The Silly Shameful Slurs On Robert Magid

Last week, Australian Jewish News publisher Robert Magid wrote a profoundly sensible and entirely reasonable op-ed in his newspaper concerning asylum seekers arriving in Australia.  He expressed concern at the illegal smuggling of bogus refugees who are actually economic migrants, pointed out that such activity is unfair to genuine refugees who patiently await asylum, noted that Jews escaping Nazism were glad of any place of refuge, not picking and choosing as these people do, advocated a limit upon immigrant numbers, and warned of the impact for Australian and Jewish security of the mass unvetted intake of Muslims.  He did so in a perfectly civilised fashion.


A storm of misplaced criticism, including accusations of hate speech and the issuing of an online petition in the guise of an open letter, has greeted Mr Magid's article, with (as Ha'aretz notes here) many of the great and good of the Australian Jewish community excoriating his views, along with the so-called Australian Jewish Democratic Society (not known as a particularly robust ally of Israel) and a number of assorted leftwing Jewish activists, the kind of people who are apt to cry foul when any fellow-Jew has the temerity to evince a conservative viewpoint regarding immigration and its consequences.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," such leftists cry.  And to those who point to what is happening in Eurabia, and urge Australia not to emulate what some realists are openly calling "the European tragedy," the inevitable response is: "You're an Islamophobe!"  Some particularly zealous lefties have even been known with malice aforethought and an exquisite contempt for freedom of speech to contact one's boss or employer alleging unconscionable views, as I've disclosed in previous blogposts.

Like other Australians, Jews have to deal with the world as it is, and not how we imagine it or wish it to be.  Look at the plight of Europe.  Look at the exponential rise in antisemitism there, and note what elements are fuelling it.  Is that – is this – what we want for our children and our children's children?  Of course we need to be compassionate, but compassion is due to our fellow-Australians and our progeny too.

Reports Ha'aretz:

'Asked to respond to the torrent of criticism, Magid told Haaretz he stood by his article. “It’s not a question of who’s more compassionate,” he said. “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."

He said he believed “most Australians including most Jews would agree with me but don’t have the guts to come out and say it."'

The Sydney Morning Herald adds (hat tip: reader Ian):

'Last night, Mr Magid said he stood by every word of his article. ''I think the majority of people agree with me but they are not willing to come out and say what I am prepared to say. It is a very cogent statement.'''

 An eminently respectable Jewish friend of mine observed recently:

"I know I should be in favour of providing refuge for our endless procession of boat people but the fact that most of them are Muslim causes me great concern. The new census figures put them up to about 400,000."

Quite so.

Here's a warning to Canada.  It stands as a warning to Australia too: