Seeing photographs and reading reports of the plight of Middle Eastern refugees trying to enter Europe, the historian Deborah Lipstadt is reminded of Jews fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s—and the refusal of many countries to welcome them. Yet, she writes, laudable instincts for compassion must be combined with caution. She raises some important questions:
Are these migrants fleeing for their lives, or are they trying to find a better economic and social future for their families? Some are coming because of intolerable and swiftly deteriorating security conditions; others may well see a strategic opening. We must be vigilant about humanitarian issues and more wary of an unquestioning open-door policy. . . .
How will this influx of people change the face of Europe? Will they prove willing to be integrated into European society? And, conversely, is Europe willing to do what is necessary to integrate them? . . . Will they prove able to accept that democracy entails the willingness to have one’s most basic belief challenged? Do they understand that the freedoms of speech and expression have no “but” associated with them? . . .
And why, for that matter, have so many Muslim countries shut their doors to them? While huge numbers of those fleeing Syria have found refuge in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, what of the oil-rich Gulf states? They have welcomed none. . . .
Israel has given extensive medical aid to Syrians caught in the bloody civil war. . . [But] how is Israel to open its doors to Syrian refugees . . . [or] check fleeing crowds for associations with extremist groups bent on Israel’s harm?
Read more on Forward: http://forward.com/opinion/320609/reasons-to-think-before-acting-on-migrants/