01/25 Links Pt2: Int'l Holocaust Day: Has the world learned the lessons of the Holocaust?; ‘Vaccine Apartheid’ – blatant blood libel, but too good to resist ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Int'l Holocaust Day: Has the world learned the lessons of the Holocaust?

The story of my relatives is that of the Holocaust survivors who moved on to build Israel after most of their families were murdered and villages were destroyed. The Polish family that saved my relatives’ lives is part of the Righteous Among the Nations, those that the State of Israel and the Jewish people respect, honor and thank.

As a Jewish state, we learned our lesson from the Holocaust, but has the rest of the world learned it? Today, as we see movements of racism and antisemitism growing, the threat of hate is our motivation to act.

The Abraham Accords are not just a normalization treaty to build our relationship between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Israel. It is a peace that is based on shared values and a vision of tolerance, with a shared mission to spread the message that this is the only way to fight all kinds of racism, including antisemitism.

"There will be no victory of light over darkness as long as we do not stand for the simple truth that instead of fighting darkness, we must increase light,” Aaron David Gordon said.

The eyes of the entire world are looking at us. This is why we designed the "Leaders of Tomorrow" initiative. Young Emiratis, Bahrainis, Moroccans and Israelis that build trust and friendship, leaving differences aside and focusing on our similarities – we are becoming the light that our families have waited centuries for.

Tefillin Discovered in Hidden Bunker in Warsaw Ghetto

A bunker containing 100-year-old tefillin (phylacteries) hidden from the Nazis in World War II has been discovered in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto.

In recent years, Polish authorities have begun to demolish buildings inside the Warsaw Ghetto to turn them into residential buildings in a process of urban renewal. Following one such demolition, construction workers discovered an entrance to a bunker dug in preparation for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. One of the Polish construction workers on the site who entered the bunker to clear it out discovered 10 phylacteries that had been hidden behind books and other items.

Hearing of the sensational discovery from their local contacts, European emissaries of the Shem Olam Faith and the Holocaust Institute for Education, Documentation and Research secretly contacted the construction workers. Following lengthy negotiations and a commitment to keep the transaction secret from Polish authorities, the phylacteries were handed over to the emissaries. They recently arrived in Israel, where they were transferred to the institute for disinfection and conservation.

Shem Olam announced it had the phylacteries ahead of a conference it is set to hold to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The virtual conference, which will be open to the public, will include panels on the memory of the Holocaust from an international perspective and will be attended by politicians, spiritual leaders, rabbis and historians from around the world.

According to Shem Olam director Rabbi Avraham Krieger, “The discovery of 10 phylacteries concentrated in one place testifies to the Jewish lifestyle they maintained in the ghetto. Despite the horrors and the cruel reality in which they lived, they continued to observe the customs and tradition they grew up with.”

History Extra podcast: Searching for freedom after the Holocaust

Rosie Whitehouse tells the story of a group of Holocaust survivors who sailed to Palestine in 1946, in defiance of the Royal Navy

Author and journalist Rosie Whitehouse discusses her book The People on the Beach, which tells the story of a group of Holocaust survivors who sailed from Italy to British Mandate for Palestine in 1946, taking on the might of the Royal Navy in the process.

‘Vaccine Apartheid’ – blatant blood libel, but too good to resist

Jews and the Jewish nation have been subject to libels throughout the history of the People Israel. The latest ominous libel meme – ‘Israel is Apartheid’ – has been gaining ground since the international Israel-bashing conference in Durban in 2001: the so-called UN Conference against Racism. As I wrote in a piece for Times of Israel Blog last week, which challenged my own Anglican faith community: “In 2001, the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu decided to poke a stick in the apple of God’s eye. These churchmen convinced the United Nations to accept the 57 Islamic-bloc narrative, first introduced to the UN by President Idi Amin, that Israel – a tiny nation home to half the world’s Jews – is the most racist nation in the world. Tutu continues to push this absurd and perverse Israel-is-apartheid narrative to this day”.

Today, there is such an appetite for ‘Israel is apartheid’ narratives that influencers in the legacy media, mainstream political parties, governments, and NGOs seem unable to help themselves in combining it with a high-tech version of oldest antisemitic libel of all: the Blood Libel.

The latest mutation of the Blood Libel – ‘vaccine apartheid’ – is so obviously a libel, that all parties now uniformly involved in the conspiracy will come to realise they have fallen into a trap of their own making that could have so easily avoided by seeking the truth – the facts on the ground. At a time in which legacy media and politicians are losing the trust of their public, you might expect that such institutions would start to take more care with information gathering and distribution. Instead, we are witnessing influential groups and individuals broadcasting and publishing narratives that are not based on facts, but are based on supposedly credible supporting authorities that are now all appealing to one another to support the same libel. Especially popular sources of authority are Israel-bashing figures with a Jewish background who support vaccine-apartheid or medical-apartheid narratives, such as Noam Chomsky, Ariel Gold, Kenneth Roth (executive director of Human Rights Watch), and, here in the UK, prominent members of the Corbynite and anti-Israelist group Jewish Voice for Labour, some of whose Jewish members have been expelled from the Labour Party on account of their antisemitism.

The adage ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is lacing up its boots’ is certainly appropriate for the ‘vaccine apartheid’. And I think that we are also witnessing a globalised example of the fallacy of argument from authority, or even what the psychologist R.D. Laing, in Politics of Experience, coined ‘the Gaderene Swine Fallacy’, in which each member of the formation is convinced he or she is heading in the right direction because the senior leaders heading the group are trusted navigators.

This article in The Algemeiner a few days ago reports on recent claims by the influential Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, using the vaccine-apartheid libel to prove that Israel is ‘a racist state’. Tlaib, who denies Israel’s right to exist and promotes BDS, said in an interview reported in the The Algemeiner article:
They have the power to distribute that vaccine to the Palestinian people, their own neighbours, again, feet away from where they live, many of which, again, could expose them and their family… If anything, it just reiterates what the Palestinian people and even human rights groups have been telling us, is that this is an apartheid state.

You see here that Tlaib is supplementing her own considerable authority as a high-profile congresswoman with an appeal to the authority of ‘human rights groups’, and well she might, because the usual antisemitic and Israel-bashing human rights groups have lazily adopted the vaccine-apartheid narrative, oblivious to the truth.

StandWithUs: Vaccination Nation

Israel’s rapid and creative effort to vaccinate its citizens against Covid-19 has impressed the world. How did they do it? What can the world learn from the Israeli vaccination rollout? Join StandWithUs TV: Live on January 24 as we chat with Israeli COVID-19 expert Prof. Ran Balicer, who serves as Chair of Israel’s Covid-19 National Experts Team and Chief Innovation Officer of Israel's largest healthcare organization Clalit. Join us for this timely discussion!

Today in Paris... pic.twitter.com/iVP9QjBcQf
— Chloe (@chloetsila) January 24, 2021

This slanderous idiocy from the guy who primaried @RepEliotEngel shows the extent to which the Democrat Party has been Corbynized. https://t.co/05Meo1P8mo
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) January 24, 2021

"No one leaves" is just not true. Abbas has made clear the every Jew leaves. https://t.co/ITgZyWBx3t https://t.co/1n140qvaH5
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) January 24, 2021

Has BDS ever denounced the racism of the Palestinian law criminalising selling real estate to Jews? Its Apartheid, actually https://t.co/dRrFG6ezlb
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) January 24, 2021

Dean of Southwestern Law School Condemns Alumnus Who Said ‘We Need a New Hitler’

The Dean of Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles issued a strident denunciation of an alumnus who appeared to engage in antisemitic and genocidal hate speech on social media, including the statement “we need a new Hitler.”

The IsraellyCool website revealed on Jan. 19 that Farhad Khorasani had made a number of antisemitic and hateful posts, including calling Israel the “main enemy of the human race” and its supporters a “satanic cartel”; and claiming “freedom of speech under assault by the Jewish-Israeli lobbies”; “Hitler has proved that he knew these terrorist semites very well”; and “Hitler was right, we need a new Hitler.”

He also promoted Holocaust denial and the claim that Israel was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The State Bar of California investigated Khorasani’s conduct, but took no action.

Dean Susan Westerberg Prager of Southwestern Law School issued a statement saying, “Southwestern is aware of the intensely offensive antisemitic statements posted on social media by a Southwestern alumnus. We strongly and unequivocally condemn these statements.”

“The hate speech is contrary to the rule of law and to the values of human decency, justice, tolerance, nonviolence, and diversity, values that Southwestern has stood for since its inception,” she asserted.

“We value our Jewish community and oppose bigotry and hate speech of any kind,” Prager said. “Please know the Southwestern administration has taken appropriate measures in response.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, praised Prager’s statement, saying, “Absolutely unacceptable to see a California lawyer incite violence against Jews — all institutions and attorneys should follow @SouthwesternLaw’s lead and speak out against such inexcusable hatred.”

Independent amends false claim that a UN report charged Israel with apartheid

Nearly two weeks ago, we complained to editors at the Independent about an article by their Middle East correspondent Bel Trew (“Israel is an apartheid regime, not a democracy, says prominent rights group”, Jan. 12) that included the following sentence:
The first time [the apartheid] charge was made was by a UN body in 2017, when UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia concluded that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.”

This was of course an effort to legitimise the B’Tselem report, charging Israel with apartheid, Trew was reporting on.

We demonsrated to Indy editors that the United Nations ‘report’ in question was removed from their website shortly after it was uploaded after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made it clear that it wasn’t approved by his office, and that the contents didn’t represent the views of the UN.

After a series of emails, Indy editors upheld our complaint, and the following paragraph was added to the article:
While a press release summarising the findings of the report remains online, the report itself was later removed from the UN ESCWA website. At the time Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said this was “not because of what it said but because no one at headquarters had been consulted prior to the release”. Dujarric said it did not reflect the UN secretary-general’s views. The ESCWA official in charge of the report said she resigned over its removal from the website.

The partial sources behind Andrew Marr’s BBC One talking points

The January 24th edition of BBC One’s ‘Andrew Marr Show’ included an interview with Israel’s minister of health Yuli Edelstein which will remain available on BBC iPlayer for the next eleven months.

As has been the case in so much of the BBC’s coverage of Israel’s Coronavirus vaccination drive, after an initial discussion concerning that topic, Marr changed the subject. [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]

Marr: “The United Nations says it’s your legal obligation to make sure the Palestinian people under occupation have a swift and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccinations. Why aren’t you doing this?”

In fact the source of that reference to “swift and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccinations” is a statement put out not by “the United Nations” but by two UN special rapporteurs for the notoriously anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council – Tlaleng Mofokeng and Michael Lynk. As the UN’s own material clarifies:

“Special Rapporteurs are not United Nations staff members; they do not receive a salary from the United Nations…”

In common with another BBC journalist who cited the same UNHRC document a few days earlier, Marr made no effort to inform viewers of the obviously relevant anti-Israel record of one of the authors of the document he misrepresented as coming from the United Nations before going on to quote it further.

UK outlets parrot Syrian gov't propaganda that IDF 'killed family of four'

A Jan. 23rd article in The Scotsman on reports of a recent Israeli air attack on Syrian military targets is titled “Four die as Israel fires missiles at Syria“, a headline, as the opening sentences make clear, based entirely on the Syrian state media:
“Israeli war planes fired four missiles towards central Syria…killing a family of four – including two children…and wounding four other people, state media reported.

An Jan. 23rd article published in The Herald (of Scotland) was headlined “Family of four killed in Israeli airstrike” was almost identical.

The Express and Star and Shropshire Star (two regional British evening papers owned by the same company) published articles that same day titled “Israeli missiles ‘killed family of four‘” which weren’t substantively different than the articles in The Scotsman and The Herald.

Finally, the i newspaper (a British daily owned by the Daily Mail) published a piece titled “Israeli missiles ‘kill family‘” which mirrored the previous four pieces.

First, as we alluded to above, all these outlets base their (print) articles exclusively on an article from SANA, an outlet controlled by the Syrian Ministry of Information, titled “Military source: Four citizens of one family martyred in Israeli aggression on Hama“, which opened with these sentences:
A family of four persons martyred and another number of civilians including children were injured in the Israeli aggression that targeted the vicinity of Hama on Friday morning which also caused the destruction of four houses.

The Israeli air aggression claimed the lives of a family of two parents, two children and injured four others in addition to the destruction of three houses on the western side of Hama, a military source told SANA in a statement.

As you can see, not only did these British outlets rely entirely on the Syrian state media, but on an anonymous Syrian military official.

Facebook Weighing Ban on Anything Related to Israel-Palestine Conflict (satire)

Citing server problems and widespread user ignorance, Facebook Tsar Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly contemplating a ‘total ban’ on anything related to the polarizing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

“Look, I’m a billionaire genius and I didn’t build this social media platform for Israelis and Palestinians to hate-post or upload fake news as if they’re all suffering from OCD, and certainly not for a bunch of people outside the region who know fuck all about the conflict,” Zuckerberg reportedly said. “All of these Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, and individual comments on timelines are really screwing up our system…except for The Mideast Beast. We’re all kind of fine with those idiots.”

Such a ban would mark a significant escalation in the social media behemoth’s efforts to censor user activity. As The Mideast Beast’s long-time reporter and full-time onanist Marcus Thunderbolt reported, Facebook has also previously mulled introducing a ‘minimum postgraduate education requirement for commenting’ on Israel and Hamas’ repeated military confrontations, as well as the Arab-Israeli Conflict in general.

However, despite Zuckerberg’s enthusiasm, the proposed ban on ‘anything related to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ is unlikely to be enforced. “We’re struggling with a concept widely known as ‘Freedom of Speech,’” said a Facebook legal expert. “I won’t lie, sometimes I wish it was known as a ‘privilege’ rather than a ‘freedom’ or a ‘right’ – kind of like having a driver’s license or health insurance in the U.S.”

Israel's parliament, @KnessetIL: in Jerusalem
Israel's Supreme Court: in Jerusalem
Residence and Office of @IsraeliPM: in Jerusalem
Residence and Office of @PresidentRuvi: in Jerusalem@Guardian crossword: Guess where Israel's "administrative capital" is? Tel Aviv!

🤦🤦🤦 pic.twitter.com/DwuoXY3T3v
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 25, 2021

Israel Providing Diver Detection Sonar System to NATO Country

Israeli company DSIT Solutions, which specializes in underwater defense and security solutions based on advanced sonar and acoustics technologies, announced Thursday that it will supply an unidentified NATO country with its PointShield Portable Diver Detection Sonar (PDDS) system. The fully automatic system is designed for underwater protection of sites and ships.

According to the company's statement, the sophisticated, cost-effective system secures nuclear power facilities, underwater pipelines and cables, naval bases, ports, offshore platforms, and oil and gas terminals as well as ships of all sizes and displacements.

Capable of continuously monitoring over 1,000 sonar contacts simultaneously in real time, PointShield enables rapid detection of underwater threat locations, providing a short- and medium-range tactical picture. Modular with flexible architecture, its sensors can cover any required sector from 0 to 360 degrees. Multiple units can work simultaneously, controlled from a single command and display unit that provides intuitive displays and menus. The system’s open architecture supports the easy interface with any sensor and command & control system, according to DSIT.

Lightweight, compact and portable, PointShield can be rapidly deployed and easily moved between sites. Especially robust, it is designed for long-term operation, 24/7/365, in all weather and water conditions. The system can be easily installed using seabed, pier, tripod, mooring pile and other methods. Providing fully automatic detection, tracking, classification and alerts, PointShield can be operated by security personnel with no special knowledge of sonar systems. For this reason, and due to its minimal maintenance requirements, the system has a very low cost of ownership, the company said.

Israel’s Top Aerospace Company Signs Two Deals Supplying Drone Systems to Undisclosed Asian Country

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed two deals regarding its Heron MK II UAV systems, valued at tens of millions of dollars. The deals, which will see IAI sell one system and lease another, were made with an unnamed Asian country. The systems include reconnaissance payloads, Heron MK II drones, and land arrays.

“I commend the signing of the two Heron MK II deals,” said IAI Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Military Aircraft Group, Moshe Levy. “The systems will operate in a land configuration and will carry out different missions, border protection among them. The Heron MK II UAVs can land on any airstrip and can maneuver under extreme weather conditions. I am certain that these deals will open the door to additional Heron MK II deals.”

The Heron MK II can reach an altitude of 35,000 feet and a maximum speed of 140 knots, clocking in up to 45 hours of airtime. It is a member of the Heron family, which will be a benefit for Heron operators who are already familiar with its systems. The MK II has a wider and stronger chassis than its predecessors, yet its net weight will remain unchanged. Its improved long-range sensor and radar means they can gather intelligence on targets from a long distance (dozens of miles) with no need to cross borders, thanks to its ability to carry larger, improved sensors.

IAI was founded in 1953 and is one of Israel’s largest technology employers, with more than 15,000 employees. It provides technology for space, air, land, and cyber industries.

Israeli Defense Ministry to Dedicate Monument in Honor of South Lebanon Army Soldiers

Twenty-one years after the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Ministry has announced plans to commemorate the soldiers of the South Lebanon Army.

The monument, set to be completed in around two months’ time, will salute SLA soldiers’ contribution to Israel’s security. It will serve as a heritage site for the SLA, which disbanded when Israeli forces pulled out southern Lebanon in May 2000.

A monument to the SLA’s fallen soldiers was previously erected atop a mountain in the Lebanese district of Marjayoun, opposite the Beaufort Castle, ahead of the IDF’s withdrawal. Two days later, Hezbollah forces blew up the site.

Despite repeated requests from former SLA fighters and their families, until now this was the only monument ever erected in honor of the SLA.

Michael Biton, deputy minister for civilian and social affairs in the Defense Ministry, hosted a recent meeting attended by ministry officials, SLA representatives and Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv, who heads the IDF’s military colleges. In the meeting, it was agreed that, in accordance with a decision by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Biton, a memorial would be erected with 2.4 million shekels (around $730,000) of Defense Ministry and Jewish National Fund financing.

In the first stage, Biton allotted 1 million shekels (around $305,000) for the establishment of a museum in the historic IDF-Lebanon Liaison Unit’s headquarters in Metula, adjacent to the monument, dedicated to the SLA and the fighting in Lebanon.

HBO’s next Israeli show is thriller about woman caught in murder case

HBO Max will stream a six-episode French-Israeli psychological thriller series titled “Possessions” on Thursday, the latest in HBO’s long line of Israel-affiliated offerings.

“Possessions,” filmed in French, Hebrew and English, involves a young French expat woman living in Israel who is accused of murdering her husband on her wedding night. A French diplomat charged with helping French citizens navigate the difficulties of dealing with Israeli authorities comes to her aid.

But his task is further complicated when he finds himself falling for Nathalie, and he becomes obsessed with the case and her family’s mysterious past.

The show, created by Shachar Magen, is a joint production of France’s Canal Plus and Israel’s Yes TV network. It is directed by French filmmaker Thomas Vincent, known for directing the acclaimed BBC drama “Bodyguard.”

“The demand for non-English language content continues to grow throughout the world and I am delighted that this exceptional drama will be available for a wide, global audience via HBO Max,” Beatriz Campos, SVP of global sales and production financing of TV Series at Studiocanal, told Variety.

WWII 's impact on MENA Jews, country-by-country

A recent book by Reeva Spector Simon, emeritus professor at Yeshiva university, chronicles the impact on the Jews of the MENA during WWII. Wolfgang G Shwanitz reviews 'The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: the impact of World War II (Routledge, 2019) for Middle East Quarterly (Winter 2021):

Hitler's plan for the "Final Solution" of the Jews included the destruction of "some eleven million," which likely included victims from Turkey to North Africa. Simon of Yeshiva University believes that only timing and logistics prevented the annihilation when, after 1940, the Axis turned to that region. Simon provides the first country-by-country account of the war's impact on a million Jews from Morocco to Iran.

Simon recounts how most North African Jews came under the control of the German collaborators in the Vichy government after France surrendered in June 1940. Vichy regime regulations excluded 110,000 Jews from government jobs in Algeria, 68,000 Jews in Tunisia, and 35,000 in Syria and Lebanon. Italian planes bombed Haifa in July and September 1940. In June 1941, the Luftwaffe bombed Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Haifa.

As German troops approached, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, called on the Arabs to kill Egypt's 80,000 Jews. The Farhud pogrom in Baghdad killed 200 Jews in 1941. Thousands were forced into labor camps in Morocco, Algeria, and Libya, and some were sent to death camps, as were 1,200 Algerian Jews and 2,080 Turkish Jews from metropolitan France. Although Turkish leaders stayed neutral, they were often pro-German.

Orphaned in Holocaust, Belgian survivors reunite over 70 years later

After a temporal chasm of over seven decades, a group of Holocaust survivors who grew up in Belgian orphanages, had an emotional reunion recently on Zoom.

“That was amazing,” said 80-year-old Ra’anana resident Roni Wolf about the international event. “75 years later we can share our stories.” Wolf’s testimony from that time and subsequent years in England, South Africa and Israel features in a forthcoming book, Jewish Orphans from Belgium in the Holocaust – Testimonies, written by Reinier Heinsman, a 24- year-old Dutch law student.

Heinsman took time out from his studies to volunteer with the Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights. The center is located within the former Mechelen transit camp in northern Belgium, from which around 26,000 Jews and Roma were sent to concentration camps, particularly to Auschwitz.

All told there are around 40 highly personal accounts in the book, which is primarily about survivors who lived at the orphanages of Wezembeek on the outskirts of Brussels, and Meisjeshuis in Antwerp.

Wolf spent about four years at Wezembeek, along with her older sister Regina. Then called Reizel Warman, she was sent there on September 5, 1942 from the place where her family had been hiding on Rue des Fleuristes in Brussels. That was one day after her parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle were taken to the Dossin barracks from where they were deported to Auschwitz on September 8, 1942. They all perished.

29-year-old composer releases ‘Kaddish’ for survivor grandfather on top label

Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad’s new work, “Kaddish,” begins with an amorphous rumble. To this writer, the deep tones were reminiscent of trains rolling on their tracks, truly an amazing feat for an a cappella choir.

Speaking with The Times of Israel from his Stockholm studio via Zoom ahead of the piece’s official release, Mühlrad smiled and diplomatically said the work, named after the Jewish prayer for the dead, is open to interpretation. It is meant to be meditative or contemplative, he said — a way to commune.

“In some ways, there’s a story that wants to break out from this sound,” said the 29-year-old composer. “Within the Kabbalah — Jewish mysticism — the melodies without words have a higher spiritual value. So for me, the beginning and a lot of parts in the Kaddish, it’s like the grief that you can’t put into words.”

The grief that Mühlrad succeeds in making so tangible in this work is inspired by the horrific experiences lived through by his now deceased Holocaust survivor grandfather, Michael Bliman, who survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

To honor his grandfather, Mühlrad is releasing “Kaddish” just ahead of the January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day as part of an album called “Time.” It is a collection of his compositions produced on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon classical music label, a distinction that basically means the young composer has made it to the top of the art music world.

IDF Mission to Haiti: Rescue Without Borders

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Hundreds of buildings collapsed, destroying homes, and leaving hundreds of thousands dead or wounded.

As soon as the earthquake hit, the Israel Defense Forces Search and Rescue Unit called in reserves and flew to Haiti to provide assistance on the ground. Among those reserves were Lt. Col. Amir Ben David (res.) and Lt. Col. Shlomi Ben Yair (res.), both commanders of the Home Front Command training base. During the mission, the IDF humanitarian aid delegation worked together with other national forces and local Haitian volunteers to help rescue those in need.

Our humanitarian aid missions know no borders. Everywhere and anywhere we're needed, we'll be the first to arrive, and we'll give everything we have to save lives.