Monday May 21, 2012, 3:32 pm
I"m very unhappy to hear this and to have to post this. As the extreme case of being a refugee state, Israel must welcome others whose lives are threatened in their homelands. Human rights are for everyone or they are for no one, as I often point out.

Monday May 21, 2012, 3:45 pm
Since our declaration, America has given entry to the world's population.We are truly the only nation made up of immigrants - from the moment British citizens stepped on Plymouth Rock.
Israel too was created by not only Palestinians, but by Europeans running from religious intolerance, Holocaust survivors, etc. Our issues with illegal immigrants are the same, yet different.
Israel has a Prime Minister who is confronting illegal immigration head on. Security being of the ultimate issue, the Prime Minister sees a potential breech in security if the borders between Egypt and Israel are not fenced off (and Obama laughed at Arizona for proposing this last year).
Like in America, jobs are being lost to illegals. In America, the illegal immigration has led to drug and gun smuggling. Israel will not let this get to this point.
Yet here in America, our President doesn't seem to care less.

Monday May 21, 2012, 4:46 pm
I CONTINUAL TO BE SO APPALLED BY THE LACK OF HUMANITY IN OUR WORLD WHICH SEEMS TO BE DIGGING EVER SO DEEPER INTO SELFISHNESS, GREED & SUPERIORITY!!

Monday May 21, 2012, 4:52 pm
Anyone who has been to Israel knows it's almost impossibly tiny and supports a large population. Eventually, Israel MUST regulate incoming people....they have to if they're to survive.

Like California....or Arizona....or Texas.....or any EU nation.....THEY CANNOT ACCEPT EVERYONE!

Monday May 21, 2012, 5:29 pm
Cal, consider the percentage of these migrants to the native population. They have to be provided with food, clothing, jobs, police protection - not an easy task for a small country.

BTW, Canada has the same policy.

Monday May 21, 2012, 10:51 pm
I can't pretend this is a small problem. The African population is growing, not only from the influx of new refugees, but from their very high birthrate. The Israeli government provides free medical care to mothers and children and it is expensive. Not only that, hospital beds are taken in areas where there are few beds for the Israeli citizens, especially in maternity wards. Then there is the pre and post natal care, provided by the state, something which the Israeli government provides freely to the African, while Israeli citizens pay taxes and added medical insurance fees for their care.

Another problem is housing. There isn't enough housing for Israeli citizens of the lower classes. Now much of the lower income housing has been given to African refugees. This is also fueling animosity among certain sectors of the Israeli population. While rents are soaring for Israelis due to lack of housing stock, the Africans are receiving free accommodation paid for by the state of Israel.

Lastly, there are the problems of religion and crime. The refugees are Christians and many are joining Evangelical churches in areas where the Christian population was always small. Now the Israeli Jewish population in certain areas is becoming saturated by Christians. These are the law abiding refugees. In areas where the Africans live in substandard housing, have no church affiliation and no jobs, the crime levels are soaring. Just last week there were 2 rapes of Israelis by Africans in cosmopolitan areas. This has heated the already volatile situation.

Israel did handle this in the wrong way from the beginning. But no one could have foreseen the overpowering influx and high birthrates of the refugee population. What Israel did was to save lives of people fleeing religious persecution. Now Israel is being overpowered by people who need education, housing, medical care and who do not necessarily support a Jewish state.

Monday May 21, 2012, 11:55 pm
erm... Allen Y, I b'lieve the Spanish had the first settlement in the Americas (St. Augustine) & James Town came before Plymouth, but I could be wrong, a lot of water has flowed under the dam so to speak, since I studied history.
What IS striking is the native peoples are always pushed aside. 'nuff said.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 12:20 am
Such racism is insulting t Jews and Israelis. Israel is suppose to be open to all Jews of every race.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 2:48 am
The basic problem is human population growth. If no woman gave birth to--and no man produced--more than 2 children, population growth would stabilize then gently decline. One (of many) good effects would be that migration problems would ease over time because fewer people would feel the need to migrate, and because receiving countries would not fear that they were being "invaded".

Political leaders are supposed to set a good example. Prime Minister Netanyahu sets a poor one; he is credited with producing three biological children (one with his first wife, and two with his third). He should not be in office since humanely combatting population growth is the most crucial issue we face. He has contributed to the cause of the problem that he is protesting.

Not that Israel is the only country that has hypocritical hyperfertile leaders. The apparent Republican nominee for the U.S. presidency has five biological children. If he would win the presidency, he would NOT have the credibility to address ANY aspect of population growth or the problems related to it.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 4:22 am
but they still come

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 4:32 am
Threaten the states identity ?!!!
What if we were to use that same excuse? this is just plain disgusting.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 4:49 am
This contradicts other recent articles about Israel saving Ethiopian and Sudanese non-Muslim refugees that were being exploited, robbed, raped and murdered by surrounding far less tolerant states on there way to freedom in Israel.

Israel has taken in Christians, other non-Muslims and non-Sunni Muslims as well as gays who have fled the intolerance, bigotry and persecution they endured in the corrupt Palestinian zone. Israel even took in the black, Muslim convert to Christianity who had acid thrown in his face and was terribly burned and disfigured in Nigeria where the Islamists have declared war on Christians. They gave him refuge and medical care.

It is understandable that little Israel can't take a flood of non-Jewish refugees. There just isn't room or resources for too many, and it was given back to the Jews who were mostly driven out and around the world from the city, Jerusalem, and country they founded 3000 yrs ago so they'd have a place of safety to live.

Hopefully there will be a solution to this problem, but it's a cinch that the surrounding Islamic-ruled lands won't take in any of these people, so where can they go?

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 5:31 am
How unusual; an elected official who is more concerned about the welfare of his electorate than a bunch of strangers from afar who cannot control their urge to produce more children than they can afford to clothe feed or educate.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 6:00 am
Noted. Thanks.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 7:34 am
noted

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 9:06 am
Let's start at the beginning. Cal, the Guardian is an anti-Semitic rag not worthy of the name newspaper, I would not use or quote them as a reliable source. They print what people want to see not the whole truth.

Yes, Israel does take in refugees but they do have a limited budget. For some reason a large chunk of spending is on the military, essential if Israel is to survive. I would also point out that Israel usually gives visas to those of Jewish origin whether born or converted. In fact, many of the refugees that come in are of Jewish origin. Thanks to the Muslim controlled countries nearly a million Jewish refugees have been forced out of their homes many of whom went to Israel.

Israel also spends a lot of money, time & resources helping in natural disaster areas including Muslim controlled countries. They also send aid packages, more than the wealthy oil producers do. Israel also puts money into research to help Third World countries grow better crops or ones that are more likely to survive in arrid conditions.

We also have to consider that Israel is a tiny country surrounded by enemies who are trying to grab as much as possible. Why does no-one condemn Jordan for stealing land and refusing to give it back yet everyone condemns Israel, one only has to look at the ignorant comments here. This land is required to feed people and to build houses.

Also remember that most refugees are economic and not genuine asylum seekers. This is common in all Western countries and if we cannot take in all of those that turn up and demand a life of luxury on our taxes then how less likely is Israel able to cope. In the meantime the majority of people do the best they can there and, as in any other country, there are those who disagree.

Far too many people just like to criticize Israel because they can. In America they criticize the government for allowing the illegals in and doing nothing. Double standards?

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 10:18 am
Noted, thanks.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 11:51 am
Nobody likes foreigners. I guess the only way to keep them away is to be worse than where they are coming from.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 12:43 pm
Cal, I'm disappointed that you're disappointed.

This is an article designed to find a trace of something implied as bad even in the most exceptional and altruistic attributes of the Israelis towards non-Israelis and non-Jews.

Cal, if you had a personal policy of trying to do your part in helping feed the poor, would you be a BAD person if 300 people came to your house at one time and demanded that you give them all of your food, including what you yourself and your own family would need? How about 200 or 100 that had the same effect?

Would you draw the line some place? And when you realized that HAD to draw a line for reaons of your own survival, because these people weren't just taking your food, but the medicine in your medicine cabinets, broke open the piggy bank in your kid's room, and wanted to use all of your resources and still invite more of their relatives over, would that make you a BAD person, Cal? Are you obligated to commit virtual suicide to keep feeding every poor person that came along?

Would it be okay for a neighbor who didn't do any of these things for poor and needy people to write an article about how bad you are, Cal, and not give the context for it?

Ironically, THE VAST MAJORITY of the refugees Israel has been taking in are MUSLIMS, from MUSLIM countries. I'd like to remind you that Islam, with many verses in the Qur'an and Hadiths, very clearly HATE THE JEWS. Yet Israel is providing people whose faith is bound up in this hatred with humane treatment that is a relatively large percentage of many kinds of aide for that tiny country.

I feel like you have joined the bullies on this one, Cal.

I think if you are so concerned with the fates of these people, then you should be petitioning the hypocrisy of the Islamic countries from whence they came and the Islamic countries who have filthy amounts of money coming out of the ground for not taking their Muslim brethren in (after all, there is the concept of the "umma" all one Muslim people) and treating them to as many humane forms of assistance as Israel is.

Why is Israel responsible for EVERYBODY?

Lastly, if your heart bleeds for these people, why not take them into your own home, Cal, or press your mayor or local official to take them in?

Maybe you can even make a case whereby the 850,000 Jews in Arab lands who were forced to leave Arab countries with none of their possessions, that Arab Muslims should provide aide for Jews.

Imagine, asking Muslims to help the Jews that were exiled from Muslim lands by Muslims?

Have you posted a story on that? What responsibility do Muslims have to the Jews the Muslims dispossessed? Or is it just an assumed case of letting Muslims off with any responsibility, which is the norm.

You can do a better job than this, to cajole and bully a people already trying to survive existentialist threats to themselves on a daily basis.

This doesn't even deserve a note.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 3:31 pm
I am thankful for the range of comments here. You all realize that Israel is an area of particular concern and one of the few where I comment quite openly. Though I'm not inclined to generally like the Guardian's viewpoint on Israel, I found this article NOT to be in the spirit of singling it out.

I have no doubts that the refugees in question could NOT get any kind of refuge from Israel''s neighbors. That is and isn't beside the point, I think. I think Israel should have a superior moral compass given its' history.

The question is to weigh the costs of assistance versus protection and apathy. I wonder whether those who forced Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis back to Europe before World War II had similar concerns about security and costs that are expressed openly here with African refugees.There was also the question at that time in America of discrimination against refugees from certain places or from certain backgrounds, which MAY also be present here.

See
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_US_turn_away_jewish_refugees

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071127174258AAQeLUL

There is no doubt that the US policy of turning back Jewish refugees as in the famous case of the ship known as the St. Louis, resulted in some of them being killed short years later during the Nazi era.I'm not sure how many of these political refugees are present today amongst the illegals coming to Israel from Africa. I can't see the moral justification of sending them back to impending doom, can any of you, and if so, on what grounds and where is the moral compass for this?

Israel is NOT responsible for EVERYBODY, but be careful that you don't start playing G-d with peoples lives, those who are political refugees who have nowhere else to go. You cant just lump all refugees in one batch and think that their reasons for leaving Israel are all just economic in nature (though for some they are!)I think I disagree with my usual friends here on this. I understand the cost factors, but we must do as much as possible to avoid condemning innocents to death in their home countries.

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 5:44 pm
thanks Cal

Tuesday May 22, 2012, 6:09 pm
Cal, Israel does have a great moral compass than just about every other country but they are 1 tiny little country who cannot take on all of the world's refugees. I don't agree with all of their decisions or like the idea that some may be sent back to an appalling situation. However, I'm not a government minister there who has far more information on the subject than any newspaper article.

If you have a budget you have to look at how to spend it for the best results. I'm sure that you don't spend it all at once on the best steak that you can and starve for the rest of the month.

As I said above, Israel already spends money on research to help the greatest number of people in poorer countries, aid packages, advice, free medical care and research, something no other country does. Israel does far more around the world, such as being the only country to help South Sudan (may have changed due to oil concerns) but their support was altruistic. Israel helped a country this way, one that the rest of the world has ignored after standing back and watching as Sudan attempted to commit genocide.

I should also add that nowhere in this article condemn the useless waste of space known as the UN for failing to do anything about the situations in these countries.

Sometimes too much is asked and expected of Israel. In other words, they are damned if they do and are damned if they don't.

Wednesday May 23, 2012, 2:13 am
I do not believe we can continue to let immigrants flood into our countries - like they are doing in Israel, UK, Australia, et al. We have had 6 boatloads of 'asylum' seekers to Australia in the past 3 weeks. We do not have the infrastructure to accommodate these 'desperate' people........nota bena - many of these people have paid their passage here - not all - but certainly more than one would expect. At the moment we are dealing with many many job losses - businesses closing, homelessness has reached around 11,000 according to the Salvation Army. We should be taking more care of our homeless, elderly and disabled.....and if there is anything left over then we can look at accommodating more refugees. ISRAEL IS DOING WHAT IS RIGHT FOR ITS PEOPLE - I WISH THAT THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT WOULD BE DO DISCERNING.

Wednesday May 23, 2012, 5:52 am
Cal: "but be careful that you don't start playing G-d with peoples lives"? When you don't share your house with a homeless guy on the street you are "playing G-d" because he can freeze to death.