Certainly, many of us have heard of the White Helmets.
If you have not, this is perhaps one of the few life-saving stories of the Syrian Civil War.
The White Helmets, or the Syrian Civil Defence organization personnel, are the ones who dig through the rubble and rescue men, women and children who have been attacked, largely from aerial bombs by the Russian-backed Syrian regime. They have been shot at, many times killed by Syrian regime forces.
Who else do we know who sends its bravest toward the dangerous spots, be it medical teams for victims of earthquakes or flooding or water technology to drought-stricken African nations?
That would be Israel, the place where desperate Syrians, many starving or wounded, come and are provided with food, shelters and health care.
So while the mission was secret, and the IDF would later call it an “irregular humanitarian effort,” it was not surprising that Israel was there at the request of the U.S., U.K., Canada and Germany to transport hundreds of escaping White Helmet personnel and their families. Israel permitted the rescuers to cross the border where they were offered food and medical attention before boarding buses to Jordan. From Jordan, the White Helmets and their families will be moving to either Canada, Germany or the U.K.
No surprise that both Syria and Russia condemned the rescue operation, calling it a “scandal” and compared the White Helmets to “terrorists.” What else should we expect from Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a government that has dropped poison gas on its own people?
The IDF would say that it engaged in this “out of the ordinary” effort because of the “immediate risk” to the lives of the civilians. Russian-supported regime forces were closing in on an ever-decreasing safe zone in Syria near the Golan Heights.
Israel’s Operation Good Neighbor has treated hundreds of Syrian children in its hospitals who have come to the border seeking help. It has set up field hospitals near the Syrian border and sent an untold tonnage of food, medicine and other needs over the border.
Whenever there is yet another bullying UN Security Council vote against Israel or a misinformed student group siding with BDS, we wish the work that the Jewish state has done to save the people of the world, even those who see them as perhaps the enemy, would come up in the conversation. Yet it rarely does.
How many Arab nations came forward last Saturday night to offer aid for the White Helmets? We haven’t read of any. How many who condemn Israel would come forward and thank it for its commitment to help the world whenever or wherever it can, no matter who needs that help?
This is who Israel is. This is what Israel is about.
Last Saturday night, at the border along the Golan Heights, the White Helmets came to the right place.
Instead of doing the rescuing, this time the White Helmets were rescued.
By Israel.
