Things I Post

I understand that many rich Arab states in the gulf are not taking in ANY refugees. It's horrifying. And disgusting. I also understand that many of Syria's neighbouring Arab states ARE, and have taken in 500,000+ refugees each, turkey up to 2,000,000. So I hear people asking, why should we (and Europe) take in refugees when the rich Arab gulf states are not? Actually, we have to take in refugees BECAUSE the rich Arab gulf states are not. We have to take them in because they are asking us, because we are a salvation for these people who are fleeing for their lives, and if we can provide that to them, then of course we should. We can't force the hand of these rich Arab gulf states, but we should help in the ways we can.

I understand that we are not just opening flood gates with 25,000 Syrian refugees. I understand that we have the process to do background checks, and we will. I also understand that it's possible a small percentage of refugees are Da'esh (ISIS) supporters, and that it's possible to accidentally invite that kind of terror into Canada. But the Paris attacks were not perpetrated by Syrian refugees. They were done by people who had european birthplaces. Only one is POSSIBLY a refugee, but it isn't confirmed yet. The attacks in Ottawa were not made by refugees either.

No, the threat of terror is not one that I see linked to Syrain refugees. Most of these people are fleeing the same thing we're afraid of.

As a Jew, I think the scariest thing about taking in 25,000 Syrians is not the threat of terror. Terrorists will be weeded out, after all. The scary thing to me is the ones who are NOT terrorists, but who are just coming from a very Syrian mindset. The fact that a lot of Syrians think Israel is as bad as Assad. The ones who grew up learning that Israel's flag is a promise to conquer the land from sea to sea, even when that's been proved as myth. 25,000 people who have never been to Israel, who have probably never even met a Jew, and yet have very strong opinions on these things, now thrust into a society where they will encounter people with kippas and tsitsit and most likely take out their anti-israel sentiment on us. YES, I know this is postulation. I know it's just me being worried. But I think I have a right to be worried as we see antisemitism rise all around the world.

Put it in perspective: There are only between 400,000 and 550,000 Jews in all of Canada at 2014's estimates. That's so small. That's 0.12% of the amount of refugees streaming out of Syria (which is 4,000,000+). As far as I can tell, we exist in small pockets of Jewish community, mostly based in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, with some scattered around the rest of the country. There is ALREADY lots of antisemitism floating around. We've seen synagogues attacked, swastikas drawn, and jewish people attacked. Just talking to some of my friends who wear a kippa reveals a whole world of casual antisemitism that I personally don't typically experience. It's everything we hear about islamophobia. People who wear something marking them as Jewish (whether for religious reasons or because they are proud of their heritage) are told they are lesser than human, are told to go back to their own country, are glared at, spat on, are personally blamed for Israel's policies, and are beaten up.

Now we are bringing in 25,000 people who have a very low and very racist opinion of Jews, and of Israel. And as the war in Syria are sure to get worse, this number will probably grow. We will absolutely see more BDS movements and Israel Apartheid Week events, and more antisemitism disguised as commentary about Israel, even when the people attacked tend to be targeted just for being visibly Jewish, with no public stance on Israel. How do I know this will happen? Because it happened in Syria, and now literally all the Jews living there have fled the country. And because it happens now in Canada already, so why would it get better when we import people who feel this way already?

We see all these posts about awful examples of islamophobia, and that *definitely needs to stop*. But it's a bit hard to throw support around when most of these refugees would act in similar ways towards my people.

I keep seeing people say things like “Israel should go back to its 1947 borders because Iron Dome is all it needs to ensure the safety of its citizens.”

Can we collectively get over this idea that “Iron Dome is all Israel needs to ensure the safety of their citizens”? I keep hearing it. Why?