Obvious care for sick child
Op-ed: Caring for Amal Haniyeh is not part of media battle over Israel's image in international arena
The right question is possibly not whether the State of Israel
should have accepted the request to treat little Amal,
the granddaughter of Gaza's Hamas
prime minister Ismail Haniyeh,
but how can it be that in Israel of 2013 such a question is still being asked.
Amal Haniyeh is the daughter of Abdel Salam ("the slave of peace" in Arabic) Haniyeh, the Gaza prime minister's son. She arrived in Israel in a state of clinical death, and was returned to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza in the same condition.
Israel should have accepted the request. It should have, and it's good that it did, allowed the critically ill Amal to enter Israel and tried to save her at the Schneider Children's Medical Center – even if there was a slim chance for that to being with.
Different View
Hagai Segal
Op-ed: How can Israel provide medical care to granddaughter of one of its greatest enemies?
Amal Haniyeh is another tiny little girl dying from a chronic illness, likely terminal, whose parents are making every effort to try to save her, including an appeal which is neither easy nor simple to the State of Israel, their bitter enemy, in a last, desperate and heart-rending attempt to save here. And that's exactly the point: There is no need to say that little Amal did not choose to be Haniyeh's granddaughter, just like she did not choose the disease ending her very short life.
The Israeli health system was the last straw that a family drowning into grief tried to hold onto, and that's exactly what it should be: A place to turn to for the desperate war for life and completely disconnected from the bad war against life. On both sides. Disconnected from any consideration not related to the possibility of saving lives: From the ongoing bloody conflict, from the firing of Qassams on Sderot, from attempted terror attacks against Israel's citizens, from the exchanges of fire and from the exchanges of accusations. And yes, disconnected from external considerations of possible profits.
Caring for Amal Haniyeh is not a coupon in the media battle over Israel's image in the international arena. Providing medical care for Amal Haniyeh is obvious and clear care for a very, very sick girl. It's nothing more, and definitely nothing less than that.
