I love these ‘liberal-gets-mugged’ stories, don’t you! The Israeli journalist changed his tune about protecting the economic migrants* when they invaded his town!
New readers, please see our ‘Israel and refugees’ category for all the latest on this controversy.
From Jameel Muqata writing at the Jewish Press:
Israel has been under attack by the onslaught of illegal immigrants from Africa and over the past few months there has been an unbearable rise of crime — brutal rapes and assaults of teenagers and women in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netivot, Lod, Netanya, Eilat, Or Akiva, Bnei Brak, Kiryat Sefer, and more. These illegal job-seeking immigrants are being deemed as “refugees” by all sorts of “aid groups” in Israel, who vocally protest all government actions to evict these illegals — estimates ranging from 90,000 to 700,000. Many of the same “social justice” advocates who demand a better quality of life for Israel’s lower and middle class, are also demanding equal rights for these thousands of illegals as well.
These “activists” live in fiscal fantasyland.
Now here is the figurative ‘mugging’ part of the story:
Left leaning Israeli Journalist Guy Maroz slammed right-wing MKs in March 2010 for wanting to create “labor camps” for these illegal workers. He was among the most vocal activists demanding that Israel not deport the children of these illegal immigrants with their families.
Till it hit home for him.
Till he woke up and realized that the problem isn’t only in South Tel-Aviv or Eilat (which obviously aren’t his problem because he doesn’t live there)…and the illegals started flooding all of Israel, his hometown as well.
Muqata goes one to say:
Israel needs to quickly take decisive action to quash the illegal immigration from Africa.
This isn’t racism. This isn’t intolerance. This isn’t immoral.
This is self-preservation. This is the responsibility of survival of the Jewish State, for us, our children, and generations to come.
Some in Israel get it!
Yesterday a Kansas reader cheered when she sent this Reuters story from the same day (Monday) as the piece above.
Israel rounds up African migrants for deportation
* Legitimate refugees arrive in the first safe country and ask for asylum, in this case these people are simply moving on and shopping for a country in which they might find work and are thus termed “economic migrants.” Most of the asylum seekers arriving on US borders are not legitimate refugees either—they generally have traveled through many safe South and Central American countries, or indeed Canada, where they would have been able to ask for asylum. They are really trying to get to the pot of gold—the US (or in the case of the Middle East—Israel).