PA Denies Palestinians Best Medical Care

1. "Palestinians Stop Paying Israeli Hospitals for Gaza and West Bank Patients"; By Ethan Bronner; A8
2. "Van Spirits Away Protestor in Egypt, Signaling Crackdown on Criticism Over Gaza"; By Michael Slackman; A8
3. "Israeli Vote Brings Push For Release Of a Soldier"; By Isabel Kershner; A8

An upsetting account of how the Palestinian Authority is sacrificing the medical care of Palestinians in order to prop up its anti-Israel credentials. The PA now refuses to pay for medical care in Israeli hospitals.

Ethan Bronner is not able to locate one Palesinian journalist, academic, or politician who will criticize this controversial decision.

Dr. Michael Weintraub at Hadassah hospital responded Jewishly to the PA’s decision: “Twenty percent of our patients are Palestinians, and we have one common enemy: cancer. The rest is immaterial. The question now is how to get those patients back into our care.”

In Egypt, the “state security” has arrested an activist who is calling upon the government to open the border-crossing between Rafah, which is in Egypt, and Gaza. The reporter, Michael Slackman, does not explain why the Egyptians refuse to open the border-crossing.

The activist has been detained, but no one outside of the government and the police know where he is. NYT is right to bring attention to the shady operation of the Egyptian police.

Finally, an article by Isabel Keshner discusses the upcoming elections and the prospect of Ehud Olmert arranging for the release of Gilad Shalit.

Unsurprisingly, she casts Likud candidate Benjamin Netanyahu in the least flattering light possible. In “a pitch to the right” Netanyahu visited “the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights…pledging not to hand the region back to Syria, from which Israel seized it in 1967.”

This pharsing actually casts the state of Israel, as a whole, in a poor light. A more fair rendering follows:

Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights, which Israel absorbed in a defensive war in 1967, and promised to fight for international recognition of Israel’s 1980 annexation of the territory.