State Department claims Israeli treatment of Arab Americans behind lack of visa waiver program
Three weeks ago, I reported on a dramatic increase in the number of Israelis being denied visas to the United States. One way to resolve the issue would be for Israel to become part of the United States' visa waiver program. Israel has been seeking acceptance to that program for years, but the Obama administration says Israel isn't getting in because it discriminates against 'Palestinian Americans.'
“The Department of Homeland Security and State remain concerned with the
unequal treatment that Palestinian Americans and other Americans of
Middle Eastern origin experience at Israel’s border and checkpoints, and
reciprocity is the most basic condition of the Visa Waiver Program,”
Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said March 21 in her daily
briefing with reporters.
The State Department warns Americans of Arab descent that they may be
delayed or even turned back when arriving at Israeli points of entry.
Israel
says its rate of refusal of entry for Arab-Americans is not
disproportionate and notes that under the Oslo agreements with the
Palestinians, foreigners of Palestinian descent undergo a different
entry protocol.
There have been a number of efforts in Congress
over the years to exempt Israel from visa waiver rules; the most recent
is stalled in the Senate.
Psaki’s remarks came after several weeks
in which a number of lawmakers, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.),
have criticized US consular services for their rate of refusal of young
Israelis.
The required maximum rate of refusal of entry for
entering the US visa waiver program is 3 percent. Last year, Israel’s
was at 9.7 percent, up from 5.4 percent the year before.
Given some of the riff raff to which Obama is granting citizenship, I don't think we really want them here. And besides, Israel must have the right every other country has to exclude people whom it feels are a danger. For example, just because the Obama administration is willing to admit the likes of Tariq Ramadan doesn't mean Israel has to.
And by the way, are we excluded from the visa waiver program because we don't let enough Arabs in or because the US doesn't let enough Israelis in?
Remember Tariq Ramadan? He is the Muslim 'academic' who was barred from the United States by President Bush for fundraising for Hamas, but since the Obama administration took power, Ramadan has been a welcome guest.
In Wednesday's New York Times (actually in its European edition, the International Herald Tribune), Ramadan has an op-ed in which he argues - what else - that the Muslim Brotherhood 'respects democratic principles,' 'rejects violence,' and 'respects the rule of law' (the infamous dhimmi Jew Peter Beinart makes essentially the same argument in an insufferably long article in Sunday's Daily Beast). And the reason we should believe all these nice things about the Muslim Brotherhood? Because they said so.
Unfortunately for Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood, there's an internet, there's Google, and things that you say are often preserved for posterity.
Let's go to the videotape.
That little prayer was said in Paris in 2008.
And the Times' and the Tribune's role in all this? Well, here's what they said about Ramadan in the byline:
Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Hassan al- Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, is professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford. His latest book is “The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism.”
Kind of disingenuous isn't it? I doubt that Ramadan has suddenly become a democrat since 2008.
Hassan Al Banna coined the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto in the 1920s: “Allah is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for the sake of Allah our supreme objective.” Almost 100 years later, his grandson is echoing many of this motto’s themes behind closed doors while covering up his true ideology with slick strategic deception. And as is often the case with anti-Western ideologues, the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune are glad to give him cover – and a platform.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
