Once again, as has been true in so many previous natural disasters, the State of Israel has responded to the devastating earthquake in Nepal and its aftershocks, which have killed an estimated 7,000 people and  wounded uncounted thousands more, leaving destroyed buildings, roads and airport landing strips across the country.

A JTA story by Ben Sales reports that when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck April 26, about 2,000 Israelis were in Nepal, which is a popular vacation spot for Israelis and a site of various nongovernmental-organization projects.  Among those is Tevel b’Tzedek, which organizes volunteer trips to Nepal to set up youth groups, provide leadership workshops to women in the village of Manega, and bring Israeli agritech to farms and computers to schools.

Just as Israel responded dramatically and  effectively to the devastating 2010 earthquake and hurricane  in Haiti and the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, several Israeli missions immediately sprang into  action in Nepal to provide vitally important expert medical care, to assist in search and recovery efforts and to distribute humanitarian aid.  

An Israel Defense Forces delegation arrived on the Monday after the Nepal earthquake to set up a field hospital.  When a similar field hospital was set up in Haiti in 2004, NBC medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman filed several reports on how effective, compassionate and appreciated the field hospital was, having been set up in hard-to-reach and hardest-hit areas while  rescue crews from  other nations were hung up in red tape at overwhelmed airports.

A staff of Mogen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross affiliate, which is a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, fanned out across Kathmandu’s hospitals to care for Israelis and treat the estimated 11,000 wounded.  Dr. Rafi Strugo, who is heading the MDA team, called Kathmandu “an atmosphere of chaos.”  

For the sad reason that Israel has had to respond to scores of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks, its armed forces, hospitals and  medical teams have considerable experience in responding to situations in which there are many injured.  Strugo told JTA that “the dimensions of the tragedy,  the dimensions of the destruction, are so big that you can’t contain it all.”

Teams of effective volunteers have also been provided by Hadassah, Shaare Zedek and Rambam hospitals, and individual medical professionals have stepped up to join the rescue effort.  

Israel has been providing effective, immediate and on-site medical and other assistance in the aftermath of tragedies like the Nepal earthquake for decades. The Nepal response is nothing new for Israel, which has taken in hundreds of wounded Syrians and other refugees from ISIS and other terrorist groups, offering them medical care in Israeli hospitals while the world remains silent in the wake of the massive carnage raging throughout the region.  

It’s particularly loathsome that Israel haters actually took the nation to task for sending humanitarian workers and aid to Nepal. One example came predictably from Ken Roth, who leads the anti-Israel Human Rights Watch. Roth posted: “Easier to address a far-away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza. End the blockade!” 

To which the blogger Ari Kohen posted: “If your first response to Israel sending medical aid to Nepal is to criticize Israel about Gaza, you’re an anti-Semite. Full stop.”

At its founding as a modern independent Jewish State 67 years ago, Israel vowed to live up to the values of our biblical origins that it serve “as a light unto the nations.”  Israel’s response to the tragedy in Nepal and to similar calamities throughout the world deserves to be widely recognized as a direct fulfillment of that commitment.