To the Editor:
Danny Danon and Ram Ben-Barak, two Israeli parliamentarians, contend that "The West Should Welcome Gaza Refugees" (Nov. 14). I propose amending their argument to "The Middle East Should Welcome Gaza Refugees."
Hundreds of millions of people globally wish to improve their lives through emigration; that is a positive impulse in itself. But if "the West" means North America and Western Europe, it includes about a billion people. The world's total human population is about eight billion. All those, Gazans and others, wishing to emigrate cannot pile into the West. Also, cultural and religious practices often clash.
Far better, as I wrote in a 2021 article, that would-be emigrants generally "remain within their own cultural zone. That is where they most readily fit in, where they can stay truest to their traditions, best find economic roles, most easily can return home, and least disrupt the host society."
This means that East Asian refugees, asylum seekers, and illegals be directed to resettle in East Asia, South Asians in South Asia, Middle Easterners in the Middle East, Africans in Africa, Latin Americans in Latin America, and Westerners in the West.
Gazans' skills and energy have much to offer Middle Eastern countries.
Daniel Pipes
President, Middle East Forum
Philadelphia
 A shelter in the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 15. |
Nov. 16, 2023 addendum: Charlie Kirk had a outraged reaction to the Danon/Ben-Barak article and came to the same conclusion about Gazans staying in the Middle East:
If Gazans are too dangerous for Israel, they're too dangerous for us, too. America isn't the world's landfill.
Make the Arab world take them. Qatar is rich and already hosts Hamas's billionaire leader. Saudi Arabia has endless money and endless space. Jordan and Egypt are right next door. All of them share the same culture and religion as the Gazans. Make them take the refugees.
Nov. 19, 2023 update: Gila Gamliel, Israel's intelligence minister has raised the option "to promote the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons, outside of the Strip."
Nov. 28, 2023 update: Pesach Wolicki, director of Israel365action.com, argues that, "Rather than calling for resettlement of Gazans in Western countries, pressure should be brought to bear on the Arab-Muslim world to take responsibility for a problem that they helped create and have always refused to help solve." That complements my letter above.
Nov. 30, 2023 update: According to Ariel Kahana of Israel Hayom, "Senior US lawmakers review plan linking Gaza refugee resettlement to US aid to [Middle Eastern] countries," being Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, and Yemen. It even includes a map with the numbers sketched out.
