This issue focuses on Israel’s response to the suffering in Haiti. It also looks at Muslim retaliation in response to an accident in the Philippines and more.

OUR ISRAELI CONNECTION

David Zauber reports
Haiti, believe it or not, was one of the few nations that voted for the recognition of Israel in 1948 in the U.N. Israel was quick to respond.

For once, the main topic of discussion in Israel has no connection to war, politics or even the Middle East. From huge newspaper headlines to private conversations in small towns, Israelis can’t get enough information about the tragedy crushing Haiti.

Israelis seem determined to do all they can to help the inhabitants of a frail nation thousands of miles away, people with no connection to Israel other than the fact that they both have a history of suffering. Watching the Israeli response — one of the fastest, most effective of any country on Earth — it is striking to see the enormous gap between the grotesque image of Israel woven by its enemies and the reality of the country’s character.

The Jerusalem Prayer Team reports
The IDF search and rescue teams sent to Haiti have done an incredible job. They have rescued a number of people, including pulling a student from a collapsed school after six days. Even more amazingly, on Tuesday, a full week after the earthquake, they were able to find another survivor.

Because of the number of terrorist attacks Israel has suffered, their search and rescue teams are well-trained and very experienced-regarded by many as the best in the world. Though the rescue part of the operation has now ended, the Israeli doctors and support staff continue treating hundreds of survivors in need of medical care.

In an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled “Sending Soldiers of Peace to Haiti,” the reporter notes the rapid response by Israeli emergency workers, who quickly set up the most advanced field hospital operating in the disaster zone. It is equipped with the only reliable Internet and communications systems available in the area hit by the powerful quake, and is even drawing frustrated journalists to set up base there. The doctors’ main problem is fatigue; they”re working around the clock the report noted.

IT’S NEWS TO ME

Isaias Catorce reports
Pastor David Dasig accidentally hit a tricycle in Maasim, Sarangani [Philippines] on his way to his meeting in Kiamba on January 11. Two kids died on the spot and the mother of the kids died in the hospital. The father of the kids is the highest-ranking Commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the area. Brought to the hospital were one teenager with broken hipbone and the driver with bruises.

Pastor David miraculously escaped the tragedy and was brought by a concerned citizen to the police station. The head of his car was totally damaged. Two hours after the accident, Muslims surrounded the police station demanding for the head of Pastor David.  The Mayor of the town intervened and the Chief of Police to prevent the bloody encounter. Muslims posed a threat to kill all the Dasig family if negotiations would fail. Leaders of the C&MA [Christian & Missionary Alliance] made negotiations and a total of about half a million pesos or $ 12,000.00 was paid for the blood money, hospital, burial, and repair of a sidecar. Churches contributed through special offerings and individual Christians donated so to meet the whole amount.

Economic Warning
Arthur Laffer, creator of the Laffer Curve that showed how low tax rates boost economic growth, is warning anyone who will listen that the economy is headed for a train wreck in 2011 that will make the current recession look tame by comparison. The famed economist, whose supply-side, tax-cutting policies enacted by President Reagan in 1981 put the economy on a record-breaking, 25-year economic trajectory of growth and prosperity, is telling Americans not to be lulled by sporadic signs of growth this year, because the economy is headed for a sharper decline next year when tax rates are expected to jump sharply, sending the economy into a new tailspin.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?