[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 91 (Thursday, June 17, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S5107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      TRIBUTE TO DR. ROBERT TABASH

 Mr. BOND. Mr. President, today I wish to extend my thanks to 
Dr. Robert Tabash for dedicating his career to the Holy Family Hospital 
in Bethlehem, Palestine. Thanks to his concern for the people of 
Palestine, Dr. Tabash has created a hospital that is truly an oasis of 
peace in the troubled region and is a shining example of humanitarian 
assistance.
  Dr. Tabash's work to build an oasis of peace to serve mothers and 
babies in conflict-torn Palestine has not been an easy road. After 
serving as a staff physician beginning in 1971, Dr. Tabash was 
appointed the Director of Administration to the Holy Family Hospital in 
1985. That same year the hospital was forced to close due to the Arab-
Israeli conflict. After a 5-year renovation period, Dr. Tabash's vision 
finally came to life when the hospital was inaugurated. That same year, 
Dr. Tabash saw the first baby born in the new facility. Since, the 
hospital has successfully delivered over 50,000 newborns. With the only 
neonatal intensive care unit in the area, Holy Family Hospital has 
amazingly limited the mortality rate to around 2 percent, on par with 
Western hospitals and remarkably different than the roughly 30 percent 
mortality rate found in government-run hospitals in the West Bank.
  This impressive success rate with high risk pregnancies and track 
record for saving premature babies makes the Hospital special. But what 
makes Holy Family truly shine is their commitment to serving pregnant 
women and babies in the West Bank, regardless of religion or race. 
Despite this commitment, more than 90 percent of Holy Family's patients 
are Muslim. Backed by U.S. dollars--and I am proud to have secured $3.5 
million for the hospital in 2005--Holy Family not only gives the unborn 
a chance at life in a troubled part of the world, it also works to 
dispel the false notions that America is at war with the Muslim world 
and sides only with the Israeli people.
  Holy Family Hospital is one of the most successful and touching 
examples of Smart Power in the Middle East--where through non-military 
engagement, like diplomacy, education, and in this case, humanitarian 
assistance, we can win hearts and minds, a necessary first step to 
peace.
  Dr. Tabash is a Christian Palestinian doctor. Born in Bethlehem 
himself, it is Dr. Tabash, and his endless devotion to serving the most 
vulnerable in Bethlehem--pregnant mothers and babies--that has made the 
hospital the success story it is today. Dr. Tabash is the rare 
individual who recognizes that the work of one person--every person--
can make a difference. Through his work, Dr. Tabash has saved thousands 
of babies' lives and touched countless more.
  On the occasion of Dr. Tabash's retirement I offer gratitude and 
congratulations for the good Doctor's contributions--to the lives of 
many mothers and babies and to the long-hoped dream of peace in the 
Middle East.

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