Ambassador Huckabee, Apologize to Israel! Your Passport Policy Got This American Killed
By demanding Israel open its gates to every American passport holder, regardless of background, or ties to hostile factions, the U.S. has endangered lives on both sides. This death was not a mistake. It was an American and Israeli policy failure that could and should have been avoided.
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First and foremost, the truth must be stated. Israel is responsible for the death of this young man simply for allowing him to visit its territory.
An Arab Muslim born in Florida with ties to extremists should not be visiting within the borders of Israel - regardless of whether some of his family still occupies Jewish ancestral land in Judea and Samaria.
While it is right to express sorrow over any human death, we must not lose sight of the truth, something Mr. Huckabee surely knows: the Arabs, including the Palestinian Christians who signed the petition to investigate the death, Christians whose families are being ethnically cleansed by fellow Palestinians, are themselves, in reality, guests in the land.
Those Christian Palestinians suffering from Stockholm Syndrome are in no position to express opinions, especially when their Muslim friends die in violent clashes against those whose ancestral land this has been for thousands of years.
Yes, the intruder was an American citizen, and diplomatically, it is indeed problematic to deny entry to someone holding an American passport. It is nearly impossible to inform the U.S. that an entire demographic of its citizens is unwelcome for obvious security reasons. This is also true regarding a large number of Arab Europeans.
The very fact that Israel doesn’t protest to the U.S. about this untenable situation -that we’re compelled to admit anyone simply because they hold an American passport, even when the U.S. chooses to harbor dangerous individuals - is a failure in itself. We are under no obligation to follow suit.
Israel should not be investigating settlers who defend their land, but should have made it clear, even to Ambassador Huckabee, that it reserves the right to conduct aggressive profiling based on its own judgment when deciding who may or may not enter the country (something the Biden administration has demanded Israel stop doing). This includes unequivocally denying entry even to American passport holders.
Indeed, Israel is at fault for not demanding from the Trump administration to reconsider its policy on allowing Palestinian-Americans into Israeli territory.
That policy invited trouble. Israel’s avoidance, and its insistence on continuing Biden's approach, which forces Israel to allow entry to any American citizen without exception, is what killed that young man, just as much as the fact that he came to try and steal land from Jewish residents, in the same way the Arab people have done since 636 CE, with the Muslim invasion of the Land of Israel that turned the Jews into a minority in their own land for the next 1,300 years.