Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 16 February 2018

NIF Oz's False Analogy

In Tel Aviv (image Haaretz)
The latest issue of the Australian Jewish News carries a letter from a Sydney reader expressing outrage at Israel's decision to "deport specifically African refugees".  Inter alia:
"What message does it send to all those people that have been to the Sydney Jewish Museum or the Jewish Holocaust Centre, seen the suffering of the Shoah and then read what Israel is doing to people who could also be sent to their death by an Israeli government's decision?
As Jews we must put pressure on the government by any means we know how, not only because it is humane to do so, but also for a selfish reason to ensure that this action does not lead to increased anti-Semitism."  (Emphasis added)
And in the same newspaper is an article on the same theme by the vice president of New Israel Fund Australia and a board member of the Asylum Seeker Centre of NSW, that also invokes the Shoah, specifically the voyage of the SS St Louis, and observes, inter alia:
"Here in Australia, the country with the highest number per capita of Holocaust survivors except Israel – people are insisting on being heard.
An emergency appeal launched by the New Israel Fund Australia raised $20,000 within just one week to help fund lawyers and case workers in Israel who are assisting asylum seekers facing deportation.
And, in just two days, 200 people signed a letter to PM Netanyahu protesting against his asylum seeker policies.
NIF plans to send the letter to Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, next week.
... Please join us and call upon the Israeli government to treat its refugees with the compassion that Jewish people, our parents and our ancestors, have sought at times of grave danger for more than 2,000 years."
Never mind that, as reported here,
'When asked whether Israel needs to deport illegal Eritrean and Sudanese infiltrators, 58% of those polled said yes, and 23% said no.
When asked whether the infiltrators from Sudan and Eritrea are seeking political asyum or migrants looking for jobs, 51% of responders said they believe the infiltrators are "job seekers," and only 37% said they are "asylum seekers."
In addition, 63% of Israelis support the decision to remove the infiltrators to a third country in Africa, and 20% opposed the decision. 59% of Israelis do not believe that Israel has a moral obligation towards the infiltrators, while 24% said they believe Israel does have a moral obligation towards them.
Israel's plan offers the nearly 40,000 male, unmarried infiltrators, who entered Israel illegally, the opportunity to leave voluntarily before the end of March and receive $3500 compensation. enough to live on for as long as a year in the countries which agreed to accept them and to which they are to be flown. Anyone still in the country after that date will be arrested and deported without compensation.
Families and bona fide refugees are not included in the plan.
Israeli residents of southern Tel Aviv - where most of the infiltrators live - have long complained of their presence, the increased crime rate endangering Israeli citizens, and the city and Supreme Court's preference for infiltrators over Israeli citizens. The government's current plan has been approved by the Supreme Court, after all its previous objections were complied with by the Justice Department.'
As Liel Leibovitz sensibly states here:
"The Sudanese and Eritrean migrants struggling to stay in Israel aren’t Anne Frank, and the Israeli government isn’t the Gestapo. Thinking in these terms is morally unserious, intellectually dishonest, and politically unwise. And they prevent us from carefully and effectively addressing the real question: Should the migrants be allowed to stay?
Take the sound and the fury out of the picture, and you’ll find good and convincing arguments on both sides. It’s perfectly fine to argue that Israel, a Jewish state founded in the shadow of unprecedented persecution, should be sensitive to all who wish to make a better life for themselves, and therefore loosen its immigration policy to absorb as many newcomers as it can without making spurious arguments and claiming that they’re all in imminent mortal danger. That said, anyone making this argument should be prepared to explain precisely how Israel ought to welcome torrents of newcomers. The last decade was proof that, in the absence of clear guidelines, Israel’s free society and robust economy will attract an exponentially growing number of African migrants. Even if you believe the freedom to pick up and move anywhere you like to be a universal human right—a problematic proposition—you’d still have to explain just how Israel is supposed to take in so many newcomers without jeopardizing its ability to sustain its citizens first, losing its inherently Jewish nature, or both.
This, of course, is a more jagged version of the very same conversation Americans are having when they talk about immigration. Israelis, so frequently the canaries in the global coal mine, would do well to lead the way by rejecting the temptation of empty outrage and engaging instead in a difficult and complicated conversation, the kind adults have when faced with inconvenient truths and imperfect choices."

4 comments:

  1. Why Israel’s 1967 Borders are Undefendable:

    www.algemeiner.com/2017/10/27/israel-cannot-withdraw-from-the-west-bank/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/03/guest-post-why-1967-borders-are-suicide.html

    ____________________________
    Ancient Roman historians connected Jews with the Land of Israel:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-josephus-vs-muslim-liars.html

    ____________________________
    Did Captain Kirk believe in negotiating with terrorists?

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/can-jews-learn-from-captain-kirk.html

    ____________________________
    Why Muslims Hate Jews:

    www.jns.org/opinion/arabs-are-torch-bearers-for-nazi-anti-semitism/

    www.algemeiner.com/2018/01/19/why-arabs-and-muslims-will-not-accept-israel-as-the-jewish-state/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-why-muslims-hate-jews.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-post-famous-last-words.html

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-forgotten-oppression.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-all-jews-must-die.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Articles about American anti-Semitism:

    www.algemeiner.com/2018/02/01/at-least-five-imams-in-america-have-called-for-the-death-of-jews-wheres-the-outrage/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-seven-times-stronger.html

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-jewish-nyc-mayor.html

    ----------------------------------
    New York Times Erases Israel from Map:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-nyt-erases-israel-from-map.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-postnyt-vs-israel.html

    ----------------------------------
    How to Convict the New York Times
    of Unfair Bias Against Israel:


    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. I live in Jerusalem. I have stopped going to TelAviv because the bus station is too dangerous. The nearby park is full of Africans selling drugs, shooting up, stealing or passed out. Walk down Finn street and you take your life in your hands. Now they are filtering into Jerusalem. When I am pushed around by a gang of Africans on my way to work at at 6:30 in the morning it tells me that these people are not peaceful. When they say it is their country now and we Jews should get out it tells me it is time to deport them all. As an aside, none are Jewish, most are muslims and they all hate Jews. Why on earth would we allow them to stay?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment, orfan. I entirely sympathise.

      Delete

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