The question of deporting the illegal African migrants in Israel is a difficult and complicated one. It encompasses matters of principle, policy, morality, law, and – par for the course here – politics. It is particularly difficult for the Jewish state to deport them. There is no other country in the world that has taken in such a large number of war refugees and deportees in proportion to its own population. In the words of the prophet, "Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you" (Isaiah 49:18). No nation or humanitarian group should be moralizing to us.
Because of its strong economy, Israel has become a magnet for citizens of many African countries who are seeking to improve their lives. Since our borders are porous, tens of thousands of work-seekers came here and flooded the neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv. The government's decision to build the border fence to keep foreign infiltrators out curtailed their numbers, and allowed Israel to find a solution. For years, attempts have been made to encourage the migrants to move on to countries that agreed to take them in. Some of these attempts failed because the High Court of Justice intervened and others fell apart due to intervention of left-wing groups in those same countries. I personally have no doubt that if the migrants were clustered in the affluent north Tel Aviv, rather than the disadvantaged south, there wouldn't have been such fierce opposition to the deportation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Arye Deri tried to hammer out a plan in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The prime minister, an experienced chess player up against people playing checkers, read the board and the public's reaction to the compromise incorrectly. It happens to the best of them. A plan like this one can't go through without prior consultation with Likud officials and opposition leaders, some of who take undisguised glee at nipping at the prime minister's heels, seeing themselves as his natural successor.
With all the justified criticism of the prime minister's actions on the compromise to avoid deportation, I would suggest to my good friends on the Right to take it slowly. Calm down. It is possible and proper to criticize the prime minister when there is reason to, but there is no need to lick one's fingers. The not-too-distant past proves that the self-destruction mechanism of the Right is much stronger than the empty attacks from the Left.
