Letting in Palestinian refugees would be disastrous
Not content with flooding America with illegal aliens from across the world, including undeveloped countries that are hostile to America, Democrats are now bruiting about the idea of letting in a million Palestinians from Gaza. That is an absolutely awful idea. Let me count the ways.
The idea first popped up a couple of days ago, with Rep. Jamaal “Fire Alarm” Bowman leading the call:
Experts predict a million refugees might flee the Gaza Strip amid the war between Israel and Hamas, and socialists and far-left lawmakers said America should welcome them.
“Fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York member of the Socialist-Democratic “Squad” who remains under investigation for pulling a fire alarm in the House Cannon Office Building earlier this month.
Fortunately, Republicans are not even pretending to be enthusiastic about the idea:
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said they would oppose Palestinian resettlement efforts here.
“The U.S. is the most generous nation in the world, but we are in no position to accept additional refugees, especially from a region with as high a risk of terrorism, given our nation’s inability to secure our own border or vet those who are already here,” Rubio told The Post.
Scott added that “the entire focus of the United States right now should be on rescuing American hostages, and making sure that Israel has every resource needed to defeat Iran backed-Hamas and defend its homeland.”
It’s not just terrorism that will make refugees from Gaza a bad idea. There are other reasons, too.
One. As Gov. Ron DeSantis rightly said, Gaza is steeped in antisemitism and anti-Americanism. Bringing these refugees in is guaranteed to ratchet up antisemitic attacks and they’ll add heft to the socialists who hate it here. DeSantis also said (again, correctly) that the surrounding Arab nations should take in the refugees. Roughly 250 million Arabs surround Israel and Gaza, and they can surely divvy up the one million refugees between them.
Two. This claim that 50% of Gaza residents are children is highly suspect. Neither the West Bank nor Gaza are interested in demographic truth. Truth exists to help self-government. Their goal, however, is perpetual warfare, and claiming a high child population supports their insistence that lots and lots of children are dying. (Also, keep in mind that, of these “children,” many are almost certain teenage boys 16 or older who are already militia fighters.)
Three. Palestinians are bad for the society into which they immigrate, as demonstrated by Denmark’s experience with just 321 Palestinian refugees. According to a post by Emil O.W. Kirkegaard, of the 270 still remaining, 64% got into serious trouble with the law, a large percentage of them claimed welfare for disabilities, and, of the almost 1,000 children they produced, 34% are criminals with a large number on welfare.
That level of criminality and welfare dependence isn’t just because Muslims don’t respect Western laws and feel entitled to Western largesse. It’s also because of something no one wants to admit: On average, they have subnormal IQs. No matter how you test the IQs, the Palestinian average is 70-85 IQ points, which is a range from mentally handicapped all the way up to well below average. This is true whether they’re in war-torn countries or the more stable West.
The problem is socially sanctioned incest through cousin marriages. When you live in a tribal society, the safest person to wed is family. This 2022 article about Pakistan examines the problem:
Ghafoor Hussain Shah is a 56-year-old teacher and father of eight children in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. According to tribal customs in Pakistan, Shah said he is expected to arrange the children's marriages within his extended family.
However, Shah knows about the potential risks of genetic disease prevalent in children from inter-family marriages. He married his maternal cousin in 1987, and three of their children suffer from disorders.
Shah told DW his son's brain did not develop to a normal size. One of his daughters has a speech disorder and another has hearing problems.
"My biggest regret is that they could not get education," he said. "I am always worried about them … who will look after them after my wife and I are gone?" he added.
Despite the risks of genetic disorders, Shah said there is enormous social pressure to adhere to customs calling for cousins to marry. Anyone who refuses to offer their children for marriage within the family risks being ostracized.
Humans have known for thousands of years that incest damages children. That’s why it’s taboo. Still, Arab communities keep doing it. Even Wikipedia admits that an average of 45% of marriages in the Arab world are consanguineous. Bringing in Gazans means introducing people who are likely to remain at the lowest echelons of American society, which is where we can expect them to become dependent on the government or engage in crime.
Image: Gaza teen (one of Bowman’s “children”) spits on Shani Louk’s broken body. X screen grab.