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Israel helps ‘fellow Americans’

Frizzy

Liberal anarchist
Not sure what to make of this.
It struck me as odd that the Israelis had sent military search and rescue teams to help out the poor people in the Florida building collapse, yes I know Florida is where American Jews holiday but still a oddly directed magnanimous gesture. Surely plenty of children buried back home in Gaza.
Then I heard a Israel army spokesman saying they were there to help ‘fellow Americans’ if I didn’t know better I’d think trump and BB are still in power, how very odd.
 
The Israelis always send their teams to earthquakes and other disasters. The big earthquake in Turkey a few years ago, for instance. In this case, there are a number of Israelis among those missing under the rubble. I don't understand the "fellow Americans" though. There are quite a few Israelis who also have American citizenship, there may have been some glitch in the translation from Hebrew to English, if the spokesman spoke in Hebrew.
 
The army spokesman a major I think, said ‘fellow Americans’’ in clear English twice.
America usually uptight about overseas aid. I think in this case it much to do with fact that as Mel Brooks put it ‘Florida is where old Jews go to die’
 
Perhaps the major did not speak English very well. I have no idea why he would say that, and what does it matter? Maybe he meant "American friends" or something.
But what is the point you are trying to make? Florida is a place where a lot of retired people, especially from the East Coast, go to live or on vacation. Including (yes!) Jews.
I repeat: the Israelis always send their teams to disasters, all over the world. In addition, there were a number of Israeli families living in the building that collapsed, so it seems quite natural that the Israeli government would send a team to help search for Israeli citizens buried under the rubble.
What is the point you are trying to make? That there is an Israeli-Jewish-American conspiracy to save people buried under the rubble? That there is something amusing about retired Jews dying under a collapsed building?
If a building inhabited by retired Brits on the Costa Del Sol collapsed, don't you think the UK would send a rescue team?
 
Many American Jews hold dual Israeli/US citizenship and there are plenty of American born Israelis in the IDF. That might explain the Fellow Americans thing?

Nothing sinister about Israel sending a team over there, or the US letting them, they have a uniquely strong relationship, that puts our Special Relationship well into the shade.
 
Unless of course, the building did not in fact 'collapse' but was 'persuaded' at a time when the Israelis inside just happened to have some 'military/diplomatic' personel amongst their numbers. Amazing how fast governments will act when there is a bit of skullduggery about.
God that tinfoil is good. Must wear it more.
 
Not sure why this is a thing (as the Americans say). I am sure the locals were happy to receive support from a country with experience in search and rescue.
 
The Israelis have trained experts for this specific type of recovery.

I suppose we could have invited the Syrian White Helmets, but they're probably still busy at home.
 
Can you think of a single instance ever when the USA has allowed foreign help on its own soil?
White helmets, good idea.
 
Reports of the building collapse are now veering into "blame the victim" territory. Apparently the condominium association knew of the problems for years, and the expense to repair, and postponed making a decision.
 
The point is Israel views itself as the 51st state.

Ah! I was wondering what point you were trying to make.

Anyway, here is a list of places where the IDF has sent rescue missions:

https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/humanitarian-missions/the-idf-s-humanitarian-aid-through-the-years/

Also, there were a substantial number of Israelis living in the condominium that collapsed. So it was natural for Israel to send a mission.

And you will admit that if, say, a building on the Costa Del Sol collapsed, with a substantial number of Brits under the rubble, the UK would immediately send a rescue mission to help.

Also, I have spent a total of about 5 years in Israel, starting in 1987, and its relations with the US are extremely complex and variable. Yes, among the many different ways Israel views itself, if you really, really wanted to put it that way, you could say that it views itself as the 51st state. It is a point of view. But it is also meaningless. And would it not be true also of the UK? Or, in fact, of many Western countries that are under the umbrella of American economic and military power?

So don't worry, there was nothing sinister, no conspiracy, in Israel sending a search and rescue team to Florida.
 
Seems an odd thread nit picking one phrase in someone's potentially 2nd language. Hats off to the Israelis for their offer of help, it is an area where they are particularly skilled and well respected for the work they do in other countries in times of emergency.

Trying to cast it in any other light seems rather shitty.
 
Must admit this thread was a vague/curious observation that got misinterpreted. Would happily see deleted.
 
Isreal certainly does not view itself that way.

But a whole lot of American evangelicals view it that way.

Yes, indeed. There are also "Jews for Jesus." I saw a satellite channel the other day, run by an organisation that seeks to encourage Jews to embrace some form of Christianity, but somehow remaining Jews. I suppose in a way it makes sense, since Jesus was a Jew, preaching to Jews, and working for a kind of re-birth of Judaism in a less institutional form. And, of course, St. Paul, who essentially invented Christianity as a religion emancipated from Judaism, was a Jew, as were the disciples and all of Jesus' early followers.
I have a friend in Tel Aviv, now in his 80s, who was born in Vienna and after the Anschluss his parents gave him to some Christian friends to look after. The parents died in one of the extermination camps, and the Christian friends soon gave my friend to a Catholic convent, where he stayed from about 1939 to 1945. So he tells me he is much more familiar with Catholic than with Jewish ritual.
Sometimes when in Israel the place strikes me as a mad circus. One day I was in a supermarket filled with a mixture of ultra-orthodox all in black suits and gangs of body-built gay men holding hands. Then a basketball team, all very tall and in satin shorts and singlets, walked in. Or, in Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulcre inhabited by, and divided up by, at least a dozen Christian churches. But the front door keys have for centuries been kept by a Muslim family.
 


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