You know what this country needs more of? More violent anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses and additional citizens who believe that Israel should be pushed into the sea.
That, at least, appears to be what President Joe Biden believes, according to recent reporting from CBS News.
Citing “internal federal government documents,” CBS reported Tuesday that the Biden administration was contemplating allowing “certain” Palestinians to leave the war-torn Gaza Strip and relocate to the U.S.
The White House, under the United States Refugee Admissions Program, would partner with Egypt to get Palestinians with American relatives out of Gaza and ultimately into the U.S., where they would be eligible for “permanent residency, resettlement benefits like housing assistance and a path to American citizenship” as refugees.
One snag: Egypt has so far refused to allow “large numbers” of those fleeing the Israel-Hamas war to cross its borders.
Gee, I wonder why that would be?
Perhaps it has something to do with the widespread support among Gaza residents for Hamas, which the U.S. State Department first designated a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, under Democratic President Bill Clinton, and which remains so designated.
To this day, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says “HAMAS uses improvised explosive devices, short- and long-range rockets and mortars, small arms, kidnapping operations, rocket-propelled grenades, man-portable air defense systems, antitank missiles, and unmanned aircraft systems in attacks against Israeli military forces and civilians, as well as against ISIS and other Salafist armed group members based in Gaza. The group also uses cyber espionage and computer network exploitation operations.”
This is the group that has been “the de fact governing body in the Gaza Strip since 2007,” according to the DNI.
Is admitting Palestinian refugees into the U.S. a bad idea?
Despite the use of such tactics as “kidnapping operations,” sometimes against “civilians,” only 9 percent of Gaza residents blame Hamas for their current suffering, and “more than 90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israel civilians during its October the 7th offensive,” a recent poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found.
Granted, only about a fifth of those surveyed had seen video of the atrocities committed by Hamas during that attack, but more problematically, a similar number had access to such videos but refused to watch them — they’d rather not know what Hamas is doing, apparently.
A functioning Democracy requires people with the abilities of critical thinking and civil discourse that allows them to study, evaluate and rationally discuss idea with which they do not agree. A lack of such skills — or simply of fundamental willingness to leave their echo chambers (on the right or the left) is what leads to situations like the petulant protests occurring on so many U.S. college campuses today.
The same poll, incidentally, found that even in the event of collapse of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, 70 percent of Gaza residents said they would not flee to Egypt, leaving Biden’s hypothetical refugee program with a potential dearth of people to designate at refugees.
The findings also “continue to show almost zero satisfaction with the US,” the center reported, while satisfaction for the terrorists of Hamas remained “very high.”
Who, exactly, would Biden be inviting to the country and offering a path to citizen ship, then? To Palestinians who hate America? How does that seem like a good idea to anyone?
Asked by CBS News about the potential of the country opening its doors to refugees from Gaza, the Biden White House answered with a typical non-answer.
The U.S. “has helped more than 1,800 American citizens and their families leave Gaza, many of whom have come to the United States. At President Biden’s direction, we have also helped, and will continue to help, some particularly vulnerable individuals, such as children with serious health problems and children who were receiving treatment for cancer, get out of harm’s way and receive care at nearby hospitals in the region.”
You’ll note that that statement said nothing about Palestinians coming to America or even seriously “vulnerable individuals” coming to American — just Americans coming home and Palestinians being treated “in the region.”
The statement also said that the administration “categorically rejects any actions leading to the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” yet another topic about which it was not asked.
In other words, it doesn’t sound like the Biden administration wants to let the public in on its discussions about the possibility of admitting refugees into the U.S. from Gaza.
In the immortal words of Dr. Horrible, “That’s not a good sound.”
