We call it ‘Chutzpah.’ Leftist loons (sadly, most Jews) call it ‘Islamophobia,’ ‘racism’ and worse. An article on illegal boat people by the publisher of Australia’s main Jewish newspaper has ignited a storm of protest, with some critics savaging it for “vilifying Muslims” and promoting “xenophobic, Islamophobic and heartless sentiments.”
JTA Titled “Curb your compassion,” Robert Magid’s article published in last Friday’s Sydney and Melbourne editions of the Australian Jewish News argued that illegal Muslim boat people are queue jumpers who deprive sanctuary to legitimate refugees.
“The Jews who fled the Holocaust fled certain death,” he wrote. “I doubt whether there is a single boat person in that position. Some may have fled a war zone or limited economic opportunities while most are seeking an easy life.”
Magid, a multimillionaire property developer who bought the newspaper in 2007, also accused illegal immigrants of “destination shopping” and suggested — despite the “collective memory of Jews’ attempts to escape the Holocaust” — that Jews curb their compassion toward boat people. He also linked asylum seekers to terrorism, suggesting that Muslim boat people could increase the risk of potential terror attacks.
“If al-Qaida or another jihad organization wished to create a network of terrorists in Australia, undocumented illegal immigration would ensure the Australian authorities had no way of verifying their bona fides,” he wrote.
The backlash to Magid’s article exploded in the blogosphere, with the vast majority of comments blasting what David Zyngier, whose mother survived Auschwitz and arrived here with no papers in 1949, described as Magid’s “anti-Jewish sentiments.”
On Monday, an open letter initiated by the typical left-wing Australian Jewish Democratic Society accused Magid of engaging in “group vilification and dog whistle politics??” against Muslims. The letter called for an apology “to all the victims of persecution who arrived by boat.”
An online petition accrued more than 375 signatories as of Tuesday, along with a deluge of withering comments such as “anti-refugee sentiments have no place in my looney leftie Jewish identity” and Magid used “fear, misinformation and biased language to vilify.”
Magid, meanwhile, is standing by his article, saying he believes that most Jews agree with him but “don’t have the guts” to say it.
The uproar was picked up by the mainstream media. Crikey, an independent online news agency, published a report Tuesday carrying the headline “Jewish paper speaks ‘hate’ against Muslims, boat people,” and Australia’s multicultural broadcaster SBS aired a report on the fallout.
The refugee debate in Australia is a political hot potato and border protection is a polarizing issue. The debate reignited in late June when about 100 boat people from Afghanistan drowned after their boats sank off the Australian coast.
Australia received 11,800 claims for asylum in 2011, according to the United Nations. More than 100 boats carrying more than 6,000 asylum seekers have been intercepted by Australian authorities this year, Reuters reported.
Among the countries of origin for most asylum seekers are Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka, according to news reports.
Jewish officials avoided entering the fray over the article. Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said that “The ECAJ stands by all aspects of its longstanding policy on refugees and asylum seekers.”
The council’s resolution supports the processing of asylum seekers “in a spirit of compassion” and urges Australians to engage in dialogue “in a considered and respectful manner and without resorting to pejorative generalizations.” One insider, who declined to be named, said Jewish leaders were reluctant to weigh in because of Magid’s influential position as publisher and because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.
But Judenrat Arnold Zable, an award-winning author and refugee advocate who says he is alive today because his mother was a queue jumper, described Magid’s article as “one of the most ill-informed, factually inaccurate pieces on asylum seekers” he has ever read.
“Refugees and asylum seekers are only doing what we would do in their shoes, what Jews … have done for centuries,” he said. “They are some of the most vulnerable, oppressed and traumatized peoples of our times.” (WRONG! Most Muslims do not fit the definition of refugee, they are simply economic ‘welfare-seeking’ parasites, who refuse asylum in Muslim countries and only want to go to the West where they can get the most free stuff and do the least work)
The Union for Progressive Judaism’s Religious Action and Advocacy Center skewered Magid’s generalizations. “We believe that efforts to lump together asylum seekers, refugees and terrorists and suggestions that label them all as deceitful and criminal are both sad and inaccurate,” it said in a statement. (Then why does crime always skyrocket with Muslim arrivals? Why do only Muslims set fire to the buildings in which they are housed while awaiting asylum?)
But a blogger defended Magid’s argument by saying there must be a proper vetting process for refugees. “I’m not saying that every foreign national is a hate-filled religious fanatic, but they do exist (just look at the European Union),” the blogger wrote. “The vetting process exists precisely for that purpose, so that actual refugees get in.”
In a rebuttal to Magid, Melbourne’s Ralph Genende wrote on Galus Australis, an online Jewish magazine, “Unlike Robert Magid, I do not believe there are limits to compassion. I take pride in being part of a people who put people and compassion first. “Australia, like Israel, is a society built on migration, and if you absorb your migrants with compassion and skill you build a stronger society both economically and ethically.”
Responding to the torrent of criticism, Magid said, “It’s not a question of who’s more compassionate. The Jews who had the gas chambers behind them would have gone to any country. I feel a hell of a lot more sympathy for people starving in Darfur. “These are the people who should have first priority, not people who have the money and cunning to jump the queue.”
The newspaper’s editor, Zeddy Lawrence, defended publishing Magid’s article, saying it was “just one viewpoint among many we publish, most of which actually tend to be a little more ‘compassionate’ than his.”
Lawrence said Magid’s article was in response to a piece published in the newspaper two weeks ago by Lawrence’s brother, Jeremy, the rabbi of Sydney’s Great Synagogue, who wrote, “How can we be silent as lives are lost on immigration boats bound for Australia?”
George Fink, a refugee from Vienna, said he was “desperately sad” that Magid had made such “an uncharacteristic and flawed attack” on refugees, since Magid himself was a refugee who was born in China and his (now deceased) parents — Ira, a Peace Now activist, and Isador, a member of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency — fled with the family from Shanghai to Melbourne.
Australia has absorbed some 740,000 refugees and humanitarian asylum seekers, including about 35,000 Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe, according to the Refugee Council of Australia.
MORE ON AUSTRALIA’S MUSLIM ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS
Well done Robert Magid for having the courage to speak the truth about the dangers of the muslim stealth occupation by illegal immigration of Australia. Where are the people who know the truth and are not afraid of speaking up for the truth about muslims and their plans to take over every democratic country and to turn them over to a muslim, sharia controlled hell hole where women are treated as inferior and all non muslims are infidels to pay Jizah? The muslims do not want to stop in the closer to reach muslim controlled countries because they do not have the free handouts of the democratic countries. muslims see our welfare as an example of the infidels paying jizah to the muslims. We become workers/slaves, supporting their life styles where they do not have to work. If Australia does not stop illegal muslim immigration and deporting all illegal muslims, you can say good bye to Australia as it becomes the next islamic hell hole taken over by muslims. Watch the welfare costs go up and the crime rates and rape cases escalate as the muslims move in. Note the boats are full of men. Where are the women and children. If this was about escaping death a real man would put his wife and children on the boat first. That is your first clue that these are savage male invaders ready to rob, rape and so on and not refugees.
Economic refugees.
Are the Jews who defend this muslim scum aware that their goal in life is to kill all Jews and anihilate Israel.The muzzies don`t want to assimilate they want to take over and turn the whole world into a caliphate.
Most Moslems are unfortunately VERY anti-Semitic.
I wonder too why there are Jews who defend Muzscum. Dont they get it that Muzscum hate them with a passion? Are they that blind to this? Can someone enlighten me on this? Its like a bird trusting a ferrel cat thinking the cat will be the birds protector, yeh right as if!
Aussie, it’s an ongoing problem among Leftist Jews (the majority) not to recognize/acknowledge that there is a threat to them by Muslims. Why do you think so many Jews chose not to flee Europe when the Nazis started closing their businesses, making them wear yellow stars, and rounding them up?
The way I see it (a Jew who is conservative), leftie Jews aren’t religious, and if they worship anything, it is at the altar of liberalism/socialism. They are JINOS, many of whom prefer to hide their Jewish roots.Also, despite their reputation for high intelligence, many Jews are totally ignorant about the threat Muslims pose to their very existence.
If I lived in Aus I would buy one of those cigar boats and convert it into a stealth PT Boat.
Some homemade torpedo’s and target practice out in the ocean…..problems solved.
The financial limits of compassion?
Yes, realistically, Australians do not have a bottomless pit of money to handle 1 billion plus Moslem economic refugees.
And why do they want Sharia enthusiasts, misogynists and supremacists…which most Moslems definitely are.
Islam is not compatible with democracy.
Jews fleeing Nazism did not PLAN TO DESTROY the democracy and freedoms of the countries they fled to!!!
well done Mr magid. these boat people are male. Is that one in the blue in the top photo a man dressed as a woman? probably. i don’t see any children and then the set fires and kill and loot to get what they want. turn them back to the countries they came from
Good for Mr. Magid! And, if he continues to stick to his guns, more power to him – and may others have the guts, morality and smarts, in fact, to join him in his very legitimate outrage at the “chutzpah” of these muzzie pondscum from sand traps far from Down Under!
Victims of persecution, my (fill in your own anatomical reference here) ! !
All young men on that boat full of “refugees” ? Why so few woman “refugees” ?
All these guys escaping from a fate worse than death ? (they might have to get a job ?)
All they want is to be turned loose in Austrailia to get their free shit.
Why don’t you nasty Aussies want to give them their entitled free shit ?
I guess you are all “islamophobes”. That is, all of you except the loud, moronic, bleeding hearts that want to give the country to a bunch of goat molesting, inbred savages.
Oh well, we have our morons in the U.S. too. Here they are called liberal-progressives or democRATS.
I think Australia has gone. My only hope is Europe. The right is mobilizing, gaining strength and are not saying something must be done. They are saying something will be done and as for us poor Aussies, the liberal left with the bleeding heart brigade are so prominent in our lives it’s hard to breath. Our right wing parties are so mismanaged and small with weak leadership it’s disheartening. In the sixty’s our right wing was very active strong and dedicated. But now with the enemy is in our nation plus with the liberal left. I look to Europe for the salvation of the west. I pray to God that I’m wrong about Australia.
P S
I think the U S will come good soon
Gary, Muslims have not infested Australia to the level that people are constantly aware of them in their everyday lives. As soon as that happens, with mosques going up all over the place, and they become more high-profile in the news, people will start to react. It is only barely starting here with the majority of people still oblivious.
B N I Of cause you are right.When you look at the big picture,London, Malmo Brussels.Denmark. all over Europe and not forgetting Dearburn and your right the Muslim octopus has not yet spread its tentacles here to the extent of Europe yet.
I suppose I get angry and frustrated of people looking like a mob of sheep.
Thank God for the internet.
Hi Crusader Gary – just wanted to let you know that there are groups in Australia working very hard to stop the islamisation of Australia. Unfortunately due to the violence inherent in islam & because of the support shown by our islamopandering elites these groups have to be very circumspect in getting the message out to real Australians. Don’t give up Gary just keep on trying to educate as many Aussies as you can. I have found that most real Australians ( ie those working hard & paying taxes) are aware that islam is a problem but are too scared of either being labelled racist or too scared of being the victim of islamic thuggery to speak out. I have to believe that once real Australians realize that they are not alone in their concerns we will be able to speak out freely knowing we have support from the wider community.
I’d like to read Mr. Magid’s original article but all I have been able to find are articles complaining about it. There is a petition to silence Mr. Magid, perhaps we should start one to SUPPORT him. The flaming moes and their dhimwit enablers want to make sure that nobody is ever permitted to tell the unflattering truth about CRIMINAL ALIEN INVADERS and genocidal islam.
I finally located a pdf of Mr. Magid’s original article, so if you want to read the whole thing for yourselves, here you go:
http://www.ajds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ajn-oped-3-aug-2012.pdf
I found it at a pro-Israel Australian blog called Daphne Anson.
HOLD YOUR HORSES? sorry kangaroos!
I have been watching Australia border controls/Immigration at airports on TV ,
questions asked by Immigration, as follows
Where do you come from,
where are you going ,
do you know how many in party,
are you planning to stay a short time,,
how much money are you bringing in to the country ,
do you have a job to go to,
where will you be working,
Have you got a passport/visa to come into our country to work,
are you going to claim the lowest benefits possible,
IF YOU HAVE ANSWERED don’t know/no to any or ALL of these questions,
YEA THEN OKAY PAL YOUR THROUGH HAVE A NICE DAY WALLY.
Leftist Jews remind me of the oxen leading the bulls into the bullring to be slaughtered. They think if they go along, then they can all get along. Their consciences are clear if they make a donation to Israel. I grew up in Bev. Hills, & my ex worked in the film industry, as do my sons, so I know of what I write.
Those floating hulks are probably the closest these idiots have been to having a bath since their mamas gave them one. Talk about air & water pollution!! Didn’t see any women. Did they put them in the bilge, or throw them overboard.
I just have to say that I LOVE the “THIS IS AUSTRALIA……………………” banner!! The same things could be said in most of the Southern and Southwestern U.S.A!!……But, unfortunately the muslimes just DON’T seem to get it that they ARE NOT welcome!!……..Or worse, they seek to impose themselves and their customs KNOWING that neither they or there ways are welcome!!
Those Jews supporting the Islamists will end up blaming everyone else when they’re attacked by Muslims just for being Jewish. And if things get as bad as they are in Norway, with the last Jews having to leave because of legalised antisemitism… these miscreant/kapo Jews will end up blaming Israel, and it’s existence on their own dhimmi status!
Migrants are welcome here in Australia,but why are we allowing -mainly muslim men?-not many women,to come to -our country,they pay a lot to the boat smugglers -so they are not poor-if they are genuine -why do they destroy their identity papers ?once here, they start making -demands (tantrums)if they don’t get what they want-going on hunger strikes -sewing their lips together-burning down buildings -costing the Australian taxpayers -millions-they have no intention to assimilate -only to invade and conquer and -try to convert us to their barbaric political ideology-that -evil sharia law,our government is putting the illegal immigrants before the welfare of it’s own Australian people-who are homeless and -jobless,as freedom of speech is being denied in our newspapers-Islam (sharia) has imposed -blasphemy laws on us -infidels -the only way Mr.Magid could get his message across was in his own paper as no Australian papers would have publishished what he said,we have to preserve -our way of life -the fight is only beginning -or we will end up like England -France and the other European countries -stop migration -before they start multiplying.