Israel tells refugees to go back to Africa or to prison. We didn't do that to Jews fleeing Hitler.

[Anonymous]

Israel wants Eretrian and Sudanese refugees fleeing killings at home to go back to Africa or face arrest.

Imagine if we had turned away Jews fleeing nazism and the holocaust and told them to go back to Europe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/toughening-its-stance-toward-migrants-israel-pushes-africans-to-leave/2015/05/14/e1637bce-f350-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html?hpid=z1

[jsteele]

Agreed that this is terrible, but the US sort of did do that to Jews fleeing Hitler:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but net net the US borders were fairly open to Jewish refugees:

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST

US State Department policies made it very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas. Despite the ongoing persecution of Jews in Germany, the State Department's attitude was influenced by the economic hardships of the Depression, which intensified grassroots antisemitism, isolationism, and xenophobia. The number of entry visas was further limited by the Department's inflexible application of a restrictive Immigration Law passed by the US Congress in 1924. Beginning in 1940, the United States further limited immigration by ordering American consuls abroad to delay visa approvals on national security grounds.

Nevertheless in 1939 and 1940, slightly more than half of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish, most of them refugees from Europe. In 1941, 45% of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, the trickle of immigration virtually dried up, just at the time that the Nazi regime began systematically to murder the Jews of Europe. Despite many obstacles, however, more than 200,000 Jews found refuge in the United States from 1933 to 1945, most of them before the end of 1941.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182

[Anonymous]

^ I agree that much more could have and should have been done.

[Anonymous]

but... Hamas!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, but net net the US borders were fairly open to Jewish refugees:

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST

US State Department policies made it very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas. Despite the ongoing persecution of Jews in Germany, the State Department's attitude was influenced by the economic hardships of the Depression, which intensified grassroots antisemitism, isolationism, and xenophobia. The number of entry visas was further limited by the Department's inflexible application of a restrictive Immigration Law passed by the US Congress in 1924. Beginning in 1940, the United States further limited immigration by ordering American consuls abroad to delay visa approvals on national security grounds.

Nevertheless in 1939 and 1940, slightly more than half of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish, most of them refugees from Europe. In 1941, 45% of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, the trickle of immigration virtually dried up, just at the time that the Nazi regime began systematically to murder the Jews of Europe. Despite many obstacles, however, more than 200,000 Jews found refuge in the United States from 1933 to 1945, most of them before the end of 1941.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182

Did you read that article? Once they started slaughtering Jews, America shut down her borders.

Agree that Israel should do more (as should the US) -- but we've got no moral high ground here.

[Anonymous]

We didn't?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, but net net the US borders were fairly open to Jewish refugees:

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST

US State Department policies made it very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas. Despite the ongoing persecution of Jews in Germany, the State Department's attitude was influenced by the economic hardships of the Depression, which intensified grassroots antisemitism, isolationism, and xenophobia. The number of entry visas was further limited by the Department's inflexible application of a restrictive Immigration Law passed by the US Congress in 1924. Beginning in 1940, the United States further limited immigration by ordering American consuls abroad to delay visa approvals on national security grounds.

Nevertheless in 1939 and 1940, slightly more than half of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish, most of them refugees from Europe. In 1941, 45% of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, the trickle of immigration virtually dried up, just at the time that the Nazi regime began systematically to murder the Jews of Europe. Despite many obstacles, however, more than 200,000 Jews found refuge in the United States from 1933 to 1945, most of them before the end of 1941.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182

Did you read that article? Once they started slaughtering Jews, America shut down her borders.

Agree that Israel should do more (as should the US) -- but we've got no moral high ground here.

+1

But it's still distasteful when anyone does this - Israel or the US - in this day and age because really, it just shows that we stupid humans never, ever actually learn from history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't?????

Right? The section of the Holocaust Museum showing all the US papers that declined to actually talk about what was happening, made me feel ill and drove me to tears. I'm not Jewish and no fan of Netanyahu, but seriously. Epic fail on quoting this article to support the subject of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, but net net the US borders were fairly open to Jewish refugees:

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST

US State Department policies made it very difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas. Despite the ongoing persecution of Jews in Germany, the State Department's attitude was influenced by the economic hardships of the Depression, which intensified grassroots antisemitism, isolationism, and xenophobia. The number of entry visas was further limited by the Department's inflexible application of a restrictive Immigration Law passed by the US Congress in 1924. Beginning in 1940, the United States further limited immigration by ordering American consuls abroad to delay visa approvals on national security grounds.

Nevertheless in 1939 and 1940, slightly more than half of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish, most of them refugees from Europe. In 1941, 45% of all immigrants to the United States were Jewish. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, the trickle of immigration virtually dried up, just at the time that the Nazi regime began systematically to murder the Jews of Europe. Despite many obstacles, however, more than 200,000 Jews found refuge in the United States from 1933 to 1945, most of them before the end of 1941.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005182

Did you read that article? Once they started slaughtering Jews, America shut down her borders.

Agree that Israel should do more (as should the US) -- but we've got no moral high ground here.

Actually I did read the article and it doesn't say that we shut down the borders. When the US entered the war, refugee quotas were restricted until 1944 due to a mix of racism and security concerns but were then lifted.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007094

[Anonymous]

You forgot the $3,500 per person part. And a ticket home or to another African country. Kind of a nice thing to do for people who you can't absorb without financial implications for your own country and people

[Anonymous]

The Africans are not going to be killed. They are economic migrants. No comparison to "Jews fleeing the Holocaust".

[Anonymous]

But they are black and poor....not like the French!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You forgot the $3,500 per person part. And a ticket home or to another African country. Kind of a nice thing to do for people who you can't absorb without financial implications for your own country and people

So you would argue that it would have been 'nice' if the US had given Jews a few bucks and sent them back to Europe to face the gas chambers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Africans are not going to be killed. They are economic migrants. No comparison to "Jews fleeing the Holocaust".

Wrong. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sudanese_Civil_War