For full article read https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-israel-chose-to-aid-an-ailing-enemy/
(October
19, 2020 / JNS) It’s the kind of story that drives a lot
of friends of Israel nuts. One of its chief opponents, Palestinian Liberation
Organization senior leader Saeb Erekat recently fell ill with COVID-19. Faced
with the decision as to where to be treated, it was only natural that instead
of going to a Palestinian hospital or even one in neighboring Jordan, he chose
to go to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
This is, after
all, the same person who spent his career lying about Israel, and smearing it
as a nation of oppressors and war criminals. He’s part of a government that
spends far more on paying salaries and pensions to terrorists and their
families than on hospitals. Indeed, in March of this year, he actually went as
far as to falsely allege that Israelis were spitting on Palestinian cars so as
to spread the coronavirus to them. And though he has served as the P.A.’s chief
peace negotiator, he’s spent his tenure in that position working to make peace
negotiations impossible, swearing that he will never recognize Israel as a
Jewish state and end the ongoing conflict.
However, when
faced with the question of where was the best place in the region to seek help,
Israel was the obvious answer. One of the region’s pre-eminent health-care
facilities, Hadassah and its doctors took him in.
The better question
is: Why would Israel, which has been on the receiving end of his vitriol,
slanders and worse, open its doors to Erekat and do what it could to save him?
Some Israelis
and friends of the Jewish state can’t understand it. They see this willingness
to help even enemies as a particular form of weakness.
Others think
that it was wrong of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to
exact concessions from the Palestinians in exchange for what may well be the
best chance of saving Erekat’s life. And it wasn’t just right-wingers saying
that. Michal Cotler-Wunsh, a moderate member of the Knesset from the Blue and
White Party, asserted that prior to admitting him, Israel should have gotten
the P.A. to agree to reciprocal humanitarian gestures, such as returning the
bodies of slain Israeli soldiers being held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza
Strip.
One pragmatic
answer is that for all of the antagonism between Israel and the P.A., in
addition to the latter’s refusal to make peace, the day-to-day working
relationship between them continues. There is a fair amount of security
coordination going on that is partly aimed at reducing Palestinian attacks on
Israelis, yet also focused on keeping Abbas alive against threats from his
Hamas rivals.
But the real
reason goes far deeper than that.
As much as
Israel is depicted as a militarized state that is dominated and governed by its
security establishment—Jewish values still play a crucial part in its
decision-making. Being a Jewish state necessarily involves considerations that
a purely utilitarian approach to life would reject.
It’s doubtful
that any other country would be so generous to an enemy, yet somehow, the
notion that Israel would turn away a person in need is inconceivable. Unlike
the English common-law tradition, there is a specific Jewish obligation to help
others rather than to stand by only watching their plight.
Like the peace
offers that Erekat and his comrades have repeatedly rejected, no one will give
Israel credit for its unilateral humanitarianism. But it’s entirely natural, if
also frustrating, that Netanyahu would help a Palestinian leader in need even
when we know that if the shoe were on the other foot, Israel’s foes would not
do the same.
The instinctual
application of traditional Jewish values by the Jewish state’s secular
government should not surprise anyone. Even when it will not advance Israel’s
cause, behaving decently to those who would not reciprocate such a gesture is
still the default position of any government of the Jewish state.
