AGAINST ZIONISM

NEW YORK – A group of attorneys has mounted the first legal challenge to the Medical Freedom Act, which allows Jewish Americans to designate  hospitals as “Jewish only.” Under the Act, which the President signed this week, Jewish Americans may deny medical care and hospital employment to anyone they choose. 

Some 937 hospitals across the United States are collectively administered by the National Jewish Congress.  All other hospitals are required by federal law to provide emergency care to all patients, regardless of background or ability to pay.

“This is unreasonable,” said Bill Taylor of Fairness in Medical Care (FIMCare), a legal action committee formed to challenge the Medical Freedom Act. “All other hospitals are required to take anyone, even illegal aliens. Why are only the Jewish ones exempt?”

The 937 hospitals are completely supported by tax dollars, unlike other hospitals. “Not only do these hospitals save money by denying care to illegal aliens and indigent citizens,” Taylor said in a press conference, “they are completely supported by tax dollars. And they provide care only to Jewish Americans, who don’t even have to pay hospital expenses.”

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith denied these charges. “Any suggestion that patriotic Jewish Americans don’t pay taxes is simply outrageous. The President approved the Act several days ago, and no one ever questioned it until now. There is nothing wrong with loyal Jewish Americans wanting to be in a kosher setting. FIMCare victimizes a group of citizens for no other reason than they practice the Jewish religion. If that’s not anti-Semitic, I don’t know what is.”

“The only people who can get jobs in these hospitals,” Taylor countered, “are Jewish people and pretty white nurses. No one else has a chance.”

“Taylor should check his facts before he makes such outlandishly racist allegations,” Foxman said. “A large number of personnel in all the hospitals are Hispanic and African-American.”

Taylor admitted to MSNBC that this was valid, but provided documentation to prove that all African-Americans in the hospitals are janitors, while all Hispanics are orderlies and disposal workers. “And all of the patients are Jewish,” he added. “The cost of medical care in these hospitals is three times the national average, and the expenses are all passed to American taxpayers. Jewish Americans now have a free ride at everyone else’s expense.”

“Many of the patriotic Jewish Americans in the hospitals are Holocaust survivors,” Foxman countered. “By seeking to deny their right to medical care, Taylor has become a Holocaust denier. Naturally we are taking appropriate legal action against him.”

Judge Rachel Ginsberg of the Federal District Court in Washington D.C. threw out FIMCare’s first legal challenge to the Act. Immediately FIMCare returned with a new lawsuit on Constitutional grounds. “Congress never voted on this Act,” Taylor says. “It was passed by executive order of the President.”

“Again Mister Taylor needs to check his facts,” Foxman said. “The Act was originally requested by Israel, which is America’s strongest ally. The President did not dream it up, as some have claimed.  He simply approved it.”

Foxman added that FIMCare is exaggerating the impact of the “Jewish only” hospitals. “When you add up all the research centers, mobile clinics, HMO organizations, regular hospitals, and bloodmobiles in the United States, our hospitals comprise only twenty percent of the total. When you factor in medical trauma units in Iraq, the percentage is even lower, and is lower still when all the hospitals in Israel are added in. Israeli hospitals are not covered by the Act. Therefore they get no tax dollars. Does FIMCare seek to deny medical care to people in Israel? That seems rather arrogant to me. Clearly FIMCare enhances global anti-Semitism, which already victimizes America’s strongest ally.” 

“All of Israel is supported by U.S. tax dollars,” Taylor said, “including the hospitals. Furthermore, the Medical Freedom Act removes all 937 Jewish-only hospitals from American law enforcement jurisdictions. How can we be sure these hospitals will not be used as havens for organized crime?”

“Taylor has been watching too many Godfather movies,” Foxman responded. “If the hospitals are Jewish only, how can they be full of Italian gangsters?”

Legal scholars say FIMCare’s lawsuit has little chance of succeeding, because the Israeli Embassy has become involved in the dispute.

“The Act now affects Israel,” said Hyrum Epstein of Yale Law School, “which means this a matter of national security. Thus, FIMCare’s legal challenge is a grave threat to the safety of all Americans. President Ahmadinejad of Iran agrees with FIMCare, which shows that FIMCare supports terrorism.”

Public opinion polls show overwhelming support for Jewish-only hospitals. “It’s only twenty percent of the total,” one respondent noted. “And Jewish people are, what, fifty percent of the American population? If anything, the Medical Freedom Act is too stingy.”

“This was an idea whose time had come,” the President said in a signing statement. “Americans should get used to it and move on.”

A White House staff person, who asked not to be identified, said the President is now preparing an executive order that will designate Jewish-only high schools and elementary schools, again supported by federal tax dollars.