Posted on 05/24/2008 7:48:17 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
The parents of Iraqi babies with congenital heart problems are facing a dilemma: should they allow their children to be treated in Israeli hospitals when they have been brought up to believe that Israel is their mortal enemy?
Hostility towards the Jewish state in Iraq is so strong that many parents refuse to travel to Tel Aviv for free life-saving hole-in-the-heart surgery.
Some accept the offer but never reveal where their children were treated, even though the operation has not been available in Iraq since its leading cardiac clinic burnt down after the American-led invasion in 2003.
Other parents are seeking treatment elsewhere in the Arab world, despite prices of up to £15,000 for heart surgery in private clinics. They fear the stigma of being treated in Israel.
Aria, an 18-month-old baby from Kirkuk in northern Iraq, was waiting to return home last week after a successful operation at the Edith Wolfson medical centre in Tel Aviv, where 11 Iraqi children are being treated. The surgery is sponsored by Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), a humanitarian organisation founded in Israel in 1996 and supported by private sources, including Christian charity groups.
Aria’s young mother, Paiman, paid tribute to the clinic and the surgeon, Dr Lior Sasson, saying: “He saved little Aria’s life.”
However, the parents of other Iraqi children in urgent need of surgery said they had rejected free treatment when they heard it would be performed in Israel.
Sara, 2, needs surgery for a defective heart valve. After taking her from Iraq to neighbouring Jordan for preliminary tests, her mother, Shatha, 37, turned down treatment at the Wolfson centre. She said she had had no idea before she left for Amman, the Jordanian capital, that the operation would be in Israel.
“We’ve been foes of Israel since before we were born. We firmly believe that they are our enemies. You can’t change this overnight,” she said.
She is now planning to have the operation performed in Algeria instead: its government agreed to pay for 14 Iraqi children to be treated there rather than be sent to Israel.
Shatha’s friend, an Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk who was too afraid to give her first name, also travelled to Jordan so that her son, Ahmed, could be assessed for a heart operation. She too turned down the free treatment offered by SACH.
“Now I can sleep with a clear conscience. I’m able to hold my head up high and not be ashamed by having my son treated in Algeria,” she said.
The opposite view was taken by Mohammed, a 37-year-old Kurdish aid worker, whose daughter Souz, 22 months, needed urgent heart surgery. He borrowed thousands of dollars to pay for treatment in Iraq and Jordan, but the doctors there told him there was nothing they could do for her. When he heard she could be treated in Israel, he did not hesitate. She has now had surgery and is making a good recovery.
“I can honestly tell you that I didn’t worry for a moment about where or who will operate on my daughter,” he said. “Nor did I worry about the reaction of my family and relatives. Anyone who blames me should put themselves in my place and live for nearly two years watching his daughter die in front of his eyes, and then tell me what he’d have done.”
His wife, who accompanied Souz to Israel for the operation, added: “The doctors were helpful and understanding, and were sympathetic to our suffering.” She had not been charged anything and would be able to return home with the £1,000 given to her by her husband.
Apprehension about a hostile reaction in Iraq is common among families who opted for treatment in Israel.
The mother of Mustafa, 4, from Kirkuk, who has undergone two heart operations in six months, said: “My only fear, which spoils my joy at my son’s escape from death, is the revenge my family can expect when we go back to Iraq.”
Simon Fisher, the Liverpool-born executive director of SACH, said: “We welcome every child in need regardless of origin.”
Poor kids. I understand (some of) the parents motivations. What use in saving your child when the next Jihadi around will kill your whole family if he finds out.
One side saves another. Continuously.”
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Yes, but it’s always Israel doing the saving. In return they get nothing but hate and violence.
Family Darwin awards?
No! Don’t say stuff like that! These are human beings.
“The mother of Mustafa, 4, from Kirkuk, who has undergone two heart operations in six months, said: “My only fear, which spoils my joy at my son’s escape from death, is the revenge my family can expect when we go back to Iraq.”
Christianity will help these people eventually. The idea of an atonement means that we can be forgiven as we forgive and that don’t have to even all scores personally.
I know its not politically correct but it is a necessary part of stepping forward as a civilization.
This is sickening and how much you want to bet it’s the radical hate filled muslim fathers that won’t let their kids be operated on and are beating the women into agreeing with them?
My own newborn niece’s life was saved by a doctor who is a devout muslim and a local campaign person for Obama. Thank God for my niece my brother and sister in law don’t feel like these Iraqi parents do.
I think it goes without saying there is no hospital in the arab world that operates on Jewish children for free.
If these idiot parents are raising their children to hate Israel, and by extension, us, then why should we defend their lives? Their kids will just grow up to become terrorists that will kill our children or Israeli children. If they die before they can do that, then that's lives saved on our side.
I'm fully aware of the fact they are human beings, but if these parents aren't going to act like human beings, rather than savages, then why should we help them, especially at the cost of our own blood and treasure?
Islamic culture really is something, isn’t it? Just when you think it can’t shock you anymore, along comes something like this.
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