To Allow or not to Allow to Enter that is the Question! (The Ukraine Refugee Problem)
The growing debate on whether Jewish refugees from war-torn Ukraine and their non-Jewish extended families should be allowed to call Israel home is a burning question set to divide opinion and families throughout the Jewish State and the diaspora.
After fourteen days of witnessing war and carnage compliments of Putin’s Russia, the media has done its utmost to place civilians at the center of this conflict by assuring Russia is demonized rightly so while Ukraine becomes the sentimental favorite.
And that’s just the point at the present moment while shelling indiscriminately military and civilian targets, any decision to allow large numbers of non-Jewish refugees to enter Israel is going to be based on sentimentality and emotions rather than a clear-headed assessment of the situation as it would affect the Jewish character and zionist vision for the State of Israel.
Before you allow your liberal sentiments to take offense at my seemingly hard-hearted approach to victims of military conflict, let’s wait on the facts in the coming weeks, if not months, before making irreversible decisions that would threaten the very fabric of Israeli society.
Authentic leadership must respond with common sense to prevent the recurrence of much that was wrong in accepting non-Jewish extended families during the Russian Aliya of the 70s and 80s while at the same time Israel should rush to aid and defend any Jewish community in a state of threatened existence; while raising the banner of Aliya, and provide the logistics to make they’re coming home a reality.
On the other hand, an indiscriminate immigration policy can only contribute to a spiritual and national disaster set to undermine Jewish life in the Land that Jews have dreamt of for millennia.
Destruction of a people is not mere physical ruination but also spiritual destruction that stems from the loss of identity and assimilation. By allowing tens of thousands of non-Jews to enter Israeli society, we would be guilty of undermining the bond with the Jewish Nation and facilitating our brothers and sisters to drop out and quietly disappear. This is a catastrophe in the making.
Why would we want to create the failings of the diaspora in the Jewish State where everyday youths are abandoning their Jewish identity. Should we shake our heads, close our eyes and volunteer our demise on a sentimental kneejerk reaction to a refugee problem that can be resolved without Israel becoming a dumping ground as a result of political posturing and electoral opportunism?
We should stand stunned and appalled at the lack of spiritual distress and shock at these irresponsible agendas about to be unleashed on our people. Where are the alarm bells to galvanize the Jewish heart and awaken us from our slumber amidst the national apathy rampant amongst us?
If we do nothing to oppose short-sighted policy’s in the struggle for the life of the Nation, we will have done away with ourselves. The problem lurking for our people is potentially fatal. At the same time, we are plagued with a crisis of leadership that neglects the integrity of the Jewish State and refuses to chart a course of rescue for Jews already living in Israel, let alone those lost souls wandering the exile oblivious to their demise.
The Jewish People must reject the dissolution of the Jewish State mobilize its will to fight, given the issue of survival, which confronts us today.
