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We shouldn't flog ourselves over Darfur refugees – Olmert
Attila Somfalvi
Published: 17.10.07, 15:11
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17 Talkbacks for this article
1. Israel is not the sewer system for the world...
Billy   (10.17.07)
Let the rest of the world handle their own waste. You're very lives are at stake while you play the PC game of being kind and good and stupid. Grow up and start being selfish. The rest of the world can piss up a row, if they dont like it.
2. What about Israel's own refugees from disengagement?
Jake T ,   Alaska   (10.17.07)
What about their needs and those of their children? What about the government's broken promises to them? What about Olmert's plan to create even more Jewish refugees? What about demanding that Israel's peaceful neighbor, Egypt, do more to contain the flood of refugees into Israel and the flood of weapons into Gaza? Isn't that the problem? Egypt's complicity?
3. Why Doesn't UNWRA Help the Darfurians?
Joe   (10.17.07)
4. humanitarian duty to care for everyone is an ir
David Derovan ,   Beit Shemesh, Israel   (10.17.07)
What ever happened to Jewish values or just plain human values. Of course we as individuals and as a State have a reponsibility to care for everyone currently living within the borders of the State of Israel. This does not mean that everyone must be granted refugee status. But we must care for their safety and well-being. How can the "Prime Minister" begin to think otherwise? And how can the Knesset accept a speech containing these ideas? I'm appalled!
5. firstly you can bus them back to cairo where they came from
(10.17.07)
6. To #4; our duty to shield the refugees from harm
miri ,   gan yavne   (10.17.07)
you bring up some excellent points, i.e. what happened to our human values and responsibility to assure the refugees' safety and well-being. But you ask how the Knesset could accept Olmert's ideas...well, just look at who is sitting in the Knesset today.
7. Agree with David #4
Iossef ,   J'lem   (10.17.07)
To my jewish brothers : apply the rules of our torah please, be jews. Olmert is just more and more irrelevant...
8. Help them damn it!
Benjamin ,   Sarasota FL USA   (10.17.07)
These people are trying escape a genocide! Do you not see the parallels to Jews who tried escaping the Holocaust but were turned back?! Accept them! Convert them! Then make them Citizens. Never have you had people so loyal as these people will be if you save them from the hell that Muslims have been putting them through.
9. UNRWA only cares for Palestinians - who are "special"
Raymond from DC ,   Washington, DC USA   (10.17.07)
The UN has made clear by its actions that there are two classes of refugees: the Palestinians, and everyone else. Palestinians get their very own support organization - UNRWA - staffed mostly by the client population. They get their own regular meetings and reports dealing with their "plight". They, alone among all refugees, get to bequeath their "refugee" status in perpetuity. And they get more aid per capita than any other refugee population. So don't count on UNRWA to help deal with refugees entering Israel. They fall into that "other" class that others are expected to deal with. It just proves what a moral sewer the UN has become.
10. If Israel does not bus the refugees back to Cairo, it won't
(10.17.07)
be long before there are 20 million illegals to wonder what to do with, like in America. Crime will go up. Africa is a big place and the UN needs to establish a homeland for Christians for the refugees to go to since most are not Jewish or plan to become Jewish.
11. The Arabs caused this problem--let them fix it
bob ,   potomac md usa   (10.17.07)
The Arabs caused the problem ofoppression of the Darfur people in Sudan--and in other regions--oh, I forgot, the Arabs are never responsible for anything-- it's a problem for the west and for the black aFrican countries to take care of.
12. Numbers 4, 6, 7 & 8
leon ,   Grand Rapids USA   (10.17.07)
Of course human values are sacred. But there is a limit to what one can do. There are hundred of thousands Darfur victims, and Israel, a small country is limited in its ability to absorb even a few. Singling out Israel is just plain silly.
13. We need to stop helping the innately ungrateful
Israel   (10.17.07)
No room for real refugees? Get rid of the thieves and liars who breed neo-Nazis and STDs.
14. Well-said, #1
Cameron ,   USA   (10.17.07)
Don't utterly screw yourselves in the name of PC 'compassion' and 'thoughtfulness', Israel. There is often a great virtue in simply saying 'No' to being exploited and being taken advantage of. Let these African Muslims look to Africa or the Islamic -world for relief and salvation.
15. Seal the border with a mine field
jason white ,   afula,israel   (10.17.07)
We do do not need the whole third world coming here. Throw out those that are here.
16. number 12
benjamin ,   sarasota FL USA   (10.19.07)
What you say is true, Israel can not absorb hundreds of thousands of Sudanese... at least not without consequences but that was the same logic all the countries that turned Jews away was. Not to mention that in the long run this will help the country! These people will be loyal beyond belief to the nation that saved them from the global menace of Islam.
17. sewer system
Henry Rosenberg ,   Northampton, Mass.,   (10.19.07)
Billy says "Israel is not the sewer system for the world." Refugees from Sudan are not sewage; they are created in God's image. Of course, Jews know what it is like to be called sewage by hateful people.
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