Crossposted from The Electronic Intifada
As most of the world looks on in horror at Europe’s atrocious response to refugees escaping war and persecution in the Middle East and Africa, some Israeli officials are quietly reveling in the chaos.
Dore Gold, director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, expressed optimism that the refugee influx will shift Europe to the right, making it more sympathetic to Israel’s “security” justification for its ongoing colonization of Palestine.
“Israel always faced the problem in the past that its national security perspective was completely out of sync with how Europeans were viewing the emergence of the European community and the borderless world that was emerging,” the American-born hardliner told The Jerusalem Post.
“In the European models that existed 25 or 30 years ago, it is kind of difficult to hear an Israeli argument. But now things may be beginning to change a little,” posited Gold.
“The European perspective is beginning to sound a little bit more like Israel’s perspective on security issues, compared to what it was in the past.”
Echoes of the Holocaust
Images of refugees being corralled in trains, tracked with numbers on their forearms, locked away and fed like zoo animals in overcrowded camps and blocked with razor wire fences from entering Hungary have recalled memories of Europe’s darkest chapter.
All the while, refugees continue to die en masse on perilous journeys to Europe, sometimes drowning on rickety boats by sea and other times suffocating in trucks on the side of highways.
Frequently overlooked is the fact that these deaths are a direct consequence of European border policies designed to make migration as unsafe as possible.
The only thing less acknowledged is the root catalyst.
Rapacious policies advanced by wealthy nations in the increasingly gated Global North have destabilized and fueled the very unrest that has produced the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.
It’s no coincidence that many of the refugees at Europe’s doorstep are fleeing unrest in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan — all countries the US and its allies have directly and indirectly pillaged and destabilized.
Keeping Europe Christian
While there is plenty of blame to go around for the current crisis, Hungary’s actions — coupled with the jingoistic rhetoric of its right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban — have provoked the most widespread revulsion.
Muslim refugees must be kept out of Europe “to keep Europe Christian,” said Orban in an opinion piece urging Germans not to welcome Muslim refugees.
“We shouldn’t forget that the people who are coming here grew up in a different religion and represent a completely different culture,” he insisted. “Most are not Christian, but Muslim. … That is an important question, because Europe and European culture have Christian roots.”
A statement from Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, attributed Hungary’s “callous” and “illegal” treatment of refugees to “the xenophobic and anti-Muslim views that appear to lie at the heart of current Hungarian government policy.”
As it turns out, Orban’s ruling party, Fidesz, is smitten with Israel, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. During a visit to Israel in 2005, Orban reportedly declared, “Likud is our natural ideological partner.”
He has since adopted several Israeli practices.
Inspired by Birthright, a program that sends young American Jews on free trips to Israel in hopes they will immigrate, Orban launched a Hungarian Birthright programfor North Americans of Hungarian descent.
Orban also tapped Netanyahu’s former political advisor, Arthur Finkelstein, to help him consolidate power.
Finkelstein is a mud-slinging Republican strategist from the United States who has advised countless rightwing candidates both domestically and abroad. They include the failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney and more recently Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Israel’s proto-fascist party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home).
In recent years Fidesz has deepened ties with the far right and openly anti-Semitic Jobbik party.
Hungary is joined by Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic in refusing to take non-Christian refugees.
Leaders in Poland are said to be appealing to widespread anti-Muslim sentiment among the populace as election season approaches.
More than half of those polled earlier this month agreed that allowing Arabs and Turks into Poland would be “detrimental” to the country. Some people have even suggested reopening Auschwitz and sending the refugees there, prompting an investigation by Poland’s prosecutor general.
In Warsaw last weekend, thousands of right-wing protesters took to the streets, chanting, “Today refugees, tomorrow terrorists!“ and “Poland, free of Islam!”
To make their point, the rightwing demonstrators used a cartoon originally crafted by pro-Israel propagandists to portray Israeli soldiers as morally superior to Palestinians, who are shown using civilians as human shields. In reality it is Israel that uses Palestinians, including children, as human shields.
Back in Israel, fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team unfurled a giant banner that read, “Refugees not welcome!”
Keeping Israel Jewish
As Hungary was making headlines for its racist pledge to build an anti-refugee fence, Netanyahu announced the construction of a wall along the Jordanian border to block a potential influx of Syrian refugees. Once the barrier is completed by the end of 2015, Israel will be entirely walled off.
Israeli officials claim they are helping Syrians by providing them with medical treatment instead of asylum. But this has only involved around 1,500 people, most of them fighters linked to al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria. In any case, patching up the wounded, fighters or not, and then sending them back into a war zone, as Israel has done, does not qualify as asylum.
Of the five states that border Syria, Israel is the only one that has not taken in any Syrian refugees for reasons identical to Hungary’s.
“Israel is a very small country. It has no demographic depth and has no geographic breadth,” Netanyahu has told his cabinet. “We must protect our borders against illegal immigrants and against the perpetrators of terrorism. We cannot allow Israel to be flooded with infiltrators.”
“Demographic depth” refers to Israel’s ideological imperative to maintain its Jewish majority, which was engineered by the premeditated mass expulsion of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1948. In turn, Israel barred Palestinian refugees from returning and labeled those who tried to come back as “infiltrators.”
That is why millions of Palestinians continue to languish in squalid refugee camps scattered across the Middle East nearly 70 years later, making it the longest running refugee crisis in modern history.
As “proud Zionist” Noah Arbit argued in The Jerusalem Post that “absorbing any amount of Syrian refugees will only increase this demographic threat.”
Israel’s refusal to grant asylum to non-Jewish refugees from African states is rooted in the same exclusivist logic.
Openly referred to as “infiltrators” by Israeli government officials, African refugees have, like Palestinians, been labeled a threat because they are not Jewish.
Israel not only denies them asylum, it imprisons and deports them back to the horrors they escaped, where some have since been tortured and even killed.
In 2013, Israel completed construction of a wall along its border with Egypt to block African refugees from entering the country. Hungary and Bulgaria have reportedly expressed interest in buying Israeli equipment for their own borders.
Slamming Netanyahu’s embarrassingly open indifference, Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Zionist Union, wrote on his Facebook page, “You’ve forgotten what it means to be Jews. Refugees. Persecuted. The prime minister of the Jewish people does not close his heart and the gate when people are fleeing for their lives from persecution, with their babies in their hands.”
It is difficult to take Herzog seriously given his party’s indifference towards Israel’s cruel treatment of African refugees, not to mention its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return, a policy Herzog’s Labor Party (part of the Zionist Union) instituted.
Zeev Elkin, Israel’s immigration minister, slammed Herzog’s appeal as an “attempt to bring the [Palestinian] ‘right of return’ through the back door. That is not responsible, and it is forbidden that it should happen.”
In the case of Palestinian refugees, the Israeli response is arguably more absurd. Israel is not denying Palestinian refugees asylum but rather their right to return to land from which they were violently expelled.
It’s hard to imagine anyone arguing against the right of Syrians to return to Syria should they choose to do so when the country is no longer engulfed in war. Yet the idea that Palestinians should have the right to return to their homeland is considered by many to be preposterous, even anti-Semitic.
Meanwhile, under Israel’s discriminatory Law of Return, the purpose of which is to boost the Jewish majority, a Jew from anywhere in the world with no connection to the land can immigrate to Israel.
In June, Elkin beseeched French Jews to “come home,” insisting “Anti-Semitism is growing, terrorism is running rampant, and according to reports, ISIS is committing murder in broad daylight.”
“We are prepared to open our arms to the Jews of France,” he said, adding, “This is a national mission of the highest priority.”
A month later, Elkin greeted 221 new Jewish immigrants who left comfortable lives in the United States and Canada to settle in historic Palestine. A total of 4,000 North American Jews are expected in Israel by the end of 2015.
The similarities between European far right and Israeli government policies were best distilled by Arnon Soffer, an Israeli demographer nicknamed the Arab counter due to his compulsive fixation on the “demographic threat” posed by Palestinian babies.
Bizarre paradox
Rejecting calls to accept Syrian refugees, Soffer explained, “We are a very small country … please leave me some space for additional Jews to come.”
He went on to relate Israel’s anti-refugee imperative with Europe’s.
“Europe potentially can open its doors and accept more and more refugees, but if Europe says no, I can understand because they are afraid [of] the Muslims,” said Soffer. “This is a clash of civilizations and it will not happen in Africa or Asia. It will happen in France, Hungary and will eventually reach England and Germany.”
Orban and Netanyahu share a clear affinity for jingoistic saber rattling against Muslims, but the same cannot be said for the response their behavior elicits.
While Orban has been likened to a Nazi, Israeli leaders have been granted special immunity from abiding by the most basic standards of equality, not in spite of the Holocaust but rather because of it. The US State Department has gone so far as to classify as a form of anti-Semitism “comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
This has created a bizarre paradox where the Holocaust is invoked to demand inclusiveness and sympathy for refugees in Europe, while being simultaneously deployed to excuse racist Israeli practices. Indeed, Israel’s existence as an exclusionary settler state is deceptively justified as a necessary response to the world’s indifference to the Nazi genocide of European Jews.
Consequently, language that is being condemned when spoken by European leaders is routinely excused when uttered in reference to Israel and Palestine. When the subject matter is Palestinian refugees, liberal rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic becomes indistinguishable from sentiments typically relegated to the far right.
Warning about the threat posed by “higher Palestinian population growth and fertility rates,” as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank did in February, is perfectly acceptable mainstream discourse.
The same goes for describing Palestinian refugees as a “demographic death warrant,” as New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren did this past summer.
Hungary’s Orban would certainly approve.
[…] Israeli leaders delight in Europe’s cruelty toward refugees […]
[…] Francis has said today in Congress regarding migrants and refugees, the following quotes, one from this article I found the other day, and another by strangely enough – Charlie Chaplin, are somewhat […]
Reblogged this on From guestwriters and commented:
Many people in the capitalist countries are afraid the asylum seekers will be able to conquer their countries and impose their religion onto them.
In case they would strongly believe in One True God they should not have to fear the Muslims, because they also believe in the same One God of Abraham.
Though many Christians and Muslims have gone far away from the teachings of the Holy Writings and have given preference to human philosophical writings and human traditions.
Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban saying, what many so called Christians also think, that Muslim refugees must be kept out of Europe “to keep Europe Christian,” does not understand that when those Christians would be really following the teachings of Jesus Christ, they should have nothing to fear. Then they also would be able to show the Muslims that they share the love of Christ and worship the same One God of Abraham. But the majority of so called Christians do not believe at all or do not do much with their faith. The majority also has gone far away from the real faith and worships, when they do that, a triune god instead of keeping to that One True God, Jehovah, the divine Creator of heaven and earth.
It is true that the that the people who are coming here grew up in a different religion and represent a completely different culture, but when we can let them feel welcome and show them they do not have to fear our culture and our believes and let them know that in our regions we allow freedom of thought and freedom of religion and that those who come to live here shall have to give those rights of freedom to all people as well, than there should be no problem.
Those who do not want to have others the freedom of thought should know they are not obliged to stay here and can go to other places.
Problem only can arise when the states give in too much and would allow restriction to certain people, like wearing limiting clothing in public, or having imposing of certain religious traditions on others, like allowing sounds coming out of loudspeakers to call everybody to prayer,than others could come to be annoyed or bothered with those Muslims, the same as they can be angry with the bells in the morning of churches, making them awake when they want to sleep.
Europe and European culture have Christian roots and nothing should be against it to protect those. but our Judeo-Christian values should be grounded in our faith and be presented by the real Judeo-Christian attitude the God of Abraham would like us to show.
The xenophobic and anti-Muslim views that appear to lie at the heart of current Hungarian government policy and the negative reactions all over Europe clearly show how many so called Christians are missing the lesson of the Samaritan, Jesus told.
The people who call themselves Christian should know they do not have to fear man or other religions, but God. when they really would stand firm in their shoes of faith, they should not have to worry at all about a Muslim invasion, because then they would be able to convince Muslims of their faith. Problem with many Christians is that they went the wrong way, believe in a triune god in stead of the Only One True God and like several sorts of Muslims are carried away by human teachings and traditions instead of keeping themselves to the Biblical teachings.
Perhaps this is a good time for many Christians to consider which way they want to go in this world and how they want to treat other people, in the light of that what God wants from His people.
Let us show our good heart and help those in emergency, but let them also feel that we do want to help them without them having to rule over us. they should be welcome but have to know they cannot impose their laws over our world. It are they who should adapt to our culture and not we to theirs. When every body makes this clear and when they really got to know this from the beginning there should be no problem. Then they do know what to expect and then they still have the choice to stay or to leave. Nobody of the asylum seekers is obliged to come and live here.
There are brilliant insights in the post but it seems to lack the strength to resolve certain paradoxes. These paradoxes can be resolved once we leave behind the deceitful media-narrative and observe the phenomenon in global and historical context.
“The truth behind the #refugeescrisis: the war-monger empire strikes again”
https://globalpoliticalanalysis.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/the-truth-behind-the-refugeescrisis-the-war-monger-empire-strikes-again/
(please also read all 3 parts of the post and the referenced sources)
ADD:
What the article fails to resolve is the contradiction between the fact that for ages now all EU has been surrounded with lethal wire-fences effectively killing refugees, yet Hungary is shamed who however does allow refugees while trying to select the real refugees from the economic migrants, and to filter all ISIS/terrorists from extant unimaginably huge migration-influx. Maybe it takes a bit of imagination and empathy to understand the magnitude of such burden for a small country that has been impoverished and victimized by the Zionist West by throwing Hungary under the Soviet oppression under WW2. The demonization of Hungary is mere media campaign – typical victim blaming – in order to transfer the responsibility of US and EU – and Israel – inflicting a mass-tragedy on Syria and Mideast onto a scapegoat, Hungary, who has NOTHING to do either with the EU’s anti-migration policies or the NATO bombing Middle East under the false-flag war on ISIS.
Hungary is like Europe’s Palestine, a main target for Zionist hatred. At present the US and Zionist-triggered Muslim anger – caused by Israeli expansion and Western colonisation – is geared against Hungary. The EU/MSM pointing fingers at one of their victims, Hungary is the same strategy they used when defamed Syria before they destroyed that once wonderful, proud country. On one hand, yet only 30% of the migrant-influx are from Syria, the rest are from war-free zones. The largest part of them are migrants, organised and evidently angered against Hungary. Otherwise it is incomprehensible why would refugees enter a country with so much hatred towards those who give them food and do their best to help them.
It is an outrageous double standard, actually much worse then that, that while real refugees in large masses DIE trying to cross EU borders via Spain Hungary is shamed for allowing refugees in, but only refugees. While EU CLOSED its borders to ban ALL refugees, Hungary keeps the border open, but ONLY for refugees. Why is this so hard to comprehend?
Yet Hungary is being shamed and sanctioned for trying to register the real refugees and build fences to ban illegal entry of criminals/terrorists or anyone who don’t qualify as refugee. Border control and immigration control is normal procedure in every single country in this world, and only Hungary is shamed for such normal practice. It is not Hungary’s fault that a simultaneous crowd of hundreds of thousands claim to be refugees and attempt entry at one time. Evidently the bona fide refugees will go though the check points and submit to the legal process – only those who have to hide their identity refuse registration and attack the police for no reason (as it happened)
Then why is the defamation campaign and scapegoating against Hungary? In short, see memes > https://twitter.com/glopol_analysis/status/648411419722022912
Ever since Hungary has a non-zionist democratic government (Orban) the global cartel is desperately trying to craft reasons for a staged pro-corporate (pro-EU, pro-Bank) regime change in Hungary (similarly to Ukraine)
For more details, see above referenced blog: https://globalpoliticalanalysis.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/the-truth-behind-the-refugeescrisis-the-war-monger-empire-strikes-again/
Thank you in advance for your attention.