Israel and the Darfur Refugees

By Moshe Feiglin

23 Tamuz 5769
July 15, '09

The believing world, in other words, most of humanity, has special expectations of the Jewish nation and its representative - the State of Israel. Almost everyone understands that the Nation of the Bible represents a holy and ethical way of life and they are curious to see which direction we will take. That does not mean that they like us; usually they don't. All it means is that they have high expectations of us.

While most of the world understands that the Jews represent some sort of holiness, many Jews are determined not to recognize this fact. We prefer to ignore our unique status and to carry on as if it doesn't exist. A prince who rolls around in the mud with all the commoners does not elicit affection, but rather, disgust. In other words, the fact that we ignore our special role and attempt to be just like everyone else evokes anti-Semitism.

The International Court should really be in Jerusalem - certainly not in The Hague in blood-soaked Europe. But former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, the oracle of Israeli "justice" has already explained that Israel is not a Jewish state, but rather a state of all its citizens. From now on, we must understand when IDF generals are arrested in European capitals for war crimes. If we do not live by our own values, we will inevitably be forced to live by the values of others.

China's Communist regime imprisons political opponents in concentration camps and then harvests their organs for sale throughout the world. If Israel were really a Jewish state that expresses its special status, we would have boycotted the Olympics in Beijing so as not to give the regime of horrors the approval of the Jewish State. Why didn't the Left protest Israel's participation in the Olympics? Why was Manhigut Yehudit the only Jewish organization in Israel to join the protest against China's regime? The reason is that the Olympics express universality. If Israel had boycotted the games while the West participated, it would have highlighted its uniqueness - not its universality. So in this case, Israel's knights of human rights remained silent.

Just the opposite is true for the Darfur refugees.

The percentage of Africans who crossed Israel's borders because they were in actual danger is very low. More than 90% of the refugees (more than 10,000 people) come from Sudan and Erithrea. Only 1000 infiltrators came in from the embattled region of Darfur, and even they do not fit the definition of refugees as per international law: Israel does not share a common border with Sudan or the Darfur region, and if the refugees do not endanger themselves by trying to cross the border from Egypt to Israel, nobody in Egypt will harm them. But life in Israel is more attractive than in Egypt. In other words, this is a case of illegal immigrants, infiltrators who are having a negative affect on Israel's work force and simultaneously creating a new and ominous social time bomb.

Opinions on the Darfur refugees/infiltrators generally divide down the identity line. A person who identifies first and foremost as a Jew understands that Israel must present its moral stand on ethical questions that arise throughout the world. As such, Israel must be involved with a solution for the Darfur refugees. The solution cannot be inside Israel's borders, because Israel is a nation state - not a state of all its citizens. Those people who are truly in danger should receive temporary asylum in Israel in a closed compound, as the British did with the Jewish citizens of Germany who escaped to their areas of control. The long-term solution must be to settle these refugees (exclusively) in a safe place as close as possible to their original homes. The other 90% of infiltrators who came to Israel for work must be expelled from the country.

The problem is caused by those who see themselves first and foremost as citizens of the world and Israel as a state of all its citizens. These Israelis (supported, of course, by the media) are in favor of thousands of Sudanese infiltrating our borders because it proves that Israel is universal and liberal.

But the small minority of leftists who want Israel to become "the Singapore of the Middle East" have a problem. The Sudanese infiltrators have created a social and criminal time bomb. But never fear, the leftists have also found a simple and creative solution that will keep the infiltrators off the streets of their neighborhoods. The temporary permits issued them by the government allow them to remain in Israel, but not in greater Tel-Aviv, home to most of the very same bleeding heart liberals.

So the liberals in Tel Aviv can have their cake and eat it, too. They get to have blacks in Israel, just like in America. But they see them only on television - not on the streets of their neighborhoods. Let the people in the development towns on the periphery take care of them.