(JNi.media) Likud ministers on Sunday responded critically to Knesset opposition leader, Zionist Camp (Labor) chairman Isaac Herzog, who stated Israel was obligated to take in refugees from Syria and Iraq. Minister of Transport and intelligence, Israel Katz, wrote on his Facebook page Sunday morning: ” Herzog calls on the government of Israel to take in Syrian refugees. What lack of political wisdom and of national responsibility. He should have at least suggested, as the Prime Minister of Finland has done, to take them into his own home.”
And MK Nava Boker (Likud) did one better, urging the refugees to contact Herzog directly, writing on her Facebook page: “Dear Syrian refugee, upon your arrival in Israel, please contact MK Isaac Herzog, phone number 02-640-8533 for sleeping accommodation. You will be transported to a comfortable home in the [prestigious] Tzahala neighborhood of Tel Aviv.”
Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin stated: ” MK Herzog’s populist proposal to absorb refugees from Syria in Israel is reckless, and its sole purpose is scouring our moral conscience. The State of Israel has been for years at the forefront of humanitarian aid, and was the first to willingly accept wounded Syrians from the time of the early battles. However, we must be careful and know where to draw the red line. Absorbing refugees from an enemy state, who may join forces with internal elements seeking to undermine our country, would harm national interests and could lead to demographic imbalance.”
Labor circles were quick to explain that “Herzog only meant taking in several hundred refugees, mostly Druze whose lives are in immediate danger.” But they also rebuked the Likud officials, saying the late Menachem Begin would have turmed in his grave if he knew the Likud was rejecting asylum seekers. “The first one to accept non-Jewish refugees fleeing their country was Likud leader and former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin, who let hundreds of Vietnamese in,” the Zionist Camp statement declared. “Like Herzog todday, Begin knew that it is impossible to ignore the history of the Jewish people and the international effort to assist people fleeing for their lives.”