{Editor's note - this piece was written prior to the Orlando massacre and therefore does not in any way reflect that horror. Also published at the Elder of Ziyon.}
Writing in the Times of Israel, Josef Federman tells us:
According to survey director Alex Mintz, “The overall pattern is that most people … do not support either candidate, but they hate Trump..."An opinion poll of attitudes inside Egypt and Saudi Arabia conducted by Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center found virtually no support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the two Arab countries.
The survey could signal trouble for Trump if he wins the November election and sets out to devise a Mideast policy. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are two of America’s most powerful and important allies in the Arab world.
When asked who their preferred candidate was, just 3.8 percent of Egyptian respondents chose Trump. In Saudi Arabia, only 6% favored Trump.
Ya don't say!
They hate Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia, do they?
I have to tell you, it almost makes me want to support the guy.
Saudi Arabia is the very fountainhead of Salafism and thus Islamism and thereby ISIS.
It was the Arabian Peninsula, of course, where Muhammad and his friends came to believe that killing Jews was not only a dandy idea, but adored in the eyes of G-d.
For all that Koranically-based hatred murdering its way around the Middle East, and all those chopped heads toppling onto the beaches in Libya, and all those young girls raped as a matter of religious privilege... let's hand it to our friends on the Saudi peninsula.
Let's hand it to the King, the Crown Prince, and the Royal Family.
Let's give them a big round of applause.
I am not writing this as a Trump supporter, you should know, mainly because the guy is just so obnoxious that I do not see how he can possibly function as president of the United States.
People say that Trump is both a racist and a sexist and he definitely threw away my likely support when he demeaned Carly Fiorina's looks.
The racism charges, however, are primarily based on the notion of a wall separating the United States from Mexico and the fact that Trump intends to keep Islamic terrorists out of the United States.
As to the former, what Trump wants is simply to keep out illegal immigrants and I do not have a problem with that. I do not know that a big wall is the answer and I certainly would hate to see the National Guard rounding up gazillions of Latinos for deportation, but I do not believe in an open-door policy, either.
But Latinos are not the problem.
The gang activity in places like Los Angeles or Phoenix, Arizona, is considerable, but it is not particularly political or ideological and no more troubling than gang activity throughout the United States from other ethnicities, including white people.
And, unlike political Islam, it is not grounded in religiously-based Jew hatred.
Middle Eastern immigration into the United States, though, is another matter entirely.
What we do not want - or what we should not want, at least - is for Jihadis to slide through the process and end up murdering people in places like San Bernadino, California.
It is not "racist" to defend oneself against a large and hostile political movement that would prefer to see your family dead.
Must it be reiterated that polling throughout the Arab-Muslim Middle East demonstrates a distinct hatred for both Jews and Americans?
And why should Jewish Americans happily welcome people who decidely hate us into our own country?
It is a matter of basic common sense and fundamental human decency - particularly among a small minority - to want to protect one's friends and family and children from those who would seek them harm.
No people of any ethnicity would willingly welcome a much larger hostile population into their own homes and it is not bigoted to say so.
But this is the dilemma for Jewish people throughout the world.
Jewish self-defense is considered a form of aggression in both the Middle East and the West.
And it has been that way for a very long time.
Illegal immigration is partially a crime problem but it's also partially a destroy the middle class problem. Anyone who's seen their property taxes skyrocket since 2000 to cope the massive influx of illegal immigrant children to their local school system because their parents residency is never reflected in the tax base understand this tiny facet of the problem inherently. Of course when you're illegal and you get in a car crash you're going to flee. 75% of all hit and runs in California are such. But similarly when your county hospital has to hire 100 more people who's first language is Mexican Spanish or Oaxacan just to process the intakes - of people who aren't going to pay dollar one of the bill, that's a burden that gets shifted as well. When your neighbor's unvaccinated dog bites your kid and you have to take her to the ER to start a battery of rabies shots, that's on you too. When the county court is clogged hold over warrant cases pending handing someone over to ICE who will them turn them loose, that's on the middle class too.
ReplyDeleteAnd so on. Crime is one thing, but the cost of managing it is something else. I am less worried about an illegal robbing me than I am of an illegal burning trash that might burn my house down too.
I don't like your dog fighting, I don't like your chicken coops, I don't like that ATT subs out cable work and then sends you to my house with no English, no work order, no paper work. I don't like that employers treat you badly so dirty up the chickens at the processing plant. I don't like it that your car doesn't have legal plates or an inspection or insurance. I don't like that your presence brings to the cops to my neighborhood. I don't like that the most commonly heard phrase you hear screamed at the DMV is "You'll have to get an original of this from your consulate!" Liberal guilt costs me money and time and I'm sick of it.
The exact same arguments were made in the 1930s to keep Jews from escaping the Holocaust by coming here. And now you're more worried about your money than helping fellow human beings. so you are not only ignorant and stupid, but evil as well. I prefer to get my principles from the Ethics of the Fathers rather than Ayn Rand and Republican talking points.
DeleteThe exact same arguments were made to keep Jews escaping the Holocaust out of the US?
DeleteI don't think so.
Yes, they were. Go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. They have an exhibit called "The American Response" and you will see the same arguments agaist Jewish immigration.
DeleteThe comparison with Jews is nonsense.
DeleteJews were no threat and facing genocide. The numbers were not daunting.
Today's illegals are usurping resources and did not come because of persecution. Estimates range from 11 to 30 million.
More importantly, the illegals are already here, the Jews never were here.
Context matters in evaluating the whether the same arguments are used as a sword or a shield.
Perception matters. In the 1930s, Jews were perceived to ba a threat, just as undocumented workers are now perceived to be a threat. While neither are, in fa ct undocumented workers contribute to the economy, the perception by some is that they detract from the economy. Many undocumented workers do come because of persecution, the problem being so many do that asylum hearings are backed up. Undocumented people are here, so what? If Jews could have slipped in, they would and should have.
DeleteIt's not about perception it's about reality. For example, Obama wants to amnesty millions of people. So your kids or your neighbors with a bogus pot bust now start out in life BEHIND the illegals who were just waved in and given a clean slate after committing Federal crimes. THEY will get school loans and apartment leases before your own kids.
DeleteReality is that ERs are filling up with people demanding expensive care BECAUSE they're illegal and can't get health insurance.
Reality is that money paid for your illegals public school education. My property taxes have gone up 87% in the past 8 years with another 11% hike in the pipeline. More worried about my money? Who the hell do you think is giving your illegals a free ride?
BTW my county spent 10's of millions of dollars to accommodate these 'migrants' with Spanish speaking everything only to discover that most of them don't speak Spanish, they speak Oaxacan. So that was a great waste of everything.
If 11 million Mexicans et al are 'fleeing' war torn Mexico, or less war torn all those other places then the best effort would be to make those places better not our place worse. Sorry but resources are finite.
Instead of mouthing Republican talking points, it might be beneficial to actually study the issue http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/do-illegal-immigrants-actually-hurt-the-us-economy.html?_r=0
DeleteUndocumented people are here, so what?
DeleteSounds a bit like Hillary Clinton!
It's more accurate to call these people undocumented aliens.
But the fact that they are here makes all the difference. There is actual experience as compared to "perception." And when it comes to obtaining benefits to which they are not entitled, that is no longer a threat, but an actuality. Should they get Obamacare? Should they vote, too?
Yeah, some of these people fled persecution, but most did not. That is a major difference from the 1930s, where most never were even able to flee.
Anyone, once apprehended, can claim asylum. TIn the interim, they are allowed to stay and receive work authorization. It's a scheme. That is why there is a backlog. Most cases fail because there is not a well founded fear of persecution. But refugee law, in general, has been perverted to include anyone fleeing conflict for any reason.
This does not even get to the Syrian refugee matter. If anyone should be first be granted asylum, it should be the Christians and people actually fleeing persecution, by Muslims.
Joseph,
DeleteI live in Florida. I will not be visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington any time soon. Can you tell me how the plight of would-be Jewish refugees during the Holocaust compares to non-refugee illegal immigrants streaming into this country ahead of those who wish to come here but have to wait and do it legally because, unfortunately for them, there is an ocean or two in their way? Here's the funny thing about this - Liberal Democrats used to rant about securing the border from waves of illegal immigration, and no, not a long time ago.
Then there is the big issue of Muslims, overwhelmingly antisemitic and accompanying them, a percentage of jihadis who would like to (and already have) infiltrated our borders in order to bring about murder and mayhem in the United States. I do believe the FDR Administration was quite worried about Nazis coming here and took measures to keep them out and watch them in a way that is anathema to Obama in relation to Muslims entering this country even though there is a dangerous ideology on the rise. This President doesn't seem to believe that the American People are sufficiently bright enough to have a mature conversation about the inherent dangers and believes that we are far too racist to be trusted with terms such as Political Islam, Islamism, and/or Radical Islam.
There is perception, and then there is reality. There are threats that are real and those that are imagined and purely the result of prejudice, but we do have the capacity to understand the difference.
I have seen certain people, e.g., Bob Shrum, rubbing their hands together at the thrill that America will soon have a "white" minority. I find these people no less sick than the Pat Buchanan's who would end immigration of "non-whites" in order to ensure a "white" majority.
Without sounding overly dramatic... this conversation strikes directly at the American Jewish soul.
Delete{I think that did sound overly dramatic!}
Can we, or should we, as the children of hounded immigrants deny the rights of other immigrants to come to the United States and enjoy "the blessings of liberty" as the Jewish people were able to do?
It's a sticky point, isn't it?
We are the children of immigrants, after all.
In fact, obviously, the US is a country of immigrants with the exception of Native-Americans.
So, if we wish to keep Jihadis out of the country we face an ethical dilemma.
Given Jewish history in the 20th century, it tends to be difficult for us to make the argument against immigration.
What I would insist upon, I guess, is a recognition of the fact that Islamic immigration is largely an anti-Semitic immigration - given polling data from the region - and therefore as a matter of basic common sense, and self-preservation, we are under no ethical obligation to support it.
Latino immigration worries me not in the least.
The world is vulgar. Trump reflects that openly. It is no different virtually anywhere. It's how things have evolved thanks to technology. It has afforded humans new ways to mess things up and fight among each other. Not to mention bad actors.
ReplyDeletePeople pretend to be civil in heart, but what do they say in private?
Too many subjects are taboo these days. If you can't talk about something, how can you make good decisions about it?
Many that hate Trump do so because he exposes the charade. In that regard, interesting to see Obama attack him with such gusto, but then again, Obama's skin is thinner than Trump's.