Israel is ready to help

Editorial

We may be witnessing another tragic example of anti-Israel attitudes backfiring on innocent victims. Last weekend’s major earthquake in eastern Turkey brought predictable offers of assistance from Israel, which is the region’s – if not the world’s – leader in emergency response. So far, Turkey has said no thanks, in what is being reported as a cordial telephone call between the two countries’ presidents. Reports say Turkey is declining all outside help, apparently confident that their internal emergency response resources are adequate as they assess the damage.

An optimistic message was sent last December, when Turkey sent firefighting aircraft to Israel to help battle the historic forest fires that left 41 dead. Even so, diplomatic relations were not as low those short 10 months ago as they are now.

In 2003, a Richter 6.6 earthquake killed more than 26,000 people and injured 30,000 in and around the Iranian city of Bam. Israeli assistance, in that case, was rejected, while assistance from other countries was welcomed. The message sent was that Iran’s theocratic leaders would not cooperate with the Zionist entity. The message heard (or which should have been heard) was that those leaders would rather let their citizens die than accept help from Israel.

We hope that the citizens of Turkey affected by the earthquake will receive the aid they need. If assistance from Israel is deemed helpful as the rescue work continues, we hope Turkey will accept it.

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