Jewish Australian MP: Bring Israel’s African Immigrants to Australia

Michael Danby, a Jewish MP in the Australian Parliament, has “enthusiastically agreed” to the idea of bringing to Australia thousands of Africans who have illegally immigrated to Israel (“Danny Danon: Send African Immigrants to Australia“; Jerusalem Post). The idea originated with Danny Danon, a Likud MP well known for his far right views. (Here he is in the NYTimes advocating that Israel annex the West Bank.)  Being a good rightist, Danon thinks that the immigrants are a threat to the Jewish identity of Israel: “The arrival of thousands of Muslim infiltrators to Israeli territory is a clear threat to the state’s Jewish identity. … On the one hand, it treats the refugees and migrants in a humane way. On the other hand, it does not threaten Israel’s future and our goal to maintain a clear and solid Jewish majority.”

The implicit idea is that Australia, being a traditionally European society, has no identity at all except to abstract principles. So it’s not surprising that Danby wholeheartedly agrees with the plan. Being a good Jew in Australia means being an enthusiastic cheerleader for non-White immigration—long the policy of the organized Jewish community in Australia and throughout the Jewish Diaspora in the West. 

This is particularly obvious in the case of Prof. Andrew Fraser’s adventures with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission:

[Fraser] had written a letter published in a newspaper suggesting that “once black African colonies in Australia grow in size and in confidence, one can reasonably expect a number of social problems and rising levels of crime and violence.” In his comments before the Commission, Fraser noted that the charges against him by an African had actually been instigated by “several organized Jewish groups that boast openly of the campaign they have organized against me,” citing articles in Jewish newspapers. Fraser wrote that Jewish individuals and organizations had acted “to further their shared ethnic interest in the growth of a multi-racial society in Australia.”

Like Danny Danon, Fraser is worried about the effect of immigration on national identity, stating that

[The organized Jewish community] must understand that, as Australia becomes a multi-racial society, it is inevitable that Anglo-Australians, having observed the self-interested activities of other racial, ethnic and religious groups, are bound to become more conscious of their own distinctive racial identity. Many white Australians already feel that they are losing their ancestral homeland to a massive influx of Third World migrants hostile or indifferent to the ethnic interests of the host society. … The simple fact is that a multi-racial immigration policy is not obviously and necessarily in the best interests of white Australians.

So Danby is promoting policies that are destructive of racial/ethnic and national identity in Australia while he also supports a plan to make sure that Israel remains ethnically and culturally Jewish. A win-win situation if ever there was one. (There are 25 articles or blogs in the TOO category of Jewish attitudes in Israel versus the Diaspora.)

And I will wager lots of money that when Danby presents Danon’s plan to Parliament, it will be couched in the  most high-flown language of moral universalism and human rights. One would have to be positively demonic to oppose admitting thousands of impoverished, illiterate Eritreans. And I suppose that there will be AIPAC-like monitoring of the votes of Australian MPs so insensitive as to oppose such an obviously humanitarian plan aimed at benefiting Israel. After all, it’s important to know who your friends are.