Israel opened a critically needed field hospital yesterday in western Ukraine

[Budi]

Israel opened a critically needed field hospital yesterday in western Ukraine. Housed on the grounds of an elementary school, the facility fills 10 outdoor tents. The 100 staff members — 80 of whom are doctors and nurses — will sleep on-site.

Link to tweet

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-field-hospital-in-ukraine-welcomes-its-first-patients-during-air-raid-sirens/amp/
MOSTYSKA, Ukraine – Battling persistent air raid sirens, limited resources, and the shadow of wartime uncertainty, Israel’s state field hospital opened Tuesday afternoon in western Ukraine, with the first patients arriving just minutes after its official opening.

Housed on the grounds of an elementary school in Mostyska, outside Lviv, the NIS 21 million ($6.5 million) facility fills 10 outdoor tents and has also converted multiple classrooms into hospitalization wards. Beside chalkboards and educational posters lie heart rate monitors, incubators and reclinable hospital beds..

SNIP
Sleepy Mostyska, a town only 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Polish border but 70 kilometers (some 44 miles) from Lviv, is not the optimal location for serving the refugee population, mostly huddled in major city centers or actively transiting out of the country. However, the location was chosen in coordination with local authorities in order to balance the security of the hospital’s staff against the ability to serve Ukrainians.

“We’re not worried that people won’t come,” said Yoel Har Even, the field hospital’s administrator.

Like many members of the delegation — who were, among other things, chosen for their ability to speak Ukrainian or Russian — Elhanan Bar On, the hospital’s medical manager and advance team leader, said his family originated from a town in the greater region.

“And I stand here today lending a helping hand to everyone… and sharing knowledge with our Ukrainian colleagues because medicine has no boundaries,” Bar On said.

Anastasia Keidar, a social worker who spent her childhood in Odesa, is one of the team members actually born in Ukraine.

“It’s very emotional, I was born in the area and I came here for a specific mission, to help people in crisis and seeking refuge,” she said.

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[rso]

1. Israel

Good, but Israel needs to do more in the area of military equipment provision.

[Budi]

2. Maybe just leave it at Thank You.

K?

[lapfog_1]

3. maybe not

They are still doing business with Russia.

And they refuse to even sell/give their cyber spyware to Ukraine for fear of getting on Russia's bad side.

Israel needs to pick a side.

[Budi]

4. Says those who do even less, but yell into their computer screen.

I imagine there's more to the condemnation than your few sentences reveal.

Thanks for stopping by to dump on a worthy post.

[lapfog_1]

5. how much money have YOU donated to Ukraine refugees?

I am well over $2000.

Want to try again?

[Budi]

8. I'm not the one dumping on a worthy OP.

[lapfog_1]

12. I am asking Israel to do more than window dressing

or in this case wound dressing.

At least stop doing business with Russia.

[Beastly Boy]

19. How many other states did you ask to do more?

Not that it is illegitimate to ask Israel for more, but context is important. Is Israel doing less than most? More than most? Any requests for countries doing less than Israel?

[Budi]

23. This is not 'window dressing'

Israel has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Sent tons and tons of medical aid to Ukraine, they have been mediating for peace between the two nations, and they have set up the only field hospital inside Ukraine.

Also Israel is applying the same sanctions the other nations have applied against Russia.

[Beastly Boy]

13. So do over 100 countries worldwide and half of NATO member states.

How many of them did not set up a single hospital in West Ukraine?

How many of them did not send a single round of ammunition to the defenders of Ukraine? These are the countries who need to do more. You are welcome to list them all in your next rant.

[Tetrachloride]

6. The balance of support that Israel gives is to Russia

Other countries will be weighed as well.

India, South Africa….

[Budi]

7. That is not what this OP is about.

Thanks for the field hospital & medical personal Israel.

Ukraine apparantly appreciates the assistance.

[Beastly Boy]

15. Actually, South Africa is way ahead of India.

And Israel is way ahead of south Africa.

But I am curious, how do you measure the balance of support that Israel gives to Russia? Certainly not by the number of hospitals Israel provided to Russia...

[Tetrachloride]

25. Pegasus system denied to Ukraine by Israel

https://www.democraticunderground.com/113331970

[alittlelark]

9. No Iron Dome....... a hospital is OK........

I would like to see a FIRM Commitment to one side.

[Budi]

11. I believe funding for Iron Dome was finally just approved

...after being voted against by just a few D's in the House, its passed but funding was held in committee in the Senate till recently, predictably by Sen Rand Paul.

I haven't followed up on it since then.

Recall that the region of Ukraine had also requested an Iron Dome Protection System last year as well.

[alittlelark]

14. The Iron Dome is an Israeli system

I’m not sure that our congress has a say.

[Budi]

17. It was about funding for it. That was Congress' role.

[Beastly Boy]

16. Iron Dome is a military system.

Half of NATO states do not provide military support to Ukraine. Or hospitals.

[Budi]

18. It is a military protection system.

https://www.ajc.org/news/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-israels-iron-dome-defense-system-and-those-who-voted-against


Iron Dome is an air defense missile system developed by two Israeli firms with support from the U.S. Emphasis on defense. It is never used to attack or retaliate and poses no threat to Palestinians.

The system has three components: a radar that detects incoming rockets; a command-and-control system that determines the threat level; and an interceptor that, if the system determines human lives or infrastructure are at risk, seeks to destroy the incoming rocket before it strikes.

According to Israeli officials, it is about 90% effective in stopping short range rockets fired by Hezbollah terrorists next door in Lebanon or Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in neighboring Gaza. The system protects Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths.

For example, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel this past May, more than 1,500 targeted heavily populated areas, including Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv. Iron Dome shot down more than 90% of those rockets, greatly reducing the death toll. Even with Iron Dome, about a dozen Israelis were murdered. That number would have been much higher without Iron Dome.

It also saves Palestinian lives. Giving Israel a viable option to defend itself shifts its focus from a strategy of preemptive offensives against terrorists who hide among tightly-packed civilians areas to a defense system that intercepts real and present danger. It also reduces the need for ground operations in and around the civilian areas that terrorists use for launching missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians. Often ground offenses result in greater loss of lives.
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[Budi]

20. But Hey! Did you hear about Israel's support for a Medical Field Hospital for Ukraine?

THANK YOU ISRAEL.

Appreciate your posts, btw.

[Beastly Boy]

21. Yes I did, thanks to your OP.

I am sure that none of the Ukrainians being treated at that hospital will complain about Israel only caring for itself.

[Budi]

22. Yup. It's bittersweet to hear the medics speak of their ancestral ties to that region.

It's a good read.

We do what we can~

[Budi]

10. More.. they are connected to the past..."All my grandparents were rounded up in the spring of 1943..

SNIP
Dr. Eduard Zalyesov was born in the contested eastern Luhansk region, a frontline of conflict with Russia since Moscow first invaded Ukraine in 2014. His sister still lives in Dnipro, and although he tries to talk to her every day, he will not see her while serving in Ukraine.

“To move around Ukraine is a little problematic,” he noted.

Nurse Sergey Mazis was born in Kyiv, but said his Ukrainian roots were not his primary motivation for joining the wartime delegation.

“Even though I was born in Ukraine, I came more out of connection to the humanitarian mission. If this were in another place in the world, I would have come,” Mazis said.

Har Even agreed that “our mission is to make sure the Ukrainian people know they’re not alone in this crisis.” He also recalled that many mission members — including his own family — have “deep roots in this land that go back many generations.

“All my grandparents were rounded up in the spring of 1943 and sent to the camps. Miraculously, they survived and here I am,” he said in remarks during the hospital’s opening ceremony.

“There are too many stories and reminders that we have a clear moral obligation not to look away.”

At the same ceremony, a Mostyska municipal official noted that Israel had many Holocaust survivors, some of whom fled from Ukraine, and lauded the fact that their descendants had now come back to Ukraine to help.

SNIP
The Israeli state field hospital is a collaborative effort of the Health Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and Sheba Medical Center, which is operating the hospital, and is funded by the government, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.