In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself. 

Heritage Foundation, January 2015

Of the 186 countries observed by the Heritage Foundation in their annual report, four states from the Middle East were considered ‘mostly free’, with Israel ranked at 33. Of the eight nations which could not be marked, five are members of the Arab League.

This freedom also applies to the health sector. I have written before of the amazing work of Israeli hospitals in promoting multiculturalism. Professor Ahmed Eid and Dr Aziz Darawashe are just two examples of leading non-Jewish physicians in the Holy Land. In any given ward in Jerusalem or elsewhere, patients of all backgrounds receive the best support from staff of all creeds.

So I was struck with the irony of three events coming together on May 20th and 21st this year.

• In Geneva, 104 states of the World Health Organisation voted to prepare the way for a damning report on Israel’s treatment on Palestinians, implying that they are denied full access. This is the same grouping that recently declared how 125 million young females have suffered from female genital mutilation, yet none in Israel. It is essentially the same set of people who were criticized for ignoring the plight and massacre of Palestinians in Syria.
• In Syria, ISIS captured the last border crossing with Iraq. This follows its triumph in the ancient city of Palmyra, where the massacres are reported to have commenced. As their supporters claim, ‘we love death as you love life’.
• In an airplane, somewhere over the Indian Ocean, my wife and I struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger. As I described on the Facebook page of Sussex Friends of Israel, we were returning home from Bangkok. “Sitting next to us on the plane was a urologist from Nepal. He had just spent 4 weeks liaising with the Israeli medical teams in his home country, and could not praise them highly enough for the efforts after the earthquake. he saw them as hard working and enormously dedicated. Meanwhile, he himself was on his way to a Tel Aviv hospital to carry out a 3 week study programme that had been planned some months previously.”

I find the contrast ironic and sad. Numbering hundreds at its peak, Israel had arguably the largest medical team of volunteers in Nepal last month. I have not been able to obtain if other countries from the Middle East responded in kind.

And the reason Israel made such a contribution was not based solely on moral grounds. Nor on diplomatic gratis. Israel could afford to do so, because it has a free and relatively strong economy, which includes a robust and open health system. Israel operates as a rogue state, and it is this anomaly that helps it serve its own and other peoples indiscriminately around the globe.