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26 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us NOVEMBER 2023 EDITION criticism: “Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s okay to shell them to death?” Other experts said Zelenskyy’s efforts to draw comparisons were unlikely to resonate with Arab countries. Ukraine “has never been at the forefront” for the Arab world, said Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University who has written on Ukraine-Arab relations. “It is a conflict that does not concern them.” Ulrichsen added, “Israel is taking up so much bandwidth that I don’t think anybody in the Middle East really is thinking about Ukraine right now.” This weekend, Ukraine was scheduled to host a third round of talks aimed at fostering global support for its “peace plan” — which calls for a unilateral withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied Ukrainian territory and full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. Unlike at the first Ukraine peace formula meeting in August, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah and attended by delegates from almost all the major unaligned powers, it was unclear if Saudi officials would attend this weekend’s event in Malta. Zelenskyy spoke Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and in a readout of the call issued by Riyadh, there was no mention of the Malta conference or further help for Ukraine. China, which in recent days has joined Russia in calling for a return to a two-state solution to settle the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, was not attending the Malta event, Bloomberg News reported. Turkey was planning to send a delegation to Malta, but in recent days Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out forcefully against Israel and has described Hamas as a resistance movement — a stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s stated positions. With Russia stepping up attacks on the eastern front, Ukraine can hardly afford to lose any friends. This is especially true given increasing opposition by Republicans in Congress to sending more aid to Ukraine. President Biden has proposed an additional billion in assistance for Ukraine, and in a recent speech tied that to increased funding for Israel and for strengthening border protection in the United States. But the White House must now deal with Johnson, the new House speaker, who has repeatedly voted against further Ukraine funding and told Fox News he intends to separate funding for Ukraine from the assistance to Israel. Johnson has said Washington will not abandon Ukraine but has questioned the White House’s ultimate goals. Meanwhile, in Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who recently met Putin on the sidelines of a conference in China, is trying to shoot down a 50 billion-euro aid proposal for Ukraine from the European Union. The E.U. package will be voted on in December as part of the bloc’s 2023-2027 budget and requires the unanimity of the 27 member countries to be approved. Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former Ukrainian economy minister, expressed confidence that Zelenskyy’s administration would come up with a plan to re-boost international support for Ukraine and maintain attention on the war in the short to medium term. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian presidential administration and a spokesperson for Zelenskyy did not respond to requests for comment on what their plan might entail. Ukraine, meanwhile, has been preparing for the possibility that U.S. support will taper off, according to Orysia Lutsevych, director of the Ukraine program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. Ukraine’s “Plan B” — evidenced by recent joint ventures with German and Turkish arms companies as well as talks with British and American manufacturers — is to distance itself as much as possible from external foreign politics, Lutsevych said. “If America completely abandons Ukraine, it would be very difficult,” Lutsevych said. “But Ukraine will keep fighting with the resources it has on its own and it has from European allies.”
WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 27 TOWER HEALTH Advancing Health. Transforming Lives. Tower Health is a regional integrated healthcare system that offers compassionate, high quality, leading edge healthcare and wellness services to communities in Berks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. With approximately 11,500 employees, Tower Health consists of Reading Hospital in West Reading; Phoenixville Hospital in Phoenixville; Pottstown Hospital in Pottstown; and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, in partnership with Drexel University. Tower Health is strongly committed to academic medicine and training, including multiple residency and fellowship programs, the Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health, and the Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences in West Reading. The system also includes Reading Hospital Rehabilitation at Wyomissing; home healthcare provided by Tower Health at Home; TowerDirect ambulance and emergency response; Tower Health Medical Group; Tower Health Providers, our clinically integrated network; and 25 Tower Health Urgent Care facilities across our service area. For more information, visit towerhealth.org. Reading Hospital is a 697-bed nonprofit teaching hospital that provides high quality healthcare, cutting-edge technology, and experienced, caring medical professionals. As the nationally recognized, Magnet-designated flagship institution of Tower Health, Reading Hospital is home to many top-tier specialty care centers and services, including the McGlinn Cancer Institute, Miller Regional Heart Center, one of the state’s busiest Emergency Departments and a Level I Trauma Center, and Beginnings Maternity Center, which houses the region’s only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Reading Hospital was named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2023 by Healthgrades. This is the second year in a row (2022-2023) that Reading Hospital has been in the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide for overall clinical performance. Reading Hospital has also been ranked as one of the Top Ten Hospitals by U.S. News and World Report the second year in a row. Reading Hospital has a long history of medical teaching, offering more than 20 residency and fellowship programs approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Osteopathic Association. To further demonstrate our commitment to academic excellence and medical education, Tower Health has partnered with Drexel University College of Medicine to open a new medical school one-half mile walking distance from Reading Hospital, a regional medical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health. The school opened in 2021 and has begun its second academic year of 200 medical students, Class of 2024. To learn more, go to TowerHealth.org. To explore career opportunities, scan the QR Code or go to Careers.TowerHealth.org!
