Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using the earthquake that has killed more than 500 people in Iran to score political points against Iran. “Our humanity is greater than their hatred,” he said.
Speaking by video to a major American Jewish group in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Netanyahu said he offered disaster aid to Iran and Iraq:
I’ve said many times that we have no quarrel with the people of Iran. Our quarrel is only with the tyrannical regime that holds them hostage and threatens our destruction. But our humanity is greater than their hatred. Israel continues to be a light unto the nations and this is what I am proud of. And all of you can be proud of Israel’s morals and Israel’s might.”
The Times of Israel says the offer was turned down.
According to an official in Netanyahu’s office, the offer was immediately rejected.
“This shows the true face of the Iranian regime,” the official said.
Iran surely has its reasons. The country has been isolated from western trade, finance, and tourism for decades in some measure because of Israel’s ferocious criticism of its regional rival. Netanyahu over and over likens the Iranians to Nazis, characterizes the Iranian regime as “evil,” and he and his allies in the U.S. have issued threats to attack Iran. Along with Saudi Arabia, now.
The earthquake struck Sunday in western Iran. The death toll so far is 530 in Iran and another 9 in Iraq.
Netanyahu’s talking point about Iranian “hate” was echoed by the former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, who is working now for an Israeli thinktank. Shapiro tweeted:
Sadly, Iran hates Israel more than it wants to find earthquake victims buried in the rubble. Turned-down top-notch disaster relief out of hate.
(Our publisher, Scott Roth, then slammed Shapiro for moving from U.S. diplomacy to doing “hasbara” for Israel. As we reported, Shapiro recently embraced Israel as a “miracle,” “gift” and “jewel”.)
In a second video describing his offer, Netanyahu said Israel extends aid out of kindness (in Haiti, the Philippines and Mexico) because Jews know what it’s like for the world to turn its back on them.
“Closer to home we have treated thousands of Syrians… Syrian civilians…. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. Too many times in my people’s history the world failed to act when it could, the world failed to do the right thing. So we have a special sensitivity to help those in need….This is Israel, compassionate caring kind.”
Eli Valley expressed cynicism about Netanyahu’s offer:
Photo-op rejected, hasbarah talking point reinforced.
Scott Roth called Netanyahu’s offer “disingenuous”:
When Israel stops causing human catastrophes then it will get credit for helping when a natural one occurs.
More from Roth:
It takes a special kind of chutzpah to be righteous after the country you’ve been trying to wreck refuses your “aid” after a natural disaster, AND then you try to score cheap hasbara points against said country.
King Bibi appears to be channelling jester Jack Green. Israel is a deliberately and unapologetically oppressive, colonialist, (war) criminal and religion-supremacist state. That’s neither “light unto the nations” (unless it’s the sort of sickly light cast by Saudi Arabia, Mali, African “hell-holes”, China and 19th-century America) nor anything to be proud of.
Israel’s “morals” (Zionists sure do like to redefine words!) are its collection of past and on-going acts of injustice and immorality. Nothing there to be proud of…unless you’re a Zionist.
““I just saw the pictures of the destruction in Iran and Iraq from this week’s earthquake. And I saw these heartbreaking images of men and women and children buried under the rubble. ” nietanyahu
Unless it,s Palestinian , men ,women and children.
No rush to demonstrate Israeli humanity by the Light unto the nations.
so israel is involved in the assassination of iranians on iranian soil, and the sabotage of iranian infrastructure, and sputters on about the existential threat from the emerging ‘shia crescent’, yet refuses entry of israelis into its territory. what ingrates.
The zionists have no humanity when it comes to the Palestinians. Or else they would have ended the occupation decades ago, and stopped stealing their lands.
Here you go, two despicable players in the ME, conspiring to attack their common enemy, and trying to make a case for it. Now if only they could convince the US to help do their dirty work.
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read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.823163
Netanyahu/Israel lied… again. Quelle surprise:
“Israel Claimed Iran Refused Its Offer for Humanitarian Aid. Red Cross Says Otherwise
Sources close to Netanyahu said Iran’s ‘true face’ was revealed when it refused Israeli earthquake aid, but according to the Red Cross, Iran didn’t even receive his offer
Israel did not receive an “immediate refusal” from Iran or Iraq following its offer to send humanitarian aid after last week’s earthquake, contrary to statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
During Netanyahu’s speech to the Jewish Federations conference (GA) in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the prime minister announced Israel offered to help the earthquake victims, an act he said indicates Israel’s moral values. Soon after, the Prime Minister office sent reporters a statement saying Iran immediately refused the offer, and this shows the true face of its regime. However, an inquiry by Haaretz revealed that the statement is not true.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organization that received Israel’s offer, confirmed to Haaretz that neither Iraq nor Iran asked for help or were even aware to the Israeli offer. They also said that the Israeli government was told as much.
“We can confirm that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received an offer of support from the Israeli authorities. They expressed their willingness to send relief supplies and technical assistance to the victims of the earthquake at the Iran-Iraq border, through the ICRC.
“Neither of the two affected countries, however, has at this stage requested international assistance to respond to the needs, and we informed the Israeli authorities accordingly. Should this change, the ICRC stands ready to support its Red Cross Movement partners in providing a humanitarian response and in channeling donations accordingly,” Marc Kilstein, ICRC’s Washington D.C. based spokesperson, told Haaretz in a written statement. …
Immediately after the speech, an official from the Prime Minister office released to Israeli reporters a statement to be attributed to a “source within the Prime Minister office”. In the statement, it said “Israel approached the Red Cross and received an immediate refusal. This shows the true face of the Iranian regime.”
Haaretz spoke with ICRC officials and learned that this is not an accurate representation of the events. Alyona Synenko, spokesperson of the Israel-based ICRC branch, explained that when a natural disaster happens and a country requires international help there is a procedure, of which Israel is aware. If an affected country cannot deal with a disaster, it will approach ICRC and ask for help, and ICRC will then coordinate the assistance from donor countries and aid organizations.
However, Syneko explained, this was not the case after Sunday’s earthquake hit the Iranian-Iraqi border, killing at least 530 people and leaving 70,000 homeless. Generally speaking, Syneko said, “it is extremely important for us that humanitarian assistance stay away from politics. It must be based on the needs of the people.”
David Keyes, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, said in a response that “Israel offered aid on the 14th and was told by the Red Cross that Iran did not want any help.”
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.823263”