The ethically-challenged Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has a plan. Refugees fleeing persecution in Africa who reach Israel will be sent back to Africa and housed in camps. Olmert is said to have reached a deal with Ethiopia to host those camps, but Egypt is another country mentioned as a host, and Egypt has a long and brutal history of abusing and sometimes murdering these refugees.
As bizarre as this brainstorm of Olmert's is, his understanding of the condition of these refugees is even more insane:
Olmert arrived in a particularly combative mood to Wednesday's special cabinet session on the state's failure to deal with the refugees. "Of all the thousands who have infiltrated, only 498 are refugees," he said, "and not one more. The remainder of those who are entering the State of Israel are job-seekers or traffickers in women or other kinds of criminals or people who have absolutely nothing in common with refugees. They have nothing to do with us. What is their connection to us?" Olmert said.
MK Ran Cohen, chairman of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers, who arranged the special session, criticized Olmert for ordering the refugees to be put in prison - like criminals.
"What is this preaching of yours? A group numbering dozens arrives at night, what exactly should the state do? Put them up in hotels, bed-and-breakfasts? " Olmert replied, noting that he was speaking proudly and without apology.
Olmert acknowledged that many of the infiltrators were from southern Sudan, but said that they were labor migrants who had no connection to the war in the area. According to a statement by Moked, the Hotline for Migrant Workers, the main reason that only 498 people, all from Darfur, have been recognized as refugees is that the status of the remainder has not been checked.…
Olmert has promised to provide asylum to only 498 recognized refugees from Darfur, and perhaps to a few more in the future. But there is no cause for relief; Olmert said they will receive temporary, not permanent residency, and that status can be withdrawn anytime.
Most of you know that tens of thousands of Christians in Southern Sudan have been attacked or murdered by Muslims and many others have been sold into slavery. Darfur is not the only part of that sad country to see mass murder and ethnic cleansing.
If I did not recognize the absolute need for Jews to have a state and a power base in the world, I would advocate cutting off aid to Israel. And by this I mean both governmental funds and private donations.
Early Zionists wanted Israel to be a state like any other, for it to bring about the normalization of the Jewish people. Rabbis – even Zionist rabbis – opposed this idea. Jews should be a light onto the nations, they said, and Israel should be a special place radiating holiness.
Today's rabbis overwhelming support Olmert's closed-door policy. They advocate turning away even the most desperate of refugees. And they use the same rationalizations as Olmert – the refugees are not all from Darfur, they are not all fleeing genocide, they are too different from us, they will take away money from our own poor, etc. They use the excuses the West used during the Holocaust, and they do so without a trace of shame.
Olmert and the rabbis have opted for an Israel that radiates racial purity, not an Israel that radiates holiness.
We have reached the fulfillment of the Zionist dream. Israel truly is a state like any other.
For that we should all be ashamed.