More confessions of immigration skepticism from Marty Peretz
November 29, 2009 Immigration, Jewish Community
My, oh my. When under pressure, the hawkish Left just does not play by social liberal rules. Things are getting a bit…tense…over at TNR.
In, “I Do Not Say That All Muslims Are Terrorists, But I Have Noticed That An Alarmingly High Proportion Of Terrorists Are Muslim,” Marty Peretz weighs the options. On the one hand, Peretz wants to support an open door immigration policy. But there is this small problem of being overrun by the Islamicists…
What is an American Jew to do?
For Peretz, that would be to dump his sentimentalism.
We cannot simply dispose of immigrants we’ve decided, after years and years of winking at them, to call “illegals.” But we also don’t know how to keep unwanted–by whom, by the way?–aspirant immigrants out. We do not know either how properly to judge asylum cases.
And then there is the protection of liberal values with regard to civil freedoms, religion, family policy and violence in the home, sexuality, education. Does a society have the right to insure the safety of its virtues that are distinctly American or western?[...]
Here’s another way of posing this dilemma. Has Holland the right to remain Holland? England the right to remain England? France the right to remain France? And what about Rotterdam, Manchester, Paris?
Of course, Peretz risks denunciation as “crazy” and “fascist.” But Peretz appears well aware of the risks, and seems willing to take them on, noting,
Some of you, I assume, are already furious. Well, go ahead and cancel your subscription.
4 comments
I think people would prefer to fulminate against you, Peretz, and others like you because to consider that you and Peretz et al are right is too horrifying.
Perhaps, also, it is better to be seen on the side that is likely to succeed. Max Blumenthal, for example, has taken this route. Cowardice is a valid survival strategy.
Marty Peretz is a good guy — he’s on OUR side.
This thread is about immigration, specifically Muslim immigration. Nevertheless, I cannot help but wonder;
What about Christian religious fanatics???
Borrowing a phrase from another era, I’ll add ; few Muslims ever call me a WETBACK. In fact, that epithet is almost always hurled at me by ‘Christians’ — often ones who grew up as Catholics and/or attended Catholic schools.
Bottom line; this is a nation of immigrants; unless there is going to be some religious litmus test (UNCONSTITUTIONAL), that includes Muslim immigrants. Muslims have no monopoly on religious fanatics. Demonizing them in the name of security is counter-productive because it alienates those most likely to alert authorities to the small number of nutbars within that community — US Muslims themselves
P.S.
I can’t speak for Mexico as I am not a citizen of that country. Mexican to me is just my ethnicity.
However, I’ll note that there are 400,000 Mexicans of Lebanese ancestry (Christians to be sure) and there has never been ethnic/racial problems to my knowledge. Mexicos Carlos Slim Helu is the richest man in the world (depending on the poll). He comes from a Lebanese family that has lived in Mexico over 100 years.
The Mexican state of Veracruz is known for its relatively large Lebanese population, perhaps its most famous example being Salma Hayek.
Exodus 14: 29 ‘But the children of Israel walked upon DRY land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left’.
We Red Sea pedestrians did not get our backs wet had no need to strip down to our underwear like Salma Hayek in the photo which you provided.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MUPPfbfHg
I do not know any Mexicans of Lebanese ancestry but I do know some Americans of Iraqi ancestry (Jews to be sure) and they have not brought about any racial or ethic problems by seeking to establish a Baathist regime in Long Island.
“I can’t speak for Mexico as I am not a citizen of that country. Mexican to me is just my ethnicity.”
I thought immigrant was your ethnicity. Which is it?
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