Israel Matzav

A field hospital on the Golan?

Lenny Ben David proposes establishing an IDF field hospital on our border with Syria to treat Syrians wounded in the current uprising. (The picture above is the IDF field hospital that was set up in Haiti a couple of years ago after the earthquake).

Israel should consider the establishment of a large field hospital at the Golan Heights crossing between Syria and Israel at Majdal Shams on the Syrian side of the border. The United Nations Disengagement Observation Force, UNDOF, located on the Golan since 1974, could provide the diplomatic cover. The Red Cross – if given access through a safe corridor – could provide ambulances to move wounded from devastated Daraa in southern Syria or from the nearby Kuneitra region where fighting was reported earlier this week.

To avoid another Syrian and Iranian-directed “civilian” march on Israel’s defense lines, like the June 2011 attempt, the field hospital must be on the Syrian side.

Only a small percentage of the residents of Majdal Shams, the Druze town under Israeli control since 1967, have accepted Israeli citizenship. Few of the Druze residents serve in the Israeli army. The town may be viewed by Syria’s Assad junta as relatively neutral. At the same time, Israel’s Druze community could serve as the public face of the medical efforts, while the IDF’s vaunted medical corps could provide experienced medical personnel.

More than a decade ago the United States pre-positioned military field hospitals in Israel for use by the U.S. military or Israel in the event of a regional emergency. The carnage in Syria is precisely such an emergency.

For the world community, accused of abandoning the innocent civilians of Syria, the Golan medical initiative would provide a first step in meeting their responsibility. For Assad, it releases some of the world pressure without surrendering territory to the Syrian Free Army. And for Israel, it provides another tangible sign of peaceful intentions to the Arab world – already secretly sending some of its sick and impotent (yes, that kind of impotence) to Israeli hospitals.

And the arguments against this? First, I think Assad would try to convince everyone that the field hospital on the Syrian side of the border is an Israeli invasion, and would attack it as one. Of course, if you put it on the Israeli side of the border, no one treated would ever return to Syria - at least so long as Assad is in power.

Second, I would guess that the entire Syrian side of the border is mined. Heck, much of the Israeli side of the border is mined because the IDF didn't want to spend the personnel to defuse all the mines after 1967! But if the Syrians are mining their borders with Lebanon and Turkey to prevent their citizens from escaping, do you think they haven't already mined their border with Israel?

Third, it's highly unlikely that the Red Cross would work with Israel, and even more unlikely that they would be willing to do so in a manner that would allow Israel to take any credit, and maybe even more unlikely that they'd work with the IDF in an Arab country. Recall that we're not allowed to use the red Magen David - the only medical symbol that's identifiable with Israel - in any project involving the Red Cross.

So sure, go ahead and make the offer, but if it's accepted, don't expect to get any thanks for it. As Dale Carnegie said, if you don't expect any thanks, you'll never be disappointed.

Labels: Golan Heights, IDF, Magen David Adom, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:50 PM