During Syria's Civil War Days in 2011-2014 and Israel's Hospitals

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Neighbors but enemies, that was the situation between Syria and Israel in 2014 and it remains so. 

Then, the Syrian public had been fed the line that Israel wanted to kill all Syrians, wanted to murder them all!  Truth was that terrorists came from Syria to kill Jews of Israel.  After 3 years of a bloody war on the border with the Syrians, Israel saw Syria in a Civil War with other factions.  Israel wound up providing medical aid to Syrians at the border.  

The Syrian civil war was an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, along with domestic and foreign allies, and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government and each other in varying combination, starting on March 15, 2011.  Over the course of the war, a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting has continued. It's even more of a threat to Israel with Hezbollah terrorists.  

                                                

       Netanyahu visiting injured Syrian treated by IDF

Some Israeli NGOs also provided humanitarian aid across the border to refugee camps in Jordan, as some 600,000 Syrians had fled to Jordan and the Jordanian kingdom's financial and social welfare systems now were under enormous strain, as they had been overwhelmed by the previous wave of Iraqi refugees.  Turkey and Bulgaria had also become refuge centers for Syrians, and a few had gone to Egypt as well.

 In 2013, Israel had opened a new neurosurgical department at the hospital near the border which was the only one in northern Israel at that time.  Syrian wounded, mostly combatants and also civilians began arriving at Israel's Western Galilee Hospital, and the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, and Rambam Hospital in Haifa and the smaller regional Poriya Hospital near Tiberias.  The most serious patients went to the one nearest the border.                        

The new neurosurgical department after a few months found that 20% of the patients in the neurosurgical department were Syrians.  By June 2014, the hospital had treated 250 Syrian war wounded, most with horrendous trauma with head injuries showing there had been attempted execution-style shootings and attempted machete beheadings.  One patient arrived with his whole lower jaw missing and was illiterate so couldn't write.  17 hours of surgery by doctors rebuilt his jar from part of a leg bone.  Injured Syrian women and children were also being treated.

Syria had 120,000 dead and more homeless suffering from disease and injuries and no treatment. In the beginning of the conflict, the Syrian government made it illegal for Syrian doctors to give medical care to anyone who supported the opposition.  Many doctors became targets.  Almost half of Syria's doctors, about 15,000 had fled the country.  About 60% of their hospitals were destroyed.  

The city of Aleppo, Syria had 1,171 doctors.  The opposition took this city.  292 doctors were left by last September 2013.  Just outside Damascus in Aghota, only 30 doctors out of 1,000 remained.  All other medical personnel escaped as well.  

Refugees didn't make a bee-line for Israel but got to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey and Egypt. Then word was out that they could find aid in Israel.  They coordinated with the IDF and how they did it remains a secret.  

It was early in 2013 and the first 7 wounded Syrian fighters arrived at the Golan Heights border with Syria.  Medical ethics in the army is clear; the IDF doctors gave them help.  Then all the IDF wound up helping Syrians who had been taught to hate Israelis, and here they were, receiving medical aid from them!  

They had taken almost 1,000 Syrians into Israeli hospitals with some 450 treated at the IDF field hospital-like in MASH, The IDF were even protecting their patients from Katyusha rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah.  

At the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, a Syrian mother watched as a medical clown performed for her wounded daughter who was receiving treatment there.  What she must have wondered; the female clown looked really clownish!    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrCnrpWQlnk&vl=en

"In this world, we hope that someday there will be peace, but now we are "enemies." said Dr. Salman Zakar of the IDF field hospital.  "For them, it is being told that we, the enemy, are Satan and then seeing how suddenly it is not true.  They see professional, ethical people who are doing everything they can for them."

In June 2016, from the territory of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967 and annexed in 1981, the Israeli military began Operation Good Neighbor, a multi-faceted humanitarian relief operation to prevent starvation of Syrians who live along the border and provide basic or advanced medical treatment.

The aid consisted of medical care, water, electricity, education or food and was given to Syrians near the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria, often escorted across by Israeli soldiers. Over 200,000 Syrians received such aid, and more than 4,000 of them were treated in Israeli hospitals from 2013 to September 2018. Many of the treated victims were civilians, often children. Allegations have been made that some were rebel fighters from the Free Syrian Army. This theory is supported by the claim that Israel had a strategic interest in aiding the rebels; they fought against both ISIL and Iranian-allied forces. 

All Israeli doctors follow the Hippocratic oath.  The Hippocratic Oath is one of the oldest binding documents in history. Written in antiquity, its principles are held sacred by doctors to this day: treat the sick to the best of one's ability, preserve patient privacy, teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation, and so on.

At the border of Israel and Syria, people will see the IDF doctor

It's sad for the doctors when they do their best and must let the patients return to the battlefield as they request.  They most likely will not get any follow up care and might again be wounded.   "What we are seeing here is an indiscriminate lack of respect for human life."  

Syria's total population now is estimated at 18,000,000 with 16,000,000 being Muslims.  That's 87% Muslims.  They had a population in 2011 of 22,505,000 and 90% Muslims and were the 17th largest Muslim country.  Israel now has 8,424,904 population with 1,516,482 Muslims in their population.  Muslims make up 18% of Israel's population.  There are no known Jews left in Syria.  

Resource:

The Jerusalem Report, June 16, 2014

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/the-region/treating-the-enemy-354474

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%27s_role_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War

Syrian Injured Find Aid in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

When Syria's Civil War started, their government  of Bashar Hafez al-Assad made it illegal for their doctors to give medical care to anyone suspected of supporting the opposition.  Many of their doctors have been targeted for death and have been attacked.

Reports estimate that more than 15,000 Syrian doctors, which is half of their profession there, have fled Syria.  60% of their hospitals have been destroyed.

In Aleppo, which used to be the major Jewish city, there used to be 1,171 doctors in their government hospitals, part of a very good medical care system that was cheap for the citizens.  Today these same doctors are in rebel hands with only 292 left.  Jews left in 1992-94, helped by Judith Feld Carr. Jews were not a part of the population at large but were confined in a Jewish quarter.  They probably weren't allowed into the medical profession of Aleppo.

In eastern Ghota outside of Damascus,  30 doctors of 1,000 are left.  All other medical personnel have fled.  Their medical facilities have been targeted for attacks by both the government and the rebels.
                                                                             

Word was out that Israel was giving medical care to Syrians,  and hundreds of injured have gotten to their border for treatment, and are never turned away.  The war has been going on for 3 years and Israel not only has been providing medical aid but go into refugee camps in Jordan where 600,000 Syrians are held which has put a great strain on Jordan, who haven't recouped from their previous Iraqi refugees, and give aid.

 Combatants and civilians streamed over in IDF ambulances to get to the Western Galilee Hospital and Ziv Medical Center in Safed and even further to Haifa for help at Rambam Hospital, which is the army hospital there.  They also have taken in the injured near Tiberias at the smaller Poriya Hospital.

Doctor makes claim after UN report shows child casualty rates in Syria are the highest recorded in any recent conflict in the region

Israel opened a new neuro-surgical department, the only one in northern Israel a year ago. A few months after opening, they saw that 20% of their patients were Syrians.  250 were war wounded with horrendous trauma like head injuries showing attempted execution-type shootings and attempted machete beheadings.  One patient had his whole lower jaw missing and couldn't talk of course and couldn't   write to communicate because he was illiterate.  His jaw took 17 hours of surgery with medical experts from all over Israel to rebuild his jaw from a part of his leg bone.  They have also treated women and children, civilians injured in the war.  Doctors have found that snipers deliberately shoot children in the spine.
                                                                               
The Syrians are Israel's enemies.  They have been told that Jews are the devil, Satan.  They are taught to hate them, but they must have been desperate and realized it was their own people who had harmed them, so how much more could the Israeli's show harm to them?  When they opened their eyes after surgery, they looked like they were in shock, but it only took a few days before they felt comfortable and were at ease.  Israel makes sure that there is an Arabic speaker available for them at all times.

It was the chief military medical officer of the IDF Northern Command that requested the Israeli doctors to treat Syrians at this particular hospital, but the head man, Dr. Masad Barhoum, a Christian Arab, said it was natural for him to accept the request.  "We have to do this," he told the reporters.  "It is our professional privilege and it is our moral obligation.  They've had to see 120,000 die in Syria already and know that people   are homeless being their homes have been bombed and crushed that are now suffering from disease and injuries without being able to get treatment.  "What we are doing is a drop in the ocean.  I thank G-d I have the opportunity to treat these injured."

All Israelis are reflecting the morality of the Jewish people.  The surprise is that Assad, president of Syria, is also a doctor, an eye doctor.  His value system for life is quite different, however.  His values center on punishing people who disobey him.  He is most vindictive.

This was brought out being he is an Alawite, a branch of Islam that is not accepted by the Muslim Brotherhood whose headquarters were in Homa.   Assad's family are a minority group.  This is the way Lebanon also rules, with the Christian minority.  When Assad took over on November 16, 1970, the Brotherhood began to plan for his overthrow.  The guerilla war started in the late 70's and bombs went off outside of Syrian government building.  Soviet advisers and members of Assad's ruling Baath Party were shot in attacks or taken hostage.  Assad responded with the same style, abductions and assassinations.

He was the main target and on June 26, 1980, the Muslim Brotherhood members threw 2 grenades at him and then opened fire.  He survived with a foot injury when he kicked away one of the grenades.  So he has no heart for rebels.  An election was held last week and of course he won.  He'll be reigning until 2021 now.
                                                                         

1980-85: My Safed apartment came with bars on the living room windows as we were on ground floor.    That was to deter terrorists from entering and attacking.  

During the 1982 Lebanon-Israel War, I was living in Safed in the northern Galilee and was teaching English right across the street from the Ziv Hospital/Medical Center where I sought treatment a few times.  My 9th grade boy students were asked to help out in the hospital with their skills of speaking Arabic and English, languages of the enemy that were also patients there from the war. We could hear the helicopters land on the hospital roof, and the children would hover in corners fearing they were bringing in their fathers or brothers who were called into the IDF during this period.   They came back after their shift and told me that they had seen things kids their age should never have to see, in telling about the injuries they witnessed.  They learned the hard way what war was all about.

Israel's religious learning is that of feeling that life is precious, valuable, and that means all life.  The toast is L'Chaim, to Life.  Many many Jews seek to become doctors, and indeed there are many among our people.  Here they are, threatened by Arabs who had a nuclear facility ready to use against them in Iraq, and even now have missiles pointing at them from Lebanon and Syria with threats to take over the Golan recently coming from Assad, and they are caring for their  unwanted, their injured, and making them whole again.  All this has to be done quietly so that their patients will not be murdered for having sought treatment when they return to Syria.

The estimate is that about 1,000 Syrians have entered Israel for medical treatment.  About 450 were treated at the army field hospital.   At the same time, Israel has been hit by Katyusha rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah, and they wind up protecting these patients along with everyone else.

Resource:  Magazine: The Jerusalem Report, June 16, 2014, Treating the Enemy by Judith Sudilovsky
Book:  Messages From a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt, p. 4,5., by Nadene Goldfoot
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10697943/Israeli-doctor-treating-Syrians-says-snipers-deliberately-shoot-children-in-the-spine.html
Book: Letters From Israel, by Nadene Goldfoot

Israelis Saving Lives of Syrians

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                                                    Ayatolla of Iran

                                          Hallway in Rebecca Sief Hospital in Safed

The Ayatolla of Iran and other leaders  repeatedly call Jews viruses, monkeys, apes and other hideous adjectives in their brainwashing of their followers to hate or feel disgust towards the Jews and their Jewish state of Israel.  Naturally, the whole Middle East seems to be reflecting this same attitude.  Abbas refuses to accept Israel as a Jewish state.  Jews are unacceptable to his Palestinian ideals, a state, if it reaches fruition, to be devoid of all Jews, truly a real apartheid state.
                                                                           

          Doctor at Ziv Hospital attending Syrian woman injured in Civil War

Yet, the teachings of Moses permeates in the Israelis who live by the credo that life is important, not death.  They have helped 200 Muslim Syrians who have dared to cross the border into Israel seeking medical help over these last 9 months.  The 200th patient updates the number as of December 25, 2013.  One of the latest was a very pregnant mother in labor who managed to get to Safed where her son was born in their Rebecca Sief Hospital, known as Ziv Hospital which serves the upper Galilee and northern Golan with 310 beds.  This was my hospital where I visited several times, being it was on my block where I lived from 1981 to the end of 1985 in binyon (building 213 on David Eleazar Street.)  .  .

These people are grateful that they were given care, the same all the Israelis would receive.  They have returned to their country but cannot tell their friends where they have been for fear of their own lives being threatened there.  However, the word is out.  Go to Israel if you have been injured.  Some even come with references and names of a preferred surgeon someone found was wonderful.  At least these people will not be so apt to believe leaders who curse Jews and want to kill them all.  If they ever get a chance to vote in an election, they may not be voting against Israel.

The hospital is now collecting donations to help purchase medical equipment for wounded Syrians through its website.

Reference: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/01/01/syria-war-victims-saved-by-their-biggest-enemy-israel/ , video from BBC
http://www.safed.co.il/ziv-hospital.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.565365
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkdMJyuIU5U