Writing from Lesbos, Greece, in his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Hysteria About Refugees, but Blindness on Guns," Nicholas Kristof juxtaposes American misgivings vis-à-vis Syrian refugees with American antipathy to Jews fleeing the Nazis during World War II. Kristof writes:
"Historically, we Americans have repeatedly misperceived outsiders as threats. In 1938 and again in 1941, one desperate Jewish family in Europe tried to gain refugee status in the United States but failed, along with countless thousands of others. That was Anne Frank’s family."
Kristof, however, fails to make another comparison. During World War II, the United States decided not to bomb the railroad lines leading into Auschwitz, the concentration camp to which Anne Frank was initially deported in September 1944. Similarly, President Obama refused to create a no-fly zone over Syria after Bashar al-Assad attacked civilians with barrel bombs and chemical weapons. Needless to say, a no-fly zone would have done much to mitigate the current Syrian refugee problem.
Care to comment, Nicholas?
Does kristof note that it was the U.S. State Department which decided to NOT even fill the (1938 & 1941) legal immigration 'quotas' based on country of origin with Jews.
ReplyDeleteIt is more than disturbing to hear this false comparison.
Would prefer an investigation into how Turkey unleashed the flood of Syrian migrants...without Erdogan blaming it on climate change...