Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal, writes:
The campaign to keep Syrian refugees out of the United States represents a complete lack of faith – not just in Syrian refugees, and not just in the department of Homeland Security, but in America itself.
I would like to be able to say such a campaign is un-American, but there has always been a fearful, xenophobic strain infecting the U.S. body politic. The anti-Chinese movement of the 19th century, the calls to keep Jewish refugees out on the eve of the Holocaust, the internment of Japanese Americans, and now the move to block people suffering from the horrors of Bashar Assad and radical Islam in Syria.
The leading cheerleader of this thinking is Donald Trump, grandson of immigrants, and he brought it to a new low this week in calling for a registry of Muslim Americans.
“Singling out any ethnic or faith group to register with the government is morally repugnant, not to mention unconstitutional,” American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris said in a statement. “What Mr. Trump proposes, in this case targeting all Muslims, is a horror movie that we Jews are quite familiar with.”
In response to the latest round of xenophobia, non-Muslims have adopted the Twitter hashtag #IamMuslim. And why not? Once it becomes acceptable to single out people based on their ethnicity or religion, all of us are vulnerable, Jews more than others. Perhaps a more accurate protest would be #IAmNext.
America was founded by, and to a great degree for, immigrants. Without immigrants, our great country would be just above average, an oversized Scotland. No offense to Scotland…America does immigration so well, because America does assimilation so well. America does integration like Jews do shiva. We just excel at it. The banlieues of Paris are festering sores of isolated Muslim youth who feel, justly, as French officials readily admit, that they don’t belong in France.
But America at its best and most commonplace accepts all comers and enables them to become proud hyphenates. That’s why the elevator in the Journal’s Koreatown office building is filled with Ethiopians, Koreans, Sri Lankans, El Salvadorans – Muslim, Jewish, Christian – it makes the United Nations look homogenous.
America has a race problem, but it never has an immigration problem – until some people try to foment one.
From the comments at JJ:
* Here we go again: compare what cannot be compared, and draw inevitably the wrong conclusions. With the early exception of early Americans, most of them Europeans, who “conquered” America coast to coast at the expense of Native Americans, the long history of immigration since then has never included a group that harbored members who openly said they wanted to impose their values and kill anyone who opposed it. For all its tumultuous past and awful racist history (for the abolition of which 500,000 white Americans lost their lives during the Civil War), America has emerged has a remarkably cohesive society because its foundations lay on commonly shared values and behavioral codes founded on Judeo-Christian principles. The values fostered by the Muslims have next to nothing in common with these values. Sharia Law is the exact opposite of what we hold dear, in particular attachment to democracy and equal treatment for all, especially women and LGBTs. The preaceful Muslims who have made it in America have done so by accepting and living by the same principles as the rest of us. Radical Muslims on the other hand, emboldened by their increasing numbers, are more and more openly showing the dark side of Islam, and that’s the reason Americans are concerned about importing more of them without careful scrutinization.
We should never lose our compassion since it is one of our most cherished and bedrock values, but committing suicide for the sake of compassion bears another name: stupidity. Our leaders have one primary responsibility, which is to guarantee our safety. If they fail in the name of some misplaced guilt and people die as a result, the blood of the victims of Muslim terrorists already here or accepted later will be on their hands. The liberal slant of the author and of so many other Jewish organizations pleading against all sanity for opening our doors to more Muslim refugees indicate that they are once again delusional and prefer to see a utopian perfect world where a dark and brutal reality is actually the norm. Besides, the price tag to relocate a refugee is more than ten times what it would cost to use the same money to help one similar refugee in existing refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
And why is the author not saying anything about the fact that neither Saudi Arabia nor any of the Gulf countries have accepted Syrian refugees? Why should America bear the burden when even the locals refuse to do their part (except the three countries mentioned)? We have no obligation whatsoever to make the same self-destructive mistake the Europeans are making right now by accepting the invasion that is upon them. If they refuse to stop it and push it back, it’s their choice, and the price will be more Paris-like massacres. No one is forcing America to be as short-sighted, and we should definitely not listen to the misguided voices of the Rob Eshmans of the world.
* “Old Europe needs new blood.” It is now seeing plenty of blood, thanks to you know who.
* Most of those I know who are opposed to the Syrian refugee resettlement program are against it because we DON’T TRUST the Obama administration to handle the screening effectively. And, why should we – they have screwed up almost everything they have touched. Does anyone want terrorists in their backyard? Maybe Rob does, but most of us don’t. Even if there are just two terrorists among the 100,000 let in, that is two too many.
This situation is also very different than past situatuons: NO, THE MUSLIMS FLEEING SYRIA AREN’T LIKE JEWS ESCAPING FROM NAZI GERMANY –
There Are Serious, Unbigoted Reasons to Be Wary of a Flood of Syrian Refugees
By Ian Tuttle — http://www.nationalreview.com/node/427242/printI hope that we can come up with a process that is effective, but I doubt it. Until we do, let’s keep our country safe and keep them out.
* Mr. Rob Eshman’s attempt to make a moral equivalency between Syrian refugees and Jews not being allowed into the United States before World War II is disgraceful. First, the Jews were hunted for years by the Nazis and not because they were going to blow up or shoot Germans in cafés like ‘al teatro’ near the Stadtteater in Munich. No, it was because of genuine anti-Semitism both in Germany and in the State Department of the United States. There was no fear of Jews shooting up Times Square – there never has been. But there is a fear that Muslim extremists will Kill Americans no matter what their age. Just look at Beirut, Paris and Mali. Whether Americans are toddlers or pensioners makes no difference – to the jihadist – it only gets added to the body count. American Left Jews like Mr. Eshman should find a way to channel their abysmal Marxist neuroses in other ways. Their lord and master, President Barack Hussein Obama, has unmasked them unwittingly by harping and accusing Republicans of xenophobia when they, the Republicans are the true patriots only interested in protecting the American family and fortunately the families of the American Left as well. Shame on the Jewish Journal and shame on the
A C L U.* A terrorist attack? What else would you expect? #IamMuslim
A beheading? What else would you expect? #IamMuslim
Pretending to be a refugee to infiltrate Europe or the US? #IamMuslim
Ramming, Stabbing, Shooting Jews because they are Jews? #IamMuslim
Boo and whistle at a moment of silence for terror victims. #IamMuslim
Not all muslims are terrorists. But almost all terrorists are #IamMuslim* Go back and reach the Somali refugees and you’ll get a taste of bad. We aren’t against refugees, there are thousands that come here every year and are welcomed. If there was a reliable way to screen them no one would block them coming here. Europe is about to see the error of their generosity. Just wait!!!!
* The governors of the various states banning Syrian refugees are looking at a lot of factors, including crime statistics. I happen to subscribe to a newspaper in a part of the UK where the local population is heavily Muslim and the crime rates among those with Muslim names are terrifying, ranging from violence against the person, dishonesty to an illegal slaughterhouse selling tainted meat and the ring of Muslims grooming and raping under-age girls. There is absolutely no parallel with Jewish refugees or the people classified as Displaced Persons after WWII because they live by a completely different moral code.
* I’m shocked by this ridiculous article. Don’t speak for Europe. We didn’t FLING our doors open we have been invaded by financial migrants pushing their way into European countries. They are still coming. We dont want them. I stood in an elevator today and it was filled with muslims. Women covered from head to foot in black and their men. I felt intimidated. One of the women physically reared away from me as though even my touch was contaminated. We did not open our doors. They illegally came and continue to come in boats knowing they will be rescued. They are not refugees they are economic migrants flouting all laws.
* What planet are you living on? Don’t you watch what is happening in this crazy world made all the crazier by Islam and worse still having liberals of the bleeding heart type like you?
Islam is the virus that has to be controlled. Why inject the virus into the United States? There is no immunity to this viral epidemic. If you want to catch it, do so by all means but don’t infect the rest of the country with your lethal ideas.* Rob Eshman should consider the following factors:
1. What is happening to the Jews in Europe who live in areas with large Muslim populations. Are they and all of their institutions safe from attack? Have they been told to conceal any outward signs that they are Jews when they walk on the street? Do their children feel safe in school? As the Muslim population increases do they feel that their future in Europe is going to benefit or suffer?
2. In the US; How are Jewish students and Jewish professors treated by “students for justice in Palestine”?
3. Has Israel, with all its experience with terror and with vetting ,been able to screen out those lone wolf Palestinians who are attacking and murdering Jews?
4. While we hear from writers for the jewishjournal that the cause of the violence is alienation, why are so many of the attackers relatively well-off in terms of education, jobs, housing, etc.?
* You are so wrong! Where do you keep your brain? Bring in Muslims who obey their Koran is death to America because they view us as infidels who must be slaughtered foe the sake of Allah! You can go first!!
* The media loves offering false analogies to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. But the Jews were a stateless people then. They had no country of their own go to. Muslims have more countries than nearly every other religion on the planet. They choose to go to the wealthiest Western countries, rejecting Slovenia and Bulgaria for Germany and Sweden, because they want money and they want easy money
Also the world needs to understand, not just France, and not just Russia, but the entire world – is that kowtowing to Islamofascists and Arab dictators never pays off. If you’re not like them – if you’re not dictatorial, or if you’re not a religious extremist willing to kill in the name of your god, you will ultimately be the target. Temporarily they may call you an ally or even a friend, but the Assads of the world, the Al Baghdadis of the world, the Bin Ladens of the world, will ultimately have nothing but contempt for you. If you can help them today, you become a means unto an end, but in the end, they want you dead too. It’s a sad but sobering reality.
* The list of high ranking Defense Department, CIA, homeland security, FBI, etc. officials who state that there is no way to vet the refugees vastly outnumber the administration political spokespeople who claim they will do a first-class job on the new crop when they have failed nearly every previous vetting assignment. The Christians are truly being persecuted. A majority of the “refugees” are economic refugees. Admitting Christians has been shouted down… Yet that option makes the most sense. Or does Rob want to keep his perfect record of being wrong ideally everything that he pontificates on.
* What defines our reaction to Islam is the behavior of Muslims, which is an entirely different criterium. Fundamentally, Americans do not care about Islam or any other religion except their own as long as everyone leaves everyone else alone and doesn’t try to impose their own beliefs. When one group, even if it is a minority within a larger group as is the case in the Muslim community, breaks this consensus and resorts to violence to impose their religious views, the whole construct is at risk. Instead of listing poor excuses for the behavior of the savages among them, “moderate” Muslims should be heard louder than anyone else distancing themselves from their radical co-religionists and telling the whole world that their behavior is nothing but a perversion of the Koran. As long as we don’t hear “moderate” Muslims say that clearly, they are tacit accomplices and will be regarded as such.
* This kind of leftist bull… is often heard in the Jewish community. 8 people, in Paris, managed to kill over 130. One deranged psychologist in Texas killed over 30 people. In Israel one individual has been able to kill 4 with a knife! 2 Refugees from Southern Russia killed 3 and injured 264. Among the 10K refugees, will the media be able to find such men and make them capable of these acts? What are the lives of American’s worth to those who compare this to preventing Jews from finding refuge on these shores?
If the Jewish Community wants to help and give asylum support the following type of actions by our country:
1. Accept women of all ages
2. Accept males under 14 and above 60
3. Place all refugees in locations outside of the US so that none can claim birthright citizenship.
4. Provide weapons and support the males to fight and take back their homes.
5. Reunite the families at their point of origin when the war has been successfully concluded. And make sure it concludes successfully.
6. If you have limited space, provide it to those that need it most, the Christians of the region, the minorities who are being wiped out by both Shiites and Sunnis.* Feelings are nice, but using your mind to read the history of Islam and study the Koran and Hadiths will give Rob a better understanding as to what is at stake.
* This publication has become nothing but a liberal rag. In the past, there was no evidence that the immigrants sought to change American political value system, change the Judao-Christian value system, change the Bill of Rights, or impose their culture on America. The truth is that a large segment of the Muslim population views the terrorists favorably and even if the individual seeking admission is okay now there is no assurance that he or his projeny won’t become radicalized. Plus, in the past the entire social and political culture stressed assimiliation; now it’s “diversity” and maintaining ethnic and cultural diversity so we cannot assume that there will be assimilation in the future.
The results of the races and of immigration in America are pretty much the same as you would expect from the genetics. America’s immigration and racial problems are replicated around the world when you have the same percentage of races and religions.
Wherever they are in the world, WASPs produce certain societies, Jews produce similar communities, Muslims produce similar communities, blacks produce similar communities.
http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/11/a-reasoned-case-against-semitism/:
WASPs rule! I wrote in a recent post that I was getting the sense that Americans with Protestant European backgrounds were the best behaved. So I decided to sum all my prior post numbers that dealt with ethnicity and moral behavior to assess this idea systematically. I followed the simple strategy of assigning a rank for each behavior for each of the 8 ethnic groups with sufficiently large sample sizes. Jews were often ignored in previous posts since one must turn to the religion rather than the ethnicity variable to get estimates, but I wanted to include them, so I calculated numbers and then ranks for them.
I included all variables that I have posted on–here’s a list of them: okay to cheat on taxes; drinks too much; ethnocentric; dirty house; frequents prostitutes; promiscuous men over 30; feel that infidelity is not wrong; gay; lesbian; husbands and wives who cheat; fathers divorcing mom; women arrested; and promiscuity for men and women and under. I realized that I had not posted on drug abuse so I added that to the rest. I ranked group so high numbers indicate more bad behavior, then I simply summed the 16 rankings for each ethnic group. Here are the totals:
Bad Behavior Index
Blacks 106
Mexicans 85
American Indians 85
Italians 70
Irish 67
Jews 64
Germans 56
English/Welsh 47My hunch was correct. This pattern coincides with that feeling that goes way back among nativists that the moral quality of the country was slipping with the mass immigration from Catholic, southern and eastern European countries, and more recently in concern over immigration from Mexico.
What happens when you bring Muslims into a first-world country? I wish we had some statistics on this.
