Muslim opposition styming Israel's entry to Int'l Red Cross (Deja vu)

I wrote about this issue a few years ago at the then-hopeful beginning of the admissions process, in an article for for www.Israel21c.com:

"Red Cross officials from around the world gathered in Israel last week for a three-day disaster management workshop hosted by Magen David Adom, which marked an unofficial welcoming of the Israeli rescue service into the brotherhood of the International Red Cross.

"The workshop was organized in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation), and the American Red Cross (ARC).

"According to Douglas Allen, Director of the American Red Cross International Disaster Response Unit, the fact that the conference was held in Israel is proof that the MDA has 'joined the ranks' of the international rescue service community."

Ya' know, youd'a thought that Israel's done quite enough worldwide in health care, emergency triage care, rescue services and cubic acres of chicken soup to get beyond petty bigotry and racism. Especially for those in the Arab and Muslim world, so many of which have been treated in Israeli hospitals, both on and off the record for decades.

Color me naive.

From The Jerusalem Post:

"An attempt to end Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said.

"The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself."

Gov't press chief on Kassams: Any other country would protect their citizens as Israel does (Podcast)

Young Israeli residents of Sderot don cloth protest bracelets against Palestinian Kassam rocket strikes on their town. Sign in background: "We're not the nation's sitting ducks." (Dave Bender)

Hear Danny Seaman, Director-General of the Israel Government Press Office, talking about the nonstop Kassam attacks into southern Israel from Gaza, asserts that any other country, "under such attack as the residents in Sderot are, would do everything - everything to prevent hostile firing at their homes, their children, their schools."

Seaman, speaking with Israel At Level Ground, also charges the Palestinians with violating the Geneva Conventions in their Kassam and Katyusha missile barrages, due to their being fired from within civilian areas.

(Update on Sderot residents' strike at Ynet News)

Sderot mayor, residents 'livid' over 'Peres-ona non grata' remarks

Sleepless Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal at press conference last week, with Government Press Office Dir.-Gen. Danny Seaman (Dave Bender)

Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal, who shut down the town this morning in protest over the near-nonstop barrage of Kassam rockets, says he's "livid" over Vice Premier Shimon Peres' remarks to reporters yesterday at the Knesset parliament: "Qassam Shmassam," understood as pretty much telling the battered residents to shut up and suck it in.

Peres, oleogeniously backpedalling in a chat with Israel Army Radio's feisty Razi Barkai, said he'd been misunderstood, and was quoted out of context.

Moyal told an Army Radio interviewer just before the Tuesday, nine AM broadcast: "I, and Sderot's residents are livid over Pere's statements, and I am considering declaring him 'persona non grata.'"

Israeli VP Peres: 'Qassams shmassams' as Sderot goes dark and despairing residents leave (Video)

More and more Kassams are slamming down in Sderot, but Vice Premier Shimon Peres just doesn't "get it" about all the brouhaha: "This hysteria over the Qassams must end," he told journalists at the Knesset. "We're just adding to the hysteria. What happened? Kiryat Shmona was shelled for years. What, there weren't missiles?"

(Just a wee bit, oh, I dunno', insensitive there, Shimmy? Funny, but when I asked exactly that question of Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal at last week's press conference. "Has Sderot become the 'new' Kiryat Shmoneh?" He responded that there was no comparison, since the residents of Kiryat Shmoneh in the Galilee panhandle, one hill over from Lebanon were prepared for the attacks, with safety rooms, bomb shelters, national support, fast IDF reactions and that they had several minutes to prepare - not 10-15 seconds.)

"The vice premier also accused the management of the Israeli side: "Our response is causing the other side to strike. We must carry out a series of steps in order to take out the Qassams. Peres refused to detail which steps he meant."

Ahh, Shimmy, shimmy, ko ko, bop, really now... ya' got the Nobel, got the Peace Center, got the influence, hasn't the time come for the pipe, slippers, trusty dog (or Sonia - your call) at your side, and getting started on those memoirs?