Excerpt:
Joseph Massad decries the immigration policies that gives Jews preference in acquiring Israeli citizenship and residency. He also appears to be woefully ill informed when it comes to immigration policy. As a free and sovereign state, Israel has the right to have any immigration policy it chooses. Further, Israeli immigration policy is remarkably similar to the immigration policies of other nations.
Citizenship status is derived by way of one of two criteria- ‘blood’ or ‘land.’ In the United States, for example, citizenship is primarily derived by ‘land’ status. That means that if you were born here, you are automatically awarded citizenship. Conversely, being born in Switzerland is no guarantee of citizenship. In fact, there are generations of people that have been born in Switzerland that are not entitled to Swiss citizenship according to Swiss law.
Descendants of British, Irish and Polish ancestry, for example, are all entitled to enhanced and privileged immigration status by those nations. Throughout most of Europe, having even a bit of ‘preferred’ blood entitles one to a citizenship ‘fast track.’ Israel has every right to determine her own immigration rules.
Consider too, the rescue of Ethiopian Jews (the largest rescue of Blacks by whites in history) and compare that to the slaughter by the Arab tribe janjaweed in Darfur and the ongoing slave trade by Arab slave traders in Mauritania. It isn’t surprising that Muslims that made their way from Sudan want to stay in Israel.
In fact, when the Israelis pulled out of Lebanon after occupying an 11 mile security zone (After years of rocket attacks against civilians and the Lebanese government’s inability or unwillingness to halt those attacks, the Israelis had enough), even the Alawites, the clan than claims the ruling Assads of Syria, pleaded to remain under Israeli jurisdiction, preferring Israeli rule to that of an Arab country.
One might ask Mr Massad why there are no long lines for residency permits at Arab embassies and consulates and yet other Arabs and Muslims would be happy to live in Israel.
