Assailing altruism

“Why Israel went to Surfside” (July 16) is a tribute of the highest order to the rescue teams from Israel. These teams included an Israeli task force, the IDF’s National Search and Rescue Unit, members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit of United Hatzalah, and volunteer members of ZAKA.

These amazing Israeli professional teams, working in tandem with all the teams in America and Mexico, began their rescue efforts within a day of the building collapse.

What was so shocking about the article were the “garden variety antisemites and anti-Zionists,” who claimed that Israel always has “an ulterior motive” in order to “distract people from its oppression of the Palestinians.” They seem to have, according to the writer, a “basic ignorance of ‘hessed’... the Jewish concept of... compassion.”

Really? I have never seen or heard of a “Palestinian delegation” going anywhere to help in an emergency situation. They can certainly fly to wherever on the same planes Israel uses. Indeed, they do not assist with their own people’s problems and expect Israel to bail them out whenever.

Israel must begin educating these political activists, journalists, and everyday Jew haters. Let them come here to see for themselves that there is no oppression of peoples.

The most impressive response to their ignorance can be found in one sentence within the article: “(Israel) responds immediately to emergencies around the world not because the victims are Jewish, but because they are human.”

That says it all!

DEBRA FORMAN

Modi’in