, and therefore Israel takes their place, derives benefit from [the Arabs’] absence, and establishes its presence as a cultured and strong state, and a partner [during] global disasters… This is not Israel’s only goal – spreading propaganda to the world that it contributes to its assistance, that it is a beneficial state and does not constitute an additional burden to the world, like many of the Arab states – but rather its goal is training rescue teams and [gaining] experience with the equipment it invents, in order to market it to the world, in light of the fact that it has been tried and checked! I still remember 2010, when an earthquake occurred in Haiti and 250,000 of Haiti’s inhabitants perished, how Israel intervened in the incident and established a special school for children and a hospital, and brought hundreds of orphans to Israel in order to adopt them, convert them, and so that they would become soldiers! Likewise, in the earthquake in Nepal, on April 26, 2015, Israel sent a team made up of 260 rescuers and doctors, and gave the children of the mothers bearing Israeli sperm (i.e., surrogate mothers) Israeli identity cards, as Nepal allows its women to serve as alternative mothers for the Israelis (sic., Nepal allowed surrogacy for all foreigners, not just Israelis, until banning it in 2015). These facts make a laughing stock of most of the Arab states, as they are absent from the global rescue [missions] and from participating in easing the pain. Someone who is ironic will say: ‘How can they help others when they do not help members of their [own] people, but rather even strive to harm members of their people and their relatives, and they are not good neighbors to members of their people, but rather bad neighbors?’
And another will say: ‘Most of the Arabs are a virtual nation. They are absent from the world’s daily agenda at the beginning of the 2000s. And they are considered an unnecessary nation.’”