The Injustice of Inconsistency
Paula R. Stern
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This morning, there was a car accident on a narrow road that leads through an Arab village. I have driven through that village many times as it was, for many years, the only road leading out of the yishuv of Beit Arye towards Tel Aviv and beyond. The accident involved two Palestinian drivers.
The injured were taken to nearby Beit Arye, where an Israeli ambulance team began treatment and evacuation.
On Friday, Rav Miki Mark’s car was attacked. He was shot and killed; the car crashed and overturned. His wife and two of his 10 children were in the car, all injured to varying degrees. First upon the scene was a Palestinian couple. They called ambulances – the first to arrive were Red Crescent volunteers, who quickly realized that the passengers in the car were Jewish. Israel’s Magen David Adom (MADA) was called and they came rushing, while the Palestinian medics and couple did what they could.
A few months ago, another family came under terrorist fire. The father was killed as well as one of the sons. One son was able to call MADA and in a recorded message, he speaks to the operator and says first that he sees a Red Crescent ambulance and then says it is going away without helping.
Two incidents – one in which Palestinian witnesses rush to help, another where they acted with indifference to the pain and suffering and shock of a family that was brutally attacked by terrorists and left to die.
There are some in the media who insist on making a HUGE deal of what is, without question, an amazing and wonderfully humane act of kindness last week to help the Mark family. Without question, the Palestinian couple that rushed to the aid of the Mark family, offering first aid and care until the ambulances arrived, deserve praise. In fact, unlike what happened with the Lipman family, where a Red Crescent ambulance came, saw it was Jewish injured and left, this time the Red Crescent ambulance offered assistance until Israeli ambulances arrived and took over, and they too deserve praise.
But…
The fact that someone has to repeatedly remark on the Palestinian assistance as a huge thing is in fact quite sad as it publicly acknowledges the rarity of the act. By contrast, on a REGULAR basis…for example again this morning, Israeli ambulances rush to treat Palestinian injured.
This morning, it was to help two Palestinian cars crashed in Rantis; but this happens all over and Israel and Israelis regularly step in to help. And rarely does anyone on the Facebook left offer praise, never mind recognition.
Of course not, we do it almost daily (and perhaps twice as often as that). My sons have treated dozens and dozens of Arabs, even risking their lives to go into Arab towns and villages to assist, even though technically they are not supposed to until they can secure their own passage with an army escort.
What the Palestinian couple did for the Mark family was indeed praiseworthy but to only praise them and not to praise my sons (and daughter-in-law) who regularly serve in MADA, and the thousands and thousands of other volunteers and professionals of MADA on at least an equal basis is obscene and wrong.
As Israel hopefully spirals out of another Ramadan-driven wave of violence, the flaw in the left becomes ever more obvious. They claim that they are merely seeking to balance but the fact is, they perpetrate the greatest of imbalances with more vehemence than anyone else.
Praise to the Red Crescent for this time stopping and helping the Jews. Praise to the Palestinian couple who cared enough to stop. In an interview with the media, the Palestinian woman explained that it didn’t matter if it was a terror attack or an accident, it was important to help. Well, to be honest, it DOES matter. It wasn’t an accident and we have 10 orphans to show for it. But that is a secondary comment and one I’ll put aside for the main one.
Praise – but praise well and praise fairly. If yesterday you went on and on about how wonderful it was that the Palestinians had the decency to stop and help a family in desperate trouble; praise today, the MADA team who did the same for Palestinian victims (of unsafe driving and/or conditions, not terror and hatred).
To praise only one would be equivalent to having a son and a daughter, and only praising one when both do the same good deed. Perhaps your daughter is a little older and so when she helps, you take it for granted but when your son helps, wow, good for you…
That only works until you realize how unfair you are being to your daughter. She too is worthy of praise in her own right. Your son should help MORE but one could argue that he is young and still needs to be educated. But you, who praise one side and not the other, you perpetuate the problem, do harm to the one who helps by nature, and exaggerate to the point of obscenity, the one who, for once, did the right thing.
You do not help the Palestinians by pointing to this incident and proclaiming with pride that they helped (finally), unless you equally and loudly point out the many times they didn’t and don’t. And add in the fact that we ALWAYS do…a MADA driver that would drive past an accident because the victims were Arabs would be thrown out; the left-wing media would make a feast of this for several days, and the Knesset would sanction MADA and demand an accounting.
So yes, great thanks to God and the Palestinian couple and that crew on the Red Crescent ambulance, who helped the Mark family in their hour of need. It is wrong to diminish this in any way. So praise and praise well.
But…
It is equally wrong to not give the same praise to our people when we DO help (even though it is a regular occurrence and not the exception). Thank you for what you do, every day, MADA – for Israelis and Palestinians; for Jews, Christians and Arabs. Thank you for dealing with each and every incident in a humane way, irregardless of who the victims are.
And as a final note, when a post such as this is not needed – when events like this caring gesture of MADA volunteers makes the news feed of left-wing journalists…then and only then is peace even possible because it will, at long last, be an acceptance of the reality – that it takes two to do the right thing…two to care enough to be human and humane.
MADA and Israel has been stepping up to that plate for years. We fly around the world helping others. So long as you don’t have the decency to recognize that fact, you harm the Palestinians more by pointing out the times that they do act with humanity and compassion.
You condemn their society with your praise because you prove it is so unexpected, so exceptional, so humane…and that praise and reality, is perhaps one of the saddest comments that can be made about their society…and your culture of denial.
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Paula R. Stern
