To the Editor:
Danny Danon and Ram Ben-Barak, two Israeli parliamentarians, contend that "The West Should Welcome Gaza Refugees" (Nov. 14). I propose amending their argument to "The Middle East Should Welcome Gaza Refugees."
Hundreds of millions of people globally wish to improve their lives through emigration; that is a positive impulse in itself. But if "the West" means North America and Western Europe, it includes about a billion people. The world's total human population is about eight billion. All those, Gazans and others, wishing to emigrate cannot pile into the West. Also, cultural and religious practices often clash.
Far better, as I wrote in a 2021 article, that would-be emigrants generally "remain within their own cultural zone. That is where they most readily fit in, where they can stay truest to their traditions, best find economic roles, most easily can return home, and least disrupt the host society."
This means that East Asian refugees, asylum seekers, and illegals be directed to resettle in East Asia, South Asians in South Asia, Middle Easterners in the Middle East, Africans in Africa, Latin Americans in Latin America, and Westerners in the West.
Gazans' skills and energy have much to offer Middle Eastern countries.
Daniel Pipes
President, Middle East Forum
Philadelphia
 A shelter in the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 15. |
Nov. 16, 2023 addendum: For an on-going blog on this topic, "Discussion of the Voluntary Emigration of Gazans."
