Posted on 12/28/2004 3:28:39 AM PST by white trash redneck
A 150-member Israeli aid delegation canceled its mission to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after the country - one of the hardest hit in the Asian tsunami disaster - refused to accept the Israeli team, Israel Defense Forces officials said.
However, Israel is sending supplies at Sri Lanka's request, including 10,000 blankets contributed by the IDF, tents, nylon sheeting and water containers. The IDF Home Front Command is organizing aid preparations.
The Israeli humanitarian organization Latet ("To give") is sending a separate aid package Tuesday. It is filling a jumbo jet with 18 tons of supplies worth $50,000, at Sri Lanka's request. The group is considering sending additional aid shortly.
Sri Lanka said on Tuesday the death toll from the tsunami had risen to about 15,000 people, including at least 200 foreign tourists. Sri Lankan military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said more than 1.5 million people had been displaced from their homes - around 7.5 percent of Sri Lanka's population.
About 26,000 people were confirmed dead Tuesday in the wake of the tsunami that slammed into coasts from India to Indonesia two days before, with some estimates nearly doubling that toll.
The aid delegation that had been set to depart for Sri Lanka on Tuesday included medical teams and representatives of the IDF and Defense Ministry, who were planning to provide humanitarian assistance and participate in search-and-rescue operations.
The delegation was planning to assemble a medical facility comprised of specialist doctors, and set up emergency, internal medicine and pediatric departments, as well as laboratory and X-ray facilities in the southern part of Sri Lanka.
A far smaller team landed in Sri Lanka on Monday night, headed by four doctors from Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem in Jerusalem. The team was carrying medicine and baby food.
The doctors - who specialize in rescue operations, trauma and pediatrics - were also checking the viability of setting up a field hospital in the area, and advised Israel to send a larger team, such as the one Sri Lanka rejected.
"We will advise Israel and the Foreign Ministry... to send something more massive," said Dr. Avi Rivkind, director of Hadassah's trauma unit. "We will try to use our... broad experience in dealing with terror attacks and rescuing masses to help in this disaster as well."
Israel is weighing the option of sending similar delegations to Thailand, where more than 1,000 people have died, and India, where more than 4,000 people have died, but has yet to make a final decision on the matter.
Health Min. team leaves for Thailand A Health Ministry contingent left for Thailand on Monday night to aid in the rescue efforts there after around 1,000 people, including tourists, were killed on the islands of Phuket and Phi Phi. The contingent includes doctors, nurses and four members of the IDF, Israel Radio reported.
Israel has also offered its assistance to India. Mofaz passed on the offer to Indian authorities through Israel's military attache Colonel Moshe Krawitz.
Mofaz offered aid of two kinds - a search-and-rescue team from the Home Front Command, as well as consignments of food and medicine.
A ZAKA rescue-and-recovery team left for the disaster areas Monday night armed with its equipment, including materials and tools for identifying bodies, as well as body bags.
"We are waiting for any instruction," Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the director of the organization, said Monday.
For the Sri Lankans, it looks like a case of bash Israel at any cost.
Good-bye jacka$$.
Watch your step Noobie. You won't find much back up here.
Then I'd say you are a goner, because you attacked sjackson, a longtime FReeper. Shouldn't you be posting Holocaust denial at LF??
The Mods are letting us play with our food a bit longer these days.
Me thinks tis crack he's sucking.
Previous ID?
agree... US and Israel should let them sink. Let the french and UN do it all
Whose crack do you think he's sucking?
I love kitties.
So let the mods ban me you IDIOT. Get off this forum and stop stinking it up with snotty arrogant Jew hating.
Wow! I really lost track of what u two are arguing about.
Me too. I need another cup of coffee.
His own.
heh!
That statement is an absolute pantload. It reeks of heavy bias.
The universe is founded on truth, balance and order. It's such a pity some people can't get the current priorities of the world right.
Yes it is a pity. Probably upwards of 50,000 innocent people are dead or dying, and all you can do is rant about semantics and claim moral superiority over some of the posters on this thread.
When you shed your own blood to save others, have someone die in your arms, actually respond to a disaster and see, smell, hear or touch the tragedy,come back and visit the point again. Until then, you have absolutely no right to criticize the professionals who have done the work and paid the price for it.
This may seem like a small thing to some.
However, ISRAEL IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO THE BOSS.
God said HE would bless those who blessed Israel and curse those who cursed Israel.
He pays attention to this sort of attitude. Attitude in general is a critical issue with God regarding individuals. Attitudes long fiercely held often end up suckered into demonic control.
I suspect that refusing Israel aid in this case would be like God reaching down to help the robbed traveler lying by the road in the Good Samaritan story--only to have the wounded traveler spit in God's face. Not wise.
Not wise at all.
It's their government that is allowing their children to suffer and denied assistance for other willing to give. At time of a terrible crisis ... who cares where the help is coming from.. This is a time when real people put politics aside to help and they want to pick and chose.
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