Not with a whimper, but a bang

Why is it that small tragedies don't seem to catch our collective attention?  Why does it take loud noises and bright flashes of light to make us take notice... or care?

In 1925, T.S. Elliot ended his famous poem 'The Hollow Men' with his memorable prediction about how the world would end:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Personally, I think he was wrong... because if the world were truly to end with a whimper, nobody would notice. 

I've always taken Elliot's prediction to be a sarcastic poke at human pride.  I mean, how could anything so fantastic as this world we've created end in any manner except with a bang?  It's inconceivable that something so great could have a feeble, anti-climactic end.

Same goes for individual ends.

Think about it... people who are shot or blown up catch our attention.  Those who's life trajectories place them in front of an onrushing train or a city bus will surely stick in our collective memory. 

We learn life's important lessons, and script our morality plays, based on these spectacular 'bangs'.  So irresistible are these violent endings that two opposing groups can find enough ammunition in a single splashy tragedy to point fingers and guns at each other for decades... or even centuries. 

Clearly the lessons taken from these 'bangs' are open to a bit of creative interpretation.

What I can't figure out is why we have so little regard for the 'whimpers'.  Why are there apparently no lessons we can learn from them?

Are we really that callous?  Do we really only notice the splashy deaths.  Have we gotten so desensitized to tragedy that we need to 'Super Size' our portion of death before we're truly satisfied?

Let me share a recent whimper that garnered the attention and interest of neither the public nor the press (thanks to Avi for mentioning it to me during our morning drive):

A Palestinian girl from Hevron was recently brought to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and diagnosed with cancer (I believe Leukemia).  After some initial testing it became clear that she was a good candidate for a bone marrow transplant... and that her father was a perfect match as a donor.

So, the procedure was scheduled to take place at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Petach Tikvah.

So far so good, right?

Well, a couple of wrinkles quickly appeared in the plan.  First of all, this little girl is not an Israeli citizen and is therefore not covered by the national health plan.  By rights she should have been treated in a PA hospital. 

What's supposed to happen when a Palestinian ends up in an Israel hospital (such as after a car accident or some other emergent occurrence), is that the care is provided and the bill is then submitted to the PA Ministry of Health for reimbursement. 

However, after years of the PA giving the same treatment to these Israeli requests for payment as UN Employees give to NY City Parking tickets, this arrangement fell apart.  A more secure payment arrangement was required by the cash-strapped Israeli medical community.

However as this little Palestinian girl was already in an Israeli hospital and suffering from a condition that the Palestinian medical community was not able to adequately treat, a creative solution was sought.

The Schneider Medical Center agreed to absorb a large chunk of operation's cost, as did the Peres Center for Peace.   Of the $58,000 price tag, Schneider Hospital and the Peres Center each agreed to pay $24,000, while the PA was asked to kick in only $10,000.  Not a bad deal considering how the rising cost of rocket components and guns has the Palestinian Authority in a bit of a financial crunch just lately.

So what happened? 

The request for the funds was submitted to Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority.  In case you were wondering why he got the bill (seeing as he isn't a medical doctor), Dr. Abbas got the request because all the money and bills seem to come through him these days.  That's how things work in a democracy.

Anyway, knock me over with a feather... Abu Mazen (Dr. Abbas' nom de guerre) agreed that the PA would pay its share for the operation and forwarded the bill to his Minister of Health, Dr. Bassim Na'im (who actually is an MD). 

Well, it seems Dr. Na'im had a bit of a conflict when presented with the bill.  You see, in addition to being a physician ('First do no harm'), he's also a member of Hamas ('First, do no good'). 

Guess which side won this Faustian tug-o-war?  You got it... Dr. Na'im refused to write the check for the PA's share of the bone marrow procedure because, "...it would be seen as cooperating with the Zionist enemy."

This placing of political hatred and religious enmity above human life isn't anything particularly new in this part of the world.  We've seen it countless times after natural disasters when Israel's offers of humanitarian aid/support to Muslim countries have been refused out of hand.  We've even seen a few cases where the Red Crescent Society (the Arab version of the Red Cross) was completely out of blood, yet refused Israel's offer of desperately needed reserves because the blood had come from Jews.

In this case, the PA's Minister of Health decided that it would be better to see this little girl die than allow contact on any level with the 'Zionist Entity'.

In the end, The Peres Center for Peace ponied up the remaining ten grand and the bone marrow transplant is scheduled to take place in the coming days. 

But that isn't the real story... not by a long shot. 

The real story is in what a non-story this whole event has been to the press... to the country... and to the world. 

One or two non-mainstream media sources (Hatzofe and Arutz 7) mentioned it in passing, but this incredible demonstration of callousness and cruelty on the part of the PA has become so accepted by the world that it wasn't considered even remotely newsworthy.

As an Israeli, and as consumer of news, I'm ashamed.  We truly are hollow men.

In addition to a zealous Israeli media, nearly every mainstream news agency in the world has a presence here in Israel.  They are here because this is the part of the world where things go 'bang'.  Their news cycle has such an insatiable appetite that when nothing has gone bang for a couple of days, they set up their cameras in a likely spot outside a 'refugee camp' and orchestrate some 'made-to-order' bangs.

Yet to these people who drool over even the smallest news story the way a starving man drools over a steak, the willingness of the Palestinian Minister of Health... a Medical Doctor for whom politics should come second (if at all)... to let a little Palestinian girl die rather than cooperate with the Israelis, isn't considered newsworthy.

These news hounds run from place to place breathlessly reporting the bang of rocks on cars... the bang of bullets and artillery shells... the bang of rockets and bombs. 

But the whimper of a sick little girl isn't news.  It isn't newsworthy to them... because it isn't of interest to us.

I'm no great lover of the Peres Center for Peace.  In fact, there are many days where my feelings for these misguided souls are probably not dissimilar to the way Hamas feels about Israel.  But I am writing a letter of thanks to them this evening, and enclosing a small donation as well.  I am also going to contact the Schneider Medical Center to ask which of their programs is the most under-funded.  I can't offer much, but I feel like I should help. 

I would encourage anyone who feels the same sense of personal shame that I'm feeling right now to step up and do the same.  Can't afford a donation?  At least call or write to thank them for doing the right thing.

Perhaps by taking a moment to acknowledge a whimper... we can reclaim a tiny bit of the humanity we've lost by allowing ourselves to indulge this unhealthy fascination with the bangs.