Wolfson Medical Center
There are those who think health care in this country is poor, but what about billions of people who have no health care?
In the morning, we arrived at the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv. We met Tamar and she shared with us about To Save a Child’s Heart. To Save a Child’s Heart works with communities around the world who have children that need serious heart surgeries. The surgeries cost around $10,000. These children come from countries where there is no medical expertise in heart surgery. Surgeons are Jews and Muslims working side by side with their patients, some of which are Christians. These surgeries take place in Israel.
A doctor with To Save a Child’s Heart
The medical team travels abroad to diagnose and treat children with these heart conditions. Many travel hundreds of miles to be seen by the doctors of To Save a Child’s Heart. Around 40% of patients come from Arab counties. After the surgery, children are able to live a full and vibrant life. Since 1996, more than 3,000 children have been saved from 44 different countries around the world. And, many of these children are Palestinians. There are over 70 Wolfson staff and doctors that work with the To Save a Child’s Heart organization. The organization raises money from private and public (including the European Union) funds to cover the cost of the evaluations and surgeries.
Medical team
Next, we traveled to the port city of Jaffa, where St. Peter received the vision that he should eat unclean food from God , as recorded in Acts. This marina area provided great views of the sea. Lunch was curbside at a great bakery.
In Jaffa.
Israel Retired General
We went back to Tel Aviv and met retired Israeli Military Forces, Major General Nathan Sheroni. He was born in Palestine before it was Israeli. Now, he sits on the National Security Council of Israel, which is an non-governmental organization. The organization is made up of former military officers, police, and intelligence officials.
Nathan believes that we need to look back into history – the late 19th century when the Zionist movement pushed aside locals for a Jewish state. The British mandated started the process of establishing a Jewish state. In 1922, the former United Nations, declared that Israeli should be established. The borders were made up of countries that fought against Germany in WWI. He explained that those boarders were made without regard with local populations.
In 1947, the UN came out with resolution 481 and a study was done to split the land between the Zionists and Palestinians. In 1948 Israel was created with 640,000 people and declared to be a state while driving out local Palestinians/Arabs. Then, Arab counties fought against the Zionists. Nathan notes that before 1967, Jews did not generally believe that God had given them the state of Israel until after 1967 with the success of the Six Day War.
Nathan outlined several agreement issues needs to be clarified. In addition, he believes the word “agreement” and not “peace” should be used in achieving a workable solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Peace means different things to different people. Issue one: boarders and security. Many Palestinians say they want boarders that existed in 1967. There was a time Israelis accepted 1967 boarders. An agreement was almost met once, but ended over minor details.
Second, Jerusalem. When most people in Israeli think about Jerusalem, they don’t have a unified picture of when it ends and begins. Over time, the Israeli government expanded the area by shocking amounts. Of course, this presented problems. There once was an idea to have a 5 member nation authority oversee Jerusalem, but this was shot down.
Third, refugees or immigration. There has to be some sort of agreement on how people can move from point A to B without harassment or restriction.
Nathan made sense of the creation of encampment. Governments (the Israelis and Palestinians) state that issue X dangerous or that issue Y is a dangerous. Thus, everyone else is afraid and elects or supports the person who presents the strongest position to protect – no matter what they do.
There is a clear positioning on behalf of Israel. Nathan believers that Israel may talk about reaching an agreement on these issues, but Israel doesn’t really want to. Thus, internationally, Israeli is seen as working in bad faith. This isn’t to say Palestinians haven’t done things to provoke conflict, but Israeli is increasingly becoming more of a political isolationist.
I asked the General that if Judaism is based on the sanctity of life and upholding hospitality, why then is Israeli (the governmental state) abandoning these religion principles? He responded that there are certain religious Rabbis that are abandoning those principles for the sake of the establishment and perpetuation of Israel. In addition, Nathan said that extremism is easier to sell and more politically more profitable. He proclaimed that Israeli (as a people) doesn’t have any more great rabbis or teachers they once had.
Families of Slain Israelis and Palestinians
We ended our day with meeting with families who have had children, parents, spouses, brothers, and sisters killed during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These families sought to create dialogue about the trauma and violence. Jews, Christians, and Palestinians have banded together through their common experience of loss. They have put aside their political differences and sought to comfort one another in their despair. It was powerful to see these groups come together.
Israel Trip Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 part I – Day 5 part II – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8
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