'Death' by Refugees

23 Elul 5775

Have you noticed how the "news" today no longer appeals to the intellect, but to the emotions? Keep that in mind the next time you are perusing the headlines and see for yourself if it's not true. The media today exists less to inform and more to manipulate people's reactions.

After five years of bloody civil war in Syria that has reportedly killed upwards of a half a million people and displaced millions more, suddenly, after a picture of a small wet refugee boy being found dead on a Turkish beach, the world is all up in arms. Every country is calling for its government (and others) to make a small sacrifice and take in a few thousand of those fleeing Assad's Syria. (Why not instead call for Assad to step down and let all those people go home? But, that's another blog post.)

Here is a sampling of headlines...

Refugee crisis: thousands arrive in Germany amid calls for renewed action in Syria
Refugee crisis: Hundreds set off from Budapest on foot
UK to accept 'thousands' more Syrian refugees
Australia, New Zealand to take in Syrian refugees
U.S. Pressed to Take More Syrian Refugees
Pope calls on Europe’s Catholics to take in refugees
The Arab world’s wealthiest nations are doing next to nothing for Syria’s refugees

A few self-serving politicians in Israel quickly hopped on that bandwagon, but were just as quickly denounced and a few, including the Prime Minister publicly apologized for our inability to accommodate such a request, seeing as how it would be national suicide and all. He pointed out that Israel had given medical treatment to over one thousand injured Syrian rebel fighters over the course of the war. Even so, the world does not miss an opportunity to paint us in a negative light.

This is the main headline story on MSNBC news this morning...

(sarcasm on) Those darn Jews are so obstinate! They just won't lie down and die out no matter what novel ways we find to get rid of them. (sarcasm off)

In the end, if Bibi is true to form, he'll come out later today or tomorrow and announce that Israel will take in a few, but that we can ill afford to take in great numbers of them. However, as is usually the case, the damage will already have been done, the negative image will remain even in light of whatever sacrifice we agree to in the end. 

All of it just serves to highlight yet again how desperately we depend on HKB"H - "ayn od milevado" - we have no one on whom to depend except our Father in Heaven!