How many Arabs saved thanks to Israeli doctors
Il Giornale, November 12 2011
Thousands of Arabs saved by Israel: no-one ever said “thank you”
Let me be sentimental, once. While Iranian missiles are being deployed on the launch pads and the Israeli F16s are ready to take off, a story unfolds. It’s a story of science and common sense, the story of an Iranian doctor from a University hospital – who cautiously undersigned her “urgent!” mail NN – to Doctor Adi Weissbuch for one of her patients at the 16th week of pregnancy with a severe genetic disease.
Doctor NN was very worried because in Iran abortion is forbidden after 18 weeks of pregnancy. What should she do? What could happen to her patient?
The Iranian gynecologist had read a nice article written by Dr. Weissbuch and contacted him: she searched for him on the internet, but, surprise, in his native country, Israel, at Kaplan hospital in Rehovot. “For me” said Weissbuck “a patient can be from any religion or nationality. We only want to provide the right treatment. The mail was addressed to me and the heading read “State of Israel”: this was enough”. Unfortunately, due to the patient’s disease, the pregnancy was hopeless.
But the prodigious interventions by Israeli doctors have many happy endings in the Arab world. Just a couple of examples: during the Intifada, when Hamas was killing thousand of Israeli civilians, the three-year old daughter of Hamas’ interior minister, Elham Fathi Hammad, had a heart procedure which failed. She was taken to the Barzilazi hospital in Ashkelon in severe conditions and the doctors managed to save her. Thousand of Arabs have been saved by Israel, one by one. In general, the Israeli scientists treat them with special care. For example, Israeli researchers have identified a defective gene only found among Arab infants. It is a recessive trait found in various groups, such as the Negev Bedouins, Saudi Arabians and Kuwaitis. Noone ever heard “thank you” from one of them. Now, maybe, Ahmadinejad will send a bunch of flowers …