What the media won’t report: Israel sent more manpower to Nepal than nearly any other country

The following was published at the blog of CAMERA

Israel frequently sends aid teams to countries hit by natural disasters such as post-earthquake Haiti and tsunami-stricken Japan. Nepal is no different. The Times of Israel reports:

Israel’s aid team to the earthquake-battered Himalayan nation of Nepal is [one of] the largest in manpower of any international aid mission.Over 250 doctors and rescue personnel were part of an IDF delegation that landed Tuesday in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, in the wake of Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake that devastated large swaths of the mountainous country, killing at least 5,000 and leaving some 8,000 wounded and tens of thousands seeking shelter and food.

The Israeli group set up a field hospital with 60 beds that began operations on Wednesday in coordination with the local army hospital.

Hanging the Israeli flag on the field hospital in Kathmandu
IDF field hospital in Nepal

By comparison, according to the BBC, the United Kingdom has sent “a team of more than 60 search and rescue responders and medical experts” and Time magazine reports that the United States is sending “about 70 American personnel”. Remember, Israel has a population of approximately 8 million. The United States is a nation of roughly 350 million. In that context, the magnitude of Israel’s efforts is even more staggering.

But instead of lauding Israel’s extraordinary response to Nepal’s distress, the mainstream media seeks to cast Israel in a bad light, highlighting of all things the fact that a number of Israeli couples employ Nepalese women as surrogate mothers to carry their children.

Read the rest of this post, here.

[Editor’s note: The Times of Israel article cited in this post claimed that Israel sent more manpower to Nepal than any other country. However, figures released from UNOCHA indicate that India sent more than Israel. After receiving this new information, the headline and sections of the post were amended. We apologize for the error – A.L.]

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