The most surprising thing to me today is the pole reversal that has taken place in national politics around immigration. For three years, the Republicans have been yelling at Joe Biden for having an “open border”, and the Democrats have been saying that they are doing all they can considering the laws with which they have to comply. Then, all of a sudden, the Biden Democrats are saying they want to have a “closed border” and the Trump Republicans are saying to leave the border as it is until Trump is re-elected president. Trump says the bill, which is basically what he has been asking for, is too weak. What does he want to add to it? He won’t say, probably because he’s afraid someone would take him seriously and actually amend the draft bill. It’s politics, of course, but it also is tremendous hypocrisy that is surprising to a lot of people, including me.

The least surprising thing is that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East have been accused of conspiring with Hamas. UNRWA was created as soon as the 1948 Arab Israeli war ended, and ever since has served Palestinian refugees. No other group of refugees have their own agency; all other refugee issues are handled by the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees. But Palestinians have been treated very differently – and IMHO – very unfortunately. Why?

Because they have been defined as permanent refugees, people without a country of their own, but destined, as the Jews had been for 2000 years, to return to their home country – now occupied by Israel. In the meantime, as the Palestinians settled in other Middle Eastern countries, like Jordan, Syria and, yes, the West Bank and Gaza, they were placed into squalid refugee camps, which still exist, although they no longer have tents, but now look much more like permanent cities. And UNRWA for 75 years has been providing them with social services at the expense of the UN members, including the US. Treating them this way has made them dependent upon “welfare” and guaranteed them permanent refugee status with a “right to return”. They are not citizens of the countries in which they live. And – the refugees are not only those who were displaced (voluntarily or not) during the 1948 fighting, but their children, grand children and now great grandchildren.

UNRWA should be abolished, its social service responsibilities given to other organizations, and the United Nations sponsored special right of return should be heard of no more.

So UNRWA employees start by being biased towards the Palestinians by the nature of their jobs and sponsoring organization. But more than that, the vast majority of UNRWA employees are Palestinian. And not just a small number of Palestinians, but 13,000 in the Gaza Strip alone, making them one of the biggest employers in Gaza, second only to Hamas (and maybe behind the health ministry). You think there are only 12 conspirators? Ha! Undoubtedly hundreds, perhaps thousands. No surprise here.

Edie has told me that my blog has become too heavy. That it needs to be lighter. Following her wishes, the rest of this blog will be light. Here goes:

blank

blank

blank

blank

blank

How much lighter can I get?