Zaka founder and Chief of Operations Yehuda Meshi-Zahav announces that he is not planning any change in the organization’s operational guidelines. He explains that Zaka volunteers will always continue to treat victims of a terror attack before turning their attention to the terrorists.
Meshi-Zahav was responding to this week’s announcement by the Israel Medical Association, which states the organization representing Israel’s physicians has amended its 2008 guidelines and as of now, doctors are instructed to triage the scene of a terror attack and treat the most seriously wounded, even if that means the terrorists are treated before the victims.
For Meshi-Zahav there is no dilemma. He explains “The Yidden brought morality to the world so we do not need anyone to teach us what is and what is not moral”.
He stresses volunteers are instructed to always turn their attention to wounded and injured persons before seeking to assist a wounded terrorist, explaining the patient care for the Jews comes first. “Despite their code of ethics instructing them to treat the most seriously wounded, one must know that morality has limitations too. If the differentiation is not made, we will lose direction. It is even written in halacha, כל המרחם על אכזרים, סופו להתאכזר על רחמנים .
Meshi-Zahav insists the consideration may not be purely medical, for in his eyes this is unacceptable. He feels that treating a terrorist before victims is absurd for while a terrorist is being cared for a victim may die. “Go tell the family we are sorry for we had no choice, for we had to treat the terrorist” he explains, citing the absurdity of the new IMA guidelines, stating emphatically that for Zaka, nothing has changed and the Jewish victims will remain their first priority.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
It seems to me that Mr. Meshi-Zahav’s position in flawed. The terrorist should not be treated at all.
i have a good idea zaka shouldtreat the victims and their assosiation the terrorists
Wow at least someone has their brain screwed on
Meshi-Zahev is correct, Zaka should treat the victims and then call the Arab paramedic service to treat the Arab terrorist.
I am not sure where Jews first comes in.
It’s victims first then the terrorists.
Not Jews vs non jews.
For the sake of achdus and unity, it’s high time for Zaka and the IMA to come to an agreement on this issue.
REGARDLESS of the severity of the injuries, TERRORISTS should be treated FIRST to a free one-way ticket to the hereafter. Euthanasia to all resistance operatives!
The gedolei haposkim bizmaneinu (read: at least Rav Zilbershtein and I’m sure others) have already dealt with this and I’m pretty sure they have come to the same conclusion as the IMA.
Although Mr. Meshi Zahav’s reasoning is intuitive and appealing, this is not the Halacha. The Halacha is to treat non-Jews mishum eiva, which means that although many goyim hate us, we will continue to offer them equal medical care- miderabanan- for the sake of hoping for good relations. (No, not if they’re still armed. And no, probably not if a Jew is about to die as well.)
That means that we actually care to prevent a 1% rise in antisemetic acts worldwide (read: Brooklyn) that will result when millions of (already antisemetic) Gentiles learn that Israel has a chosen a less politically correct medical ethic than what the international community has chosen. And so, Israel (read: the IMA) chose correctly to treat injured people equally. That’s exactly what eiva is. I dont think it matters that this terrorist will hate Israel just the same. The point is that Chazal see a bigger picture here- the Jews worldwide. Let’s stop bashing the IMA, because most of the readership here is pro-Chazal. (too charif? hehe)
Also, when volunteers show up to mayhem scenes following terrorist attacks, oy vey oy vey- they’d better NOT take anyone else’s word for who’s a terrorist. You just check for safety and treat people. That’s the job of a medical professional or volunteer. You’re not the police, the judge, jury, and executioner. You dont know what happened, and if you decide to start taking eidus at a crazy scene, well, we all know what happened to the innocent Eritrean fellow a few weeks back, R”L.