When they can’t squawk about racism, xenophobia is the next best thing!
One-millionth Syrian registered in Lebanon (that fact is the source of innumerable news accounts in the past week or so).
Whether it’s South African blacks not wanting an invasion of their country by members of their own race from elsewhere in Africa, or now Lebanese Arabs not wanting to be completely overrun by Syrian Arabs, to Leftists it is always about some deep dark evil lurking in the human character (unless one is a do-gooder Leftist of course).
Frankly it may be deep—a deep human desire to save one’s own group from complete annihilation—that comes to the fore when the invaders are too many in number. The fear is a legitimate wish to preserve one’s own ethnic group and one’s own family and its livelihood.
It’s so humorous (annoying really!) to me to see that wish (for self-preservation) honored as immigrants come to America and are encouraged to maintain their own cultures/preserve their history, while the rest of us are encouraged to give up ours (see al-Hijra)!
With the conflict in Syria now in its fourth year, some Lebanese are growing increasingly hostile to the million Syrians taking refuge in their country.
[….]
“The increase in numbers has increased xenophobia,” says Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
What is the solution of course for groups like Human Rights Watch—save Lebanon from xenophobia by packing up tens of thousands of Syrians and sending them to Western countries?
This ‘news’ is all over our alerts today along with ‘news’ of Angelina Jolie visiting Syrian refugees as a special envoy for the UN. Looks like a stepped-up PR campaign!
Jolie in head scarf visits refugee kids in Lebanon. http://www.nagalandpost.com/ChannelNews/Infotainment/Infotainmentnews.aspx?news=TkVXUzEwMDA1NzA5NQ%3D%3D
Watch for it!—The announcement of how many Syrians the US will take this year should be out soon (or maybe it’s out already?). Will it be the 2,000 discussed previously or the 12,000-15,000 the contractors want? Remember also that the Obama Administration has lifted the ‘terrorism bar’primarily for the Syrians. ***Update*** Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society calls for 75,000 Syrians, here.
The United Nations has warned that the influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon poses a serious threat to the country’s stability and the region.
According to the reports, Ninette Kelley, regional representative for Lebanon for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Friday said: “There is not a single country in the world today that is shouldering as much in proportion to its size as Lebanon.”
Kelley said the influx of one million Syrian refugees into neighboring Lebanon has pushed up the country’s population by one-fourth.
This inflicts a major strain on Lebanon’s public infrastructure as people fleeing violence in Syria seek housing, food, and healthcare at a time of economic slowdown in the country.
The UN official described the influx as a threat to the country’s economy and warned that it would also make a spillover of the conflict in Syria into Lebanon more likely.
Kelley made comments on his visit to Washington and a week after Lebanese Foreign Minister GebranBassil said the crisis in Syria is threatening the existence of Lebanon, which has gone through a year-long political crisis.
Meanwhile a Reuters story tells us that the US is the single largest donor of humanitarian aid in the Syrian situation. But for the ‘human rights’ gang this will not be enough—thousands of the Syrians need to be living in American cities and towns to satisfy them.
The United States has been the largest single donor of assistance related to the conflict in Syria. The U.S. State Department says that U.S. humanitarian assistance across the region related to the conflict amounts to $1.7 billion to date.
If you see the big announcement before we do—please let us know!
This is a special commentary from reader ‘pungentpeppers’ who has become a much-appreciated unofficial reporter and investigator here at RRW. Emphasis is mine.
The doomed boat (photo texted from a cell phone).
A LEBANESE TRAGEDY
You may have heard the terrible news last week about the ill-fated group of mostly Lebanese migrants who had dreams of living in Australia. They included 68 Lebanese citizens, of whom 40 perished. Many of them were children who drowned when their boat crashed and broke up in rough waters 50 meters off the Indonesian coast. It was an ill-conceived voyage from the start.
These Lebanese, who were dissatisfied with their lives in Lebanon, believed they could do better. So they listened to the sales pitches of unscrupulous smugglers. People smugglers, who work in the lucrative trade of transporting human souls, persuaded their Lebanese victims that they would be transported safely and would receive residency in Australia. Some Lebanese from their region had previously succeeded in such a venture. But the smugglers neglected to mention that the Australian Government had changed its policies and would no longer grant asylum to any person who comes to Australia illegally by boat.
There were warnings. One man, Ali Taleb, who had already settled in Australia and was living in Melbourne, told his brother, “If you come with them I will never talk to you till the end of time.” Perhaps because of that threat his brother is alive today. Another family, that of survivor Hussein Khoder, urged the father to make the voyage alone, and leave his eight children in Lebanon – their grandfather offered to take care of them. His brother said, “There’s a 90 percent chance you will die.” But Hussein Khoder answered, “Either we all die, or we all live”, and chose to go ahead. Call it hubris, call it irrational expectations, or call it entitlement or greed, or perhaps it was the false belief that the involvement of children would force the Australian Government’s hand – whatever was in his mind, the man decided to spend the $80,000 the smugglers demanded, and set out with his wife and children for Indonesia, along with the other doomed travelers.
The plan for these Lebanese was to pose as Syrian war refugees, fly to Indonesia, get on a boat, and then call Australian rescue who would come, like a taxi service, and pick them up and carry them to Australia. The migrants destroyed their Lebanese documents, grabbed their fake Syrian passports and took off from Indonesia in a rickety wooden boat. One of the men texted home to Lebanon a picture of them sitting on that boat. [*photograph link below* use as illustration*] The small craft traveled some distance, but was still within the range of cell phone service, so it could not have wandered far offshore. At that point, according to one of the survivors, Abdullah Al-Qisi, they called the Australian Government for help, even though they were still close to the Indonesian shoreline. “We called the Australian Government for 24 hours, they were telling us ‘we’re coming, we’re coming, we’re coming,’ and they didn’t come,” said Al-Qisi to TV reporters. “We sent them the position on the GPS, exactly where we are, and we drowned and nobody came. This is because of the Australian Government. I want them to know that.” “And we wait two hours. We wait 24 hours, and we kept calling them: ‘We don’t have food, we don’t have water for three days, we have children, just rescue us.’ And nobody come. Sixty person dead now because of Australian government.’’ He further alleged that he lost his whole family because Australians did not come when they phoned in the rescue the day before the sinking.
Here’s where accounts differ: The asylum seekers’ story was that they called on Thursday. However, a statement from the Australian immigration minister’s office states that the first time the Australians heard about the boat was from a call on Friday morning. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority coordinated the initial rescue effort and notified the Indonesian search and rescue agency, since the boat was in Indonesian waters. A merchant vessel responded, as well as an Australian Border Protection Command aircraft, but neither could locate the vessel.
But why did the boat migrants need help? The survivors said their two motors had stopped working. So they called Australia and waited for their Australian rescuers to arrive. While they waited, their stocks of food and water diminished and the seas grew rougher. The motor that pumped water ran out of fuel, and the boat started taking on water. The migrants and the boat’s crew decided they had better turn back towards land. It’s unclear how they managed to return without either “broken” motor working.
Once they were within 50 meters of the Indonesian shore, tragedy struck. The boat crashed in heavy seas and broke into pieces. The men who could swim headed for the shore. As far as I can tell practically all of the women on board perished. One woman, Nazime Bakour, spied the eldest of her three children in the water and grabbed him, saving his life. Most of the men, however, apparently saved only their own skins. Hussein Khoder, the man who had paid $80,000 to the smugglers to take him, his pregnant wife, and eight children on the boat – he was the sole survivor of his family. He swam ashore and left his family behind to drown.
I cannot comprehend how a man who was able to collect $80,000 for such a trip, would not spend some of that sum on life jackets for his children! Saying they are “poor” and have no money is a recurring theme with these migrants. Yet if you saw the conditions in which they were living in Lebanon – their town, their automobiles, their houses, their furniture – and their ability to come up with thousands upon thousands of dollars to pay the smugglers – you realize they have a rather strange notion of poverty.
After the disaster, the survivors appeared on television, very emotional. Abdullah Al-Qisi mentioned previously, who spoke excellent English, complained and blamed the Australians. He said he called the Australians many times on his iPhone! Did he ever think to use his iPhone to look at the map and check the distance to Australia? Did he not realize that maybe he should call Indonesia and not Australia, especially since they were barely offshore?! Al-Qisi and the others spoke of the lost women and children. How precious and beloved these women and children must have been that the men did not strive to save them? Left them in the water? Did not give them life jackets? Put them on a rickety boat? Indeed, they seem not to have been very concerned about those “women and children”!
An Australian television program, SBS Dateline, aired a 6-minute special about the reaction in Lebanon to the deaths. The video shows Qabeit, the village where many of the victims came from. Overhead hangs a black banner describing those who perished as “martyrs*** in search of a dignified life”. It’s a nice village, surrounded by orchards and mountains. People have cars and trucks, not donkeys. Homes, not shacks. Furniture, not mats on the floor. Curtains on the windows. People who looked well fed. Do they even know what “poor” means? Yet, in the film they say the family that spent $80,000 could not “afford” to buy their baby a bed. The relatives of the dead children brought out their photographs, and called them “an army” – because of how many they were. One by one, they reverentially laid out each photograph on a table. They showed the girls. They showed the boys. As the pictures of the two lost boys were placed on the table, their uncle called each one by his nickname and said he was “mudallal” – “pampered”. Yes, the boys were pampered and spoiled. And as spoiled boys become men – they become willing to risk their women and children’s lives and leave them in the ocean to drown.
The cleric of the village, Sheik Ali Khoder, yelled in anger in Arabic, “Listen, Australia. The boat sought help and rescue and the coastguard kicked the boat out and told the boat “Go back to where you came from.” Shame on you. Shame on you. Ask for the meaning of these words. Australia, shame on you. Australia, which has been the land of dreams, freedom, humanity and justice for so long. Shame on you, that your new rulers have reached the stage of killing people and making this part of their election campaign. Is there a court of justice to try you, Australia?” Yes, the speechmaker was indignant and angry and put on a big show. Lebanon is all about appearances. It doesn’t matter that the ship fell apart but 50 meters from Indonesia’s shore. It does not matter that the migrants were neither kicked out, nor were they told to go back. The evil Australians are to blame! They must be made to feel guilt! They must mend their ways! The world must condemn them! Lebanon is all about showing bravado, and anger, and strength. That’s how their society works. The truth is twisted. The weak are abused. The kind are taken advantage of. And humanity is viewed as a weakness to be exploited.
Editor: Cynic that I have become wonders if this was a plan to test the new Australian government hoping to force them to rescue yet another boat carrying illegal Muslim migrants and it went very wrong.
***Why “martyrs” were these Jihadists?
‘Pungentpeppers” has included these links for your further information. Photo is here.
Dateline is here. Opinion pieceat the Herald-Sun. Lebanese village in shock, here. Survivors will return to Lebanon, here.
40 drowned or are missing, here. Survivors blame Australia, here. Asylum seeker recalls horror, here.
Here is a story from last week that I never got around to mentioning (thanks to a reader for sending it). Lebanon is being overwhelmed by the arrival of Syrian refugees and anger and resentment is growing among the Lebanese. What! I thought Muslims were the most welcoming people in the world (that’s what the UN told us, here).
Before I get to the story, check out this map of Syria and its neighbors. Do you know who isn’t taking any refugees? Uber-wealthy Saudi Arabia, as we learned recently, is the fifth most-desired destination for would-be migrants following, the US, the UK, Canada and France, but has closed its door to refugees. The UN never criticizes Saudi Arabia for wanting to keep their country wealthy and for their own kind of people. And, I bet all those Muslims (29 million!) who want to live in S.A. believed the myth about Islamic charity too!
Syrians are flowing to Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, but not wealthy Saudi Arabia
Stories like this one at the Los Angeles Times will be used to soften you up for when the refugee advocates begin clamoring (probably in May!) for you to “welcome” some nice Syrians to your towns and cities.
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Khaled Naaman doesn’t hide his disdain for the Syrian government, a widely shared sentiment in this northern Lebanese city, where many harbor dark memories of Damascus’ years of military occupation.
His impoverished neighborhood, Bab Tabbaneh, stands as a bastion of support for Syrian rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad; their tricolor banner flutters from buildings and is spray-painted on walls. The district has also welcomed multitudes of refugees seeking to escape the Syrian conflict.
But now after almost two years of a steady influx of displaced Syrians, Naaman and other Lebanese citizens in Bab Tabbaneh are growing weary. Many blame the newcomers for shrinking wages and job opportunities and increasing rents and prices for groceries, car repairs and necessities.
“Syrians are everywhere and they are taking jobs,” said Naaman, a grizzled native of Tripoli in his mid-40s who ekes out a living selling vegetables, having retired from his position as a right-hand man for a now-deceased leader of one of this city’s many militias.
The anger vented by Naaman and others is indicative of a growing unease across Lebanon about the steady stream of refugees, who they fear may destabilize Lebanon’s brittle political and social balance.
Each day, as many as 1,000 Syrians enter Lebanon, a nation of 4.5 million people wedged between Syria, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon, about a quarter the size of Switzerland, sits astride some of the Middle East’s most volatile sectarian and ethnic fault lines.
More than 400,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the uprising began two years ago, authorities say, adding to a sizable Syrian population already here.
Unlike in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, other major destinations for Syrian refugees, there are no formal camps in Lebanon. Lebanese leaders are loath to go that route, recalling how semiautonomous Palestinian enclaves helped detonate the Lebanese civil war, a sectarian bloodletting that lasted from 1975 to 1990 and left about 150,000 dead and much of the country in ruins. The Syrian military entered Lebanon in 1976 and didn’t exit until 2005, after allegations it was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
