Sri Lanka accepts Israel's offer to send medical supplies, but not IDF del

[Violet_Crumble]

Yes, nothing to do with the I/P conflict, but as it involves Israel, it'd either sink quickly in LBN or get shifted here anyway

A 150-member Israeli aid delegation canceled its mission to Sri Lanka yesterday after the government in Colombo refused to accept the Israeli team, Israel Defense Forces officials said.

The plane was due to touch down in Colombo for a few hours and return directly to Israel. The Sri Lankan government, however, declined the offer, saying it only needed humanitarian supplies at this time.

The Sri Lankan president's military secretary sent a notice to his foreign and defense ministries yesterday expressing support for the arrival of a smaller 50-member Israeli delegation. "We are not opposed to a plane loaded with medical supplies, food and blankets that will be accompanied by a medical team comprised of 50 IDF people, as the Israeli Foreign Ministry requested in a letter," the military secretary said.

The Israeli humanitarian organization Latet ("To Give") sent a separate aid package yesterday, 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.

The aid delegation that had been set to depart for Sri Lanka yesterday 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.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/520405.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. excuse my ignorance but what is IDF? n/t

[Englander]

2. Israeli Defence Force....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces

[Violet_Crumble]

4. You beat me to it!

I shouldn't have gone out and had a smoke before I hit the post button :)

Violet...

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Israel Defence Forces...

The objection seems to have been over the military composition of the aid effort. Maybe it's just me being a bit dense, but if the military can offer humanitarian aid, it should be snapped up. After all, there's US Marines in Thailand, and Australian and NZ Hercules in Aceh, so I can't see any difference when it comes to the IDF...

Violet...

[Englander]

5. I think it was a problem with the size of the delegation..

150 is too much. There are already rescue crews from God knows how many countries,and Sri Lanka can't provide support(food,drink,shelter) for that many.
_____________________

World News: Jerusalem, Dec 28 : Sri Lanka today said it will accept the arrival of a smaller rescue team from Israel, after reports said that the island nation was facing problems in providing facilities for many such teams that had arrived from across the world in its tsunami-hit coasts.

"We are not opposed to a plane loaded with medical supplies, food and blankets that will be accompanied by a medical team comprised of 50 IDF people, as the Israeli Foreign Ministry requested in a letter," Sri Lankan president's military secretary is quoted by Ha'aretz to have said in a notice.

The daily reported earlier that Sri Lanka had refused to accept an Israeli rescue team which was to leave for the island nation to assist operations, as it would accept only supplies because the tsunami-hit areas "are swamped with rescue teams." Quoting Israel Defence Forces (IDF) officials, the daily said that a 150-member aid delegation cancelled its mission to Sri Lanka after Colombo refused to accept the Israeli team.

Reacting to that report, Sri Lankan Ambassador Tissa Wijeratne had said that Lankan missions had been instructed to "accept only supplies as we have been swamped with rescue teams from all over the world". PTI

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=51580

[eyl]

16. According to their ambassador to Israel

They're not capable of supporting large rescue teams, and so are mostly accepting supplies rather than teams (which would explain why they accepted a smaller IDF party, along with supplies)

[illflem]

6. Didn't Iran refuse aid from the US

after their Dec 26 2003 earthquake that killed 40,000?

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Not sure about the US...

...but in an incredible display of pettiness, they refused an offer of aid from Israel...

Violet...

[NMDemDist2]

8. a Muslim country won't welcome Isreali secret service

wow big shocker there huh?

[Violet_Crumble]

9. Since when has Sri Lanka been a Muslim country??

It's predominantly Buddhist. wow big shocker there huh? And the IDF isn't the Israeli secret service. Yr thinking of Mossad...

Violet...

[NMDemDist2]

13. i know better than to post in this forum LOL

my ignorance is appalling

I was thinking of Indonesia, don't they have a large Muslim pop?

[eyl]

15. Actually, Mossad isn't the Israeli secret service either.

You're thinking of the Shin Bet (or Shabak, more properly).

[Englander]

10. Religion in Sri Lanka...

Buddhism (70%),then Hindu (15%),then Christian,(8%),and finally, Islam (7%).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Sri_Lanka

:spank:

[izzie]

11. Maybe I am off the mark but I understand this.

When I was in any hospital I found the Jewish groups the top people and was very happy to have them around but if you hate these people and every thing is in a mess why would you want them around? I do think this is an error on the countries part but then I do not know the people.Is that odd I think like that? I just am not sure.

[cali]

12. Actually, I can make very little sense of what

you were trying to say. As far as the IDF assistance goes, it was my understanding that it was a search and rescue mission. The IDF is known to have exceptionally fine search and rescue capabilities. It is however, up to any country to accept or refuse aid.

[izzie]

14. Some people will not take help from people they do not like.

Even when they do not know these people in person it is who they are that does it. Sort of crazy but I have known people like that and all you need to do is read history, It went on all the time. It is a crazy thing and you would think the big wigs in the country would know better but maybe they know their people and how they think better than I do. Think what would happen in this country in the same place. Out siders coming in to help when your whole mind set was taught to hate the very people who were going to help you.

[Englander]

17. Eh? Sri Lanka is a small country;this offer was rejected..

because 150 is too much,not because they're Israeli.

There are already crews from 16 countries in Colombo,and the country.
What Sri Lanka needs is supplies,not more rescue crews.
_______________

Foreign aid flooding into tsunami-hit Sri Lanka:

: Colombo, Dec 29 : Foreign aid started to pour in with 16 countries pledging assistance to the tsunami-stricken victims in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, reports Xinhua.

The Daily News newspaper said the Russian government dispatched Monday two planes with medical supplies, rescue teams, sniffer dogs and other relief goods covering tents and blankets.

An Air France airbus carrying medical teams and supplies from France landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport here Tuesday.

....The Daily News quoting sources from the foreign ministry said India, Pakistan, Russia, Japan, the US, Britain, China, Nepal, Greece, Israel, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have
made aid pledges through their missions in Colombo.

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=51747
_______________________

"....Humanitarian organisation Latet sent a jumbo jet carrying 18 metric tons of supplies to Colombo, medical teams have been dispatched to Thailand and help offered to India, Haaretz reported.

A rescue-and-recovery team from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox organisation Zaka left for the region on Monday with equipment used for identifying bodies, as well as body bags."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm

[DELUSIONAL]

18. It's probably difficult or impossible for many people of the world

to think of the IDF as "humanitarian" after seeing how they destroy homes, kill Palestinians etc in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the future if the US military sent personnel on a "humanitarian" mission I expect that they might not be welcome -- because of the US military's behavior in Iraq and in Fallujah.

When a segment of the military behaves badly -- that reputation far outweighs the good that other parts of the military can do as part of a humanitarian effort.

[pelsar]

19. the vatican....

anybody want to help me with this?....i really would like some kind of explanation other than its "anti semtism" or some other anti...

Vatican, Dec. 28 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by the Israeli army to deny emergency help to disaster victims in Sri Lanka.

Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano singled out Israeli leaders for declining that request for emergency medical help. The Vatican paper observed that in what "should be a time for unconditional solidarity," some world leaders seem incapable of escaping a "small-minded approach that restricts their horizons."

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=34295

this is the kind of stuipidity i was thinking of when I put in the post of the israeli children being used...and this is the kind of stuipidity that keeps the war going, as it has a direct affect upon me as an israeli and my reactions....and what I actually do

dumb dumb dumb....or is it the way the world govts think?

[Elise]

20. Nah

but, I LOVE how the Vatican so easily forgets little bits like the INQUISITION when they throw out judgments (which actually should be just that: thrown out) about 'world governments' or just about anything else.

By the way, the Vatican has been against the modern State of Israel since BEFORE its inception.

After the Concordat between the Nazi regime and the Holy See had been concluded in the summer of 1933, Cardinal Faulhaber sent a handwritten note to Hitler, stating, "What the old parliaments and parties did not accomplish in 60 years, your statesmanlike foresight has achieved in six months. For Germany's prestige in East and West . . . this handshake with the papacy, the greatest moral power in the history of the world, is a feat of immeasurable blessing." These words were written -- other German "princes of the Church" expressed themselves similarly -- some time after the Nazi regime had abolished virtually all civil liberties, had dissolved all political parties other than its own, and had decreed the removal of "non-Aryans" from public service as well as from pastoral functions, all clearly steps toward the deprivation of citizenship rights of the Jews. These actions were never protested by members of the hierarchy, and expressions such as Faulhaber's could only bolster the regime and help sustain its policies. The Concordat was the price the German episcopate paid for the surrender of whatever moral leadership it could have laid claim to.

http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue30/brand30.htm

[eyl]

21. Apparently, this wasn't the Vatican itself

But rather Catholic World News somehow made a major (and frankly suspicious) translation error.

The only place Israel is mentioned on the front page of L'Osservatore Romano (apparently only the first page is available online) states:

"Ma nemmeno in momenti così tragici l'uomo sembra capace di superare le «piccolezze» che ne restringono l'orizzonte. È di queste ore, infatti, la notizia secondo cui il Governo dello Sri Lanka ha rifiutato l’assistenza di un'équipe medica dell’esercito israeliano che sarebbe dovuta partire per portare soccorso alle vittime del maremoto."

This is the only reference to Israel on that page. Translated by Babblefish, this passage is (without cleaning-up):

"But in tragic moments therefore l'uomo he does not seem able to exceed the "smallness" that shrinks some l'orizzonte. It is of these hours, in fact, the news second which the Government of the Sri Lanka has refused the attendance of un'équipe doctor of the Israeli army that would be due to leave in order to carry aid to the victims of the maremoto."

CWN published a http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=34348">corrected version of the article on their website, stating:

"Vatican, Dec. 28 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by Sri Lanka to reject emergency aid offered by the Israeli government. Sri Lanka declined the Israeli aid because it would have been furnished by a military team.

Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano chastised the government of the stricken Asian nation for putting unnecessary restrictions on an Israeli offer to furnish medical help."

They did not, however, publish an explanation as how this happened; this wasn't a simple mistrnslation of a word or two, or a phrase, but a transposition of country references (among other things). At the very least, their translator hiring program needs serious vetting. So this is either error or malice on the part of CWN (or someone on its editorial staff), not the Vatican.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Thanks for posting that...

When I read the article that pelsar posted, it was incredibly out-of-whack with what was happening...

btw, a slightly belated welcome to the I/P forum, eyl :)

Violet...

[eyl]

23. Thanks

[Elise]

24. It's always nice to see people making friends here.

Brings to mind one of my favorite old union hymns, which I will tweak to make appropriate for the I/P forum:

Come all you pro-Israelis
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how this good old union
Has come in here to dwell

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My daddy was a lover of Israel
And I'm that way myself
And I'll stick with this union
Till every battle's won

They say in the I/P forum
There are no neutrals here
You'll either be pro-democracy & women's rights
Or a terrorist for Islamic fundamentalism

Oh, people can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy hater
Or will you be a (wo)man?

Don't scab for the terrorists
Don't listen to their lies
Us pro-Israelis haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?