13-Apr-16: Arab elites, Israeli medicine and a dose of hypocrisy

Abbas, now in 12th year of a presidential term that
expired in 2009: Man of principle [Image Source: EPA]

People who expressed deep hostility to Jews and to Israel used to be termed antisemites. 

But life got more complicated and nuanced; ugly labels started becoming burdensome. So the haters updated their language. They adopted poses that masked the bigotry in fancier words that vaguely hinted at higher principles.

None of this is new to anyone following the evolution of BDS, the political-sounding bigotry that tries to disguise a passion for eliminating the world's one Jewish country by the use of words - boycotts, sanctions, divestment - that make it seem like a New Age business strategy. 

But a closer look at who does it and how they do it soon uncovers the hypocrisy and lying that animate it. It's simply the world's oldest hatred in social media garb, and no one should be surprised that Jews are involved in it too. The passions motivating BDS map to deep, visceral and tragically familiar hatreds and resentments.

But even as the BDS herd pours its scorn on Israeli cosmetic companies, Israeli packaged-salad purveyors, Israeli academics and their universities, Israeli chocolate makers, life-saving and life-enhancing Israeli medicines, there's one demographic that isn't playing along: the political and business fat-cats of the Palestinian Arab world. Buying into BDS as if they really meant it would simply be too uncomfortable.

Today's news: "Brother of PA president hospitalized in Israel" [Source]

The brother of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was on Monday hospitalized in Tel Aviv in serious condition, Ynet reports. His arrival at and admission to the hospital took place in secret. Abu Louai, who lives in Qatar and who turned 81 last month according to Ynet, was admitted to Assuta Medical Center, where Abbas' wife and brother-in-law have previously been treated. Recently diagnose with cancer, Abu Louai chose to receive treatment in Israel. Abbas' brother initially began his treatment at Assuta, an expensive private hospital, before returning to Qatar after a stay of several days at the hospital. Now, ahead of his next treatment, he has once again been admitted to the Tel Aviv-based medical center, arriving via Jordan. In summer 2014, Abbas' wife, Amina Abbas, was admitted to Assuta for an operation on her leg. She returned to Ramallah after several days at the hospital. Six months ago, just as the current escalation in violence was beginning, Abbas' brother-in-law — Amina's brother — was hospitalized at Assuta for life-saving heart surgery.

The great thing about principles and standards when you're a hypocritical despot? You can have so many of them - a different one for every occasion.

For some context, see some of our earlier related posts:

• 13-Aug-15: What their choice of health care providers says about terrorists and their lackeys
• 20-Oct-14: Sincere wishes for a complete and thorough recovery as soon as possible
• 18-Nov-13: When Hamas insiders need the best care around, to which Zionist Entity do they turn?

We wish the PA President-for-Life's brother a speedy and full recovery. And, as we have done before, we express our hopes that the Palestinian Arabs will manage to eventually achieve a complete and rapid separation from an iron-fisted, ideologically-crazed leadership which has never hesitated to impose cruel hardships on its own society while reserving to well-connected insiders the privilege of engaging with the Zionist Entity when it suits them personally.

23-Oct-15: When the people inciting the knifings/rammings/shootings need really good doctors, where do they turn?

Mrs Mahmoud Abbas sought surgery in Tel Aviv a year ago;
her brother is doing the same right now

It's been a notably successful few days in the lives of the Mahmoud Abbas family.

The Palestinian Authority president (elected to a four year term as president of the PA on January 9, 2005, and successful in deflecting all attempts at another election since then) had the satisfaction of knowing his brother-in-law (the brother of his wife Amina) was given Israeli approval for, access to, and then saved by, life-saving heart surgery at a private hospital in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. In a report this morning, Times of Israel says the operation, carried out at Assuta Medical Center in the Ramat Hachayal section of Tel Aviv, was successful and the patient is recovering in intensive care.

Is this routine and ordinary? No. The patient's room at Assuta, according to the news reports, is protected by security guards. His privacy is protected as well: an Assuta spokeswoman is quoted saying under its policies “we don’t discuss patients hospitalized or not hospitalized at the medical center.”

There's room for doubt as to how much Abbas appreciates or even understands the scrupulous and principled respect of other people's rights by Israeli institutions. But no doubt at all that he knows about Assuta's policy since his wife Amina received the full VIP treatment there last summer ["Mahmoud Abbas’s wife undergoes surgery in Israel", Times of Israel, June 15, 2014], Note that this happened at precisely the time that all of Israel was in agony over the seizing and then murder of three Israeli teenage boys ["24-Jun-14: The price of treating one of the sides in the conflict as if they were children"] at the hands of Palestinian Arab terrorists.

In fact, there's a well-trodden path along which family members of the most senior fat-cats in the Palestinian terror hierarchy (including Fatah, the PLO and Hamas) request, and then receive, the best medical care in the region which, naturally, is the medical care of Israel. [See "13-Aug-15: What their choice of health care providers says about terrorists and their lackeys"; "20-Oct-14: Sincere wishes for a complete and thorough recovery as soon as possible" and "18-Nov-13: When Hamas insiders need the best care around, to which Zionist Entity do they turn?"]

How fair is this? How reasonable is it that Israel, against whom the entire Palestinian Arab enterprise is currently arrayed in a savage, merciless war of terror directed principally at ordinary non-uniformed Israeli going about their daily lives, should set all of that aside and permit the chief instigators to use their influence to obtain medical treats for their loved ones that they deny their own fellow villagers and subjects?

And if, which we don't accept, there's a case for saying "Yes, we ought to do it, it's right and merciful and humane that we do it", why are those Palestinian Arab fat-cats not compelled by our side to confess to their own people that this is happening? That their well-being, at the end of the day, is secured and improved by the Israelis?

From a quick Google search, we see there is a small number of dry analysis-free reports of this latest Palestinian Arab VIP story in the Arabic media [for instance, Saudi News; Egypt's 7 Days], all quoting Israeli sources. But there's no sign of any serious debate, as far as we can tell, about what this could mean to the conflict between the Arabs and Israel. We hope one of our Arabic-reading readers will consider translating this post to Arabic and then publish it somewhere in the Arabic world. Who knows what good might come of it?

[More 'successes' for Mahmoud Abbas are reported here: "23-Oct-15: Scenes from a stabbing/ramming/shooting war of terror"]