Israeli Compassion

 Syria is at war with Israel. Syria is at war with its civilian population within Syria. Those Syrians who are Sunni and not Shiite Alawite Syrians are held to be disloyal to the country because initially they requested equality with their Shia neighbours who have always been given preferential treatment by the regime's authority. Syrian Sunnis in their delusionary state of equality-centrism felt that their human rights were being overlooked and suggested to their tyrant, Bashar al-Assad, that the nation would advance its very self-interests if it extended equality to all its citizens.

The regime's response was to gather itself into an offended huff of denial. While sending out its military to apprehend any among the Sunni population who dared to speak offensively of the government, much less launch forbidden protests. Even children, spontaneously reacting to the rejection of the Syrian government to perfectly legitimate human-rights complaints, were not immune to abduction, torture and death. And the battle was joined.

The result, after two and a half years of civil conflict made far more dangerously complex by the entry of the terrorist group Hezbollah to back up the Alawite regime's battle against its people, and the influx of foreign Islamist jihadists from surrounding countries is that Syrian civilians now face danger both from the regime's forces and from the intervention of fundamentalist Islamists whose agenda for the country should they prevail would turn it back to the stone age and theistic rule.

The exodus of fearful Syrians is in counterpoint to the influx of terrorists on either side of the equation. Millions of Syrian civilians now displaced, families dispersed far from their homes, dependent on neighbouring countries for haven and the United Nations aid agencies for food staples, water, medical treatment. And those who have migrated from their homes to become internal refugees, those who have been wounded by government attacks seek medical attention wherever they can.



Moving "under the radar" of Syrian forces in fear of being tracked if they seek aid from Israeli doctors and aid workers who furtively go about their work in an effort to relieve the agony of the Syrian refugees. The work they do is secretive to avoid the potential of Syrian authorities becoming aware of their citizens being treated by Israelis. Syria does not recognize Israel, and it is forbidden for its citizens to venture into Israeli territory, let alone seek assistance there.

Not even in Jordan which has a peace agreement with Israel, are Israeli physicians permitted entry. Their healing arts practised in Jordan are considered to be a violation of Jordanian sovereignty. Nor is Israel the least bit interested in interfering, becoming involved in any manner whatever with the civil war raging across the border in Syria. Whatever happens there is a matter to be settled by Syrians, between Syrians. There is no wish in Israel to bring the Syrian conflict into Israel.

Israeli assistance to Syrians becomes a last-hope possibility when no Syrian medical help is either available or capable of coping with the specialized needs of some of those afflicted by the civil war. Masad Barhoum, clinical director at Western Galilee Medical Center told of many patients arriving unconscious to the hospital: "When they wake up and find that they are in Israel they are anxious and afraid", he said.

"The Hospital in my town was destroyed. They saved her here, but now I am afraid to go back. We will be marked", said a Syrian woman at the hospital she had taken her daughter, wounded by a sniper's bullet, to. An anonymously-operating Israeli organization, iL4Syrians, which has in the past decade presented itself as a rescue-in-need operation abroad responding to natural and man-made disasters, has become involved in providing food and medical supplies.

Their self-defining slogan is: "Nobody asks permission to kill. We do not ask permission to save lives."  They state that "We focus on countries that lack diplomatic relations with Israel, transcending differences." It is the traditional Judaic respect for the sanctity of human life that motivates them to act on behalf of those who would never seek assistance from Israelis ordinarily.

Their mission is clearly stated; to relieve the fear resulting from Assad's reign of terror, and offer assistance. Remaining vigilant not to arouse the attention of Iranian and Syrian intelligence personnel.

They focus on the delivery of food and equipment; sanitation items, blankets, housing units, water canteens, rice, oil, flour, lentils, pasta, sugar, canned food. Along with post-trauma care, and training courses to women living in refugee camps. The provision of medications, IVs, saline, bandages, disposable wound treatment, surgery sewing kits, disinfectant, field surgery tents. Performing life-saving operations; heart, eye and cleft palate surgeries.

The group has previously worked in high crisis areas such as Sri Lanka, Darfur-Sudan, Georgia-Chechnya, Pakistan-Kashmir, India-Kashmir, Indonesia-Java, Burma, Georgia-Russia, Indonesia-Sumatra, and even during the U.S. Katrina natural disaster.

"The Arab countries offer condolences but the best role is provided by the Israelis because they are crossing the border to provide assistance to the refugees, risking their lives without a word of thank you"; an acknowledgement that appeared in an Israeli/Arabic paper.

These efforts are unofficial and unrecorded. Israel's counterpart to the internationally recognized Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) humanitarian group. Whose founder, just incidentally, was Bernard Kouchner, a French doctor who under the government of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy became France's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs.