VENEZUELA - Israel to the Rescue

Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodríguez thanked Israel for sending “a highly specialized and professional group” after the twin earthquakes that recently shook the country.

Israel jumped into action immediately, with the country’s Foreign Ministry, Health Ministry, KKL-JNF, SID Israel, and others, including IsraAID, sending delegations days after the quakes.

The specialized team that the country’s acting president was referring to was specifically the 30-member IDF delegation led by Brig.-Gen. Elad Edri, at Venezuela’s request, with the specific mission of engineering assessment.

This is what Israel does, and why our country can sometimes make us so proud. It sends doctors, engineers, search-and-rescue specialists, and disaster experts to places where people are trapped, wounded, missing, or grieving. It does so because we know that every life matters, because technical skill carries moral responsibility which not every country can afford, and because the Jewish state has learned, through bitter experience, the urgency of arriving quickly when seconds and structures decide whether people live or die.

-www.jpost.com, 8 July 2026

Commentary: It’s important to note that Venezuela is not a friend of Israel. We recall that in 2009, they severed diplomatic relations, and the former president (Hugo Chavez) condemned Israel repeatedly. Yet these facts are not decisive when it comes to Israel sharing their know-how on catastrophes.

Here, Proverbs 16:7 is applicable: “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him”; also 25:21: “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink.”

Later in the New Testament, Jesus confirms: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

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