My Really Dumb Question About That "Wall"

I may have gotten this all mixed up, but I have a question to those who don't want the American Government to construct a wall to keep out illegal immigrants.

Maybe I'm just stupidly simplistic, but if I understand those against the "wall" correctly, they think that anyone who wants to move/migrate to the United States should be able to, whenever they want, without being forced to go through the legal, bureaucratic procedures. If I understand correctly, those against the "wall" consider what they call "migrating" as a human right.

So if "migrating" shouldn't be a difficult hassle, then why should there be border control anyplace? Why should tourists, who just come to spend money, enrich the American economy have to worry about visas, passports and entrance laws? And what if some of those tourists decide to stay in America, shouldn't they be welcomed with open arms and allowed to live in the USA without fear of being deported? What makes the hispanics coming from the south of the border be more desirable as "new Americans," than those who fly in, or enter any other way?

Just curious. Did I misunderstand something? Or am I just stupid?

New York City

Assad Murders Syrians, Can it Be Stopped?

While the Syrian terrorist dictator Assad continues his murderous rampage, using chemical weapons plus against Syrians, anti-Israel countries conspire to condemn Israel for self-defense.

The pictures coming out of Syria are awful and make it clear that Assad is targeting civilians.

https://www.reuters.tv/v/jqy/2018/04/09/trump-says-big-price-to-pay-for-syria-attack

There are reports of  Syrian bases being bombed, but nobody knows who's doing it for sure. I have this picture in my mind of some mysterious cartoon character swooping in to "save the day."

My innate pragmatism makes me very pessimistic. That's because the western so-called developed world is being taken over by Moslems. That's because Christian society, even the Catholic countries are just not reproducing. Their birthrate is in the negative, especially among the academics, but even in "blue collar" social/economic circles. This means a serious lack of workers, and also not enough young people to pay into the governmental pension systems, like American Social Security.

That's why Europe and the United States are easing their immigration laws and encouraging even illegal migrants to remain. Somebody has to work. But the question is whether these newcomers, mostly Muslim, will assimilate into the existing culture and value system, or will they change society into their own.

Any objective social observer with a knowledge of history should be very worried.

Collateral Damage not "Dreamers"

There are too many misleading modern "idioms," or more accurately euphemisms branded by clever marketers who creatively distort the truth with fancy words.

"Dreamers" is the latest of these distortions. Officially, they are those who are illegally in the United States, but it can't be proven that they intentionally came illegally. That's because they were brought with their parents when too young to understand that they were breaking the law. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with the Trump administration, since I've been reading stories about the issue for many years.

Basically these illegals are more accurately Collateral Damage, which can be defined as those unintended victims in wars, police chases etc. They were brought or sent to the United States by their parents despite the known fact that these children would end up suffering because of their lack of legal, proper visas, paperwork etc. Didn't the parents understand that they were setting their kids up for these horrendous difficulties?

Now on the news we hear those "kids" blaming the Republicans for their difficult situation, but they are wrong. Their parents set their kids up for this awful problem. People in foreign countries who think that life would be easy if they sneak into the USA are wrong. These kids are victims of their parents' decisions. Sorry. And no country is required to accept anyone who sneaks in or overstays a visa.

I do feel sorry for them, but the solutions should not be too easy or it will just encourage more lawbreaking.

Reflections on Elections 2016

So, sue me. I just can't be quiet about the American Elections. Looking at this map, I finally understand the importance of the Electoral College. 

Yahoo News

I'm big on color-coding things, which is one of the reasons that this graphic is so helpful for me.

At this point, it seems that various news sites are still giving conflicting numbers concerning the popular vote, re:Trump vs Hillary. But when you look at this map, and you see the paltry amount of states that gave Hillary Clinton the majority or plurality of its votes, Trump's victory is much more convincing.

That swath of red which goes almost from coast to coast, certainly from north to south and demonstrates a very convincing show of support among the vast majority of states for Donald Trump.

If you go through the numbers state by state, you will see that many of Hillary's big popular vote victories/majorities were in the bigger states which gave her a "surplus" of popular votes which cannot be transferred to a different state.

Also in the states that had a close popular vote between Hillary and Trump, the win for Trump came from the fact that there were many who voted for one of the "third parties," a party that had no chance of winning. They could also be called the "spoiler" or "distorter" parties.

For decades, "middle America," or "the silent majority" have claimed to be disenfranchised by the mainstream media and also the party establishments of both Democrats and Republicans. Ronnie Reagan and Donald Trump both gave that segment of American society the feeling that somebody understood their concerns.

And in general, when you think of the very low voter turnout in the United States, it seems pretty obvious that people prefer complaining (and rioting possibly) to actual voting.

Also, don't forget that there's a shadow or illegal society living in America who have been there illegally, without papers/citizenship procedures sometimes for decades. Children born to them in the USA are citizens which create a very Kafkaesque situation. It's sad, but it's complicated and the media has been highlighting stories about them, as if they are innocent victims of American injustice, even though technically they are criminals. Before legalizing the illegals, I think the American Government should speed up citizenship procedures for those who have been so carefully following the rules and not reward those who haven't.

The pundits have been showing surprise at the higher than predicted Latino/minority/immigrant support for Trump. Those pundits were not listening; they were projecting according to racist ideology and totally misread the situation. The Latino/minority/immigrant sector working at precarious minimum wage jobs live in fear of losing their income to illegals who will work under the table for less. Also they feel like "suckers" having gone through the difficult bureaucracy to become citizens, when Obama/Hillary have been campaigning to make it easier for illegals.

I'm sure that the Clinton team is having major problems trying to figure out why, even after bringing in the most popular cinema and sports celebrities to campaign for her, she still lost. This is just proof of how totally ignorant that segment of American society is of the "other half."

On BBC I saw a graphic showing the difference in media support for Hillary vs Trump. She had this enormously high pile of newspapers that publicly supported her versus a very low pathetic looking pile for him. But he won. Most voting Americans don't give hoot about what the media thinks.

Way back when in the mid-1960's when I was active nationally in NCSY, the youth organization of the Orthodox (Jewish) Union people would try to tell me how New York is not like the rest of the United States. Looking at that colored map on the top of this post, I'm beginning to understand them more and more.

The United States is not united, not at all. There are dangerous divisions, no less than there were in 1860 as the pro-slave-owning south split/seceded from the union. Americans have a lot of thinking to do if they want to remain a united states in North America.

PS I haven't yet found the final count numbers of the popular vote which includes all the write-ins and "third party" numbers. I want to see if the total of write-ins and "third party" votes top the difference between Hillary and Trump. If you find it, please send to comments, thanks.

"Democracy" is Not The Main Aim of the State of Israel

The State of Israel was not established to be a bastion of Democracy and "Western Ideals" sic. The State of Israel was established to be a Jewish State.

Early days of political Zionism were in the time when Europe was changing, and all sorts of nationalisms were developing. One of them was Jewish Nationalism aka Zionism. The Land of Israel had always been a magnet for Jews, although ever since the destruction of the Second Holy Temple and the defeat of the Jewish Kingdoms, independent Jewish rule seemed relegated to history books. There were thriving and active Jewish communities in all sorts of cities all over the Land of Israel during the two thousand years of the exile. Not only were there Jews in Jerusalem and Tzfat, but even those that today are empty of identifying Jews, like Gaza, had strong active communities.

Please remember that during those two thousand years, no other people rose to make an independent country in this Holy Land. It was always ruled by a foreign empire.

The early zionists of the late 19th, early 20th centuries debated the form of society and government. Among the secular, infatuated with modern ideologies more than with Judaism and traditional western ideals, socialism/communism was their ideal, not democracy.

The United States, led by its President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  sent Jewish refugees back to Germany to be murdered during the Holocaust, story of the St. Louis.

One of the overcrowded boatloads of Jewish refugees barred by Great Britain from entering the Holy Land.

When the State of Israel was finally established in 1948, the various Zionist leaders compromised on a form of parliamentary democracy and not socialism. But the signers of the Declaration of Independence knew they were doing something very important for international Jewry in establishing a Jewish State, the only one in the world. Just a few short years after the Holocaust, when Jews had no political refuge, it was clear, even to "the world" that there was a need for a Jewish State.  That's why there was a majority vote for the establishment of a Jewish state in what was then the Mandated Palestine. And please don't forget that Great Britain had been mandated, meaning instructed to establish a Jewish state here in the Land of Israel. 

Post-World War Two many countries, some brand new, like Jordan, without any historical basis. They were total inventions.

So, when the Israeli Left keeps harping that laws and legal decisions go against the principles of the State of Israel which they claim is supposed to be secular democratic, they are lying. We are not supposed to be collecting/accepting every single foreign non-Jew who wants to live here and take advantage of the relatively high standard of living and top notch medical care.

The State of Israel was established for Jews and nobody else. Non-Jews can live here if they are obeying the law and have entered legally. Others must be deported, just like is done in all other western, modern countries/democracies.

From the Holocaust to the Holyland, Survivors' Strength and Determination

This has been quite a week for me, and it isn't over yet. One of my cousins came here with his wife for their first ever trip to Israel. Their daughter, davka, spent this summer on a work program based in Tel Aviv, yes, while it was under attack.

We have been living in Israel since 1970, and although Brooklyn, NY is no longer the center of our clan's life, my branch is still the only one in Israel, and visits to here are few and far between.  But actually we weren't he first.  The very first member of the clan to come was my Uncle, the father of this cousin. Uncle Izzy was one of the American heroes of the "war" against the British by manning ships full of Holocaust survivors as Chief Pharmacist Mate.

Together we did some touring, going from Yad Veshem to the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum.

Yad Veshem, It's forbidden to take pictures inside.

Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum

The highlight of the visit was certainly meeting with my uncle's superior officer, Yosef Almog, who told us about what is was like to work with my uncle and the ships they ran together, how they were prepared for the hundreds and thousands of passengers.

The Pal-Yam, the "naval" branch of the pre-state elite forces, the Palmach, had the logistically and technologically impossible task of purchasing reject ships from various countries and then converting them into "passenger liners," which were more like concentration camp sleeping sheds. Almog's description of the triple-leveled "sleeping lofts" was reminiscent of those the Nazis constructed to house the captive Jews, lihavdil, differentiate, please.

These are a concentration camp's sleeping arrangement. It also shows how skinny people got as a result of malnutrition. Picture credit

In today's world it's hard to imagine living and surviving in such difficult conditions. But the truth was that the survivors enthusiastically competed for space on these outdated and possibly unsafe ships. Almog told us about the icebreakers that had been bought from America. They were refurbished in Europe. Sleeping lofts for over a thousand were constructed in the hold, and additional sleeping space was made in what had been the hangar for planes. That way the "Jewish State" managed to fit 2,664 Holocaust survivors, plus the crew, food, supplies and extra fuel.

The Hagana ship The Jewish State palyam.org

The story behind the other ships was very similar.

We were davka in Haifa the day before the Israeli Government officially withdrew from Gaza to "end" one of the most frustrating wars Israel has had. Personally I find it difficult to accept that today's Israeli leaders lack the confidence and determination that once existed. There never would have been a State of Israel if David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin and their followers had been like the Israel of today. I pray that we regain our confidence. Yes, we did better when we had no allies and no foreign advisers.