Jesus and refugees; Social justice; Israel’s lessons

Jesus and refugees

Thanks for the editorials and articles about the perplexing issue of refugees.

Unlike some who purport to know what Jesus would do, I find it way above my pay grade and I routinely pray for wisdom and courage to “do thy will.”

The rant by President Obama that those who oppose mass immigration are “afraid of widows and orphans” is correct. But while his concern is about Syrians, my concern is about Americans.

My wife and I have contributed both time and treasure through a local nonprofit for years to assist refugees and working poor, and Obama has no standing to criticize people committed to protecting Americans.

The cost of electing a feckless leader is devastating.

What would Jesus do about Syrian refugees?

Jesus teaches us to be compassionate and giving to the less fortunate among us. However, the government is not Jesus.

One of the main functions of a country’s government is to keep its citizens safe from enemies, both foreign and domestic. The president and other officials take an oath to that effect.

One thing Jesus wouldn’t do is lie. Our president is not being honest.

Yes, we have a robust process to vet refugees and immigrants, but the Syrian situation is different. Even the president’s own FBI director, James Comey, testified that his agency does not have access to data to vet the stream of refugees in this particular situation.

As we have seen, terrorists have used this crisis as a means to gain access to Western Europe and kill innocent people. The new Republican proposal does not stop immigration of Syrian refugees, it merely adds another layer to protect us.

Americans are a compassionate people. However, if our government does not take the appropriate steps to protect its citizens, we will be unable to show that compassion.

Social justice

Your Nov. 22 editorial (“Syrian refugees and terrorists are not the same”) said that “Jews must have cringed at the memory of times in their history … when they were required to wear badges signifying their faith.”

A core teaching of Judaism is social justice, mutual aid and tolerance. This teaching in ingrained in the fabric of all Jews, whether religious or secular.

The slogan “Never Again” means more than just the Holocaust. It means never again will we be silent in the face of injustice.

As Albert Einstein, a secular Jew, stated in 1938, the bond that unites Jews is “the democratic ideal of social justice coupled with the ideal of mutual aid and tolerance among all men.”

This is why we speak out in a voice larger than our 2 percent of the U.S. population.

Israel’s lessons

A compelling case can be made that Israel has learned how to fight Islamic terrorism and prevent mass attacks like the one in Paris.

While there are no guarantees, Israel has learned that the key to preventing these types of attacks is intelligence collection, constant vigilance and quick and powerful responses.

Yet all too often the media takes Israel to task for what they say is a disproportionate response to terrorism.

Editorials in the major Western media have demanded that Israel show restraint in fighting terror. Some have justified terror because of what they call “legitimate grievances,” as if to say that all Israel has to do is agree to the demands of the terrorists to stop the attacks.

But as Israel knows all too well, terrorism is based, above all else, on hatred. It cannot be reasoned with. It must be aggressively fought and defeated.

When will the rest of the world take this message to heart?

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Jesus and refugees; Social justice; Israel’s lessons."