The recent change in policy by the Biden Administration towards Israelis seeking permeant resident status in the United States or requesting a visa is appalling. Israeli applicants are being asked questions that appear to be copied from the Office of the Chief Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.’
ZOA (h/t Susan) Sometime in the last few months, Israelis seeking a response from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have begun to face detailed questioning about their service in the IDF, with the clear implication that routine service in the army of the Jewish State may constitute “war crimes.”
Israelis living in the United States and routinely applying for a green card have been asked very detailed questions about service in the IDF, including if the applicant had been in combat, commanded troops, guarded ‘detainees,’ worked with explosives, or fired any weapon. An IDF female veteran routinely seeking a Visa to America at a European consulate was asked similar questions and then unceremoniously denied entry without any explanation.
Senator Cotton (R-AK) writes: “The Biden Administration is expending a disgraceful amount of time, energy, and resources in a thinly veiled attempt to ‘prove’ IDF members have committed hypothetical war crimes. Meanwhile, millions of illegal immigrants, thousands of gang members, and an unknown number of terrorists have flooded across our border.”
In his letter to the DHS (see https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-mayorkas-your-job-is-to-protect-our-borders-not-interrogate-our-allies), Cotton says: “It is clear that the context of the new policy is to increase the pressure on Israel to avoid the total destruction of Hamas. It is reprehensible that the Biden administration is joining with various UN agencies to prevent an Israeli victory in Gaza.”
YNET One Israeli applicant, a senior manager at a high-tech company in Silicon Valley in the U.S., received a letter from the U.S. Immigration Authority last week regarding his application for a green card, which said. “In your application form you stated that you served in the Israel Defense Forces between 2005-2008. You must provide us with additional information about your military service so that we can make a final decision on your case.”
The letter read: “You must submit an affidavit under oath, describing your military service. As part of this affidavit, the following questions must be addressed: Did you participate as a combatant in battles during your military service? If so, please describe your activity/role in these battles; Did you command soldiers in the army? If yes, please describe the aspects of your command; Have you ever guarded (or commanded others to guard) detainees? Did you use explosives during your military service? If so, detail the types of weapons or explosives you were trained on.”
“Have you ever actually used weapons or explosives? If so, what weapons or explosives did you use? How did you use weapons or explosives? On how many occasions did you use weapons or explosives? How often did you use weapons or explosives? Did you use a weapon and/or an explosive against another person? If so, the circumstances must be detailed, and explain why you used a weapon and/or an explosive against another person/people.”
Sharon N says
Palestinians are committing war crimes. They have fired 20,000 rockets at Israel in just six months, and Israel has to put up with 2000 terror attacks every year. The genocide accusation is based on claims made by Hamas, as if a terrorist organisation could possibly be a credible source of information. Lawyers For Israel have stated that “these figures have been fabricated. These statistics are produced by the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health, and then circulated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinian statistics are also deployed in a way that implies wrongly that all the Palestinians killed were civilians, as there is no reference to the number of Palestinian combatants killed. ” However, even if the stats were true, 13,000 Palestinian combatants had been killed by the end of February 2024, meaning that the ratio of civilian to combatant death rate is less than 1.5:1. This ratio is much lower than the usual ratio of civilian to combatant casualties in urban warfare, as indicated by a Report by the UN Secretary General which found that in urban armed conflicts worldwide, 89% of the casualties were civilians. Other articles which prove that Hamas’ statistics are false include: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers by Prof Abraham Wyner, Statistically Impossible: A Critical Analysis of Hamas’s Women and Children Casualty Figures by Profs Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone and Gregory Rose, Gaza Fatality Data Has Become Completely Unreliable by Gabriel Epstein from The Washington Institute, The numbers of dead in Gaza don’t add up – and there is no easy explanation by Mark Zlochin in The Telegraph, and Close review of Gaza casualty figures reported by UNOCHA based on daily Hamas ‘Ministry of Health’ numbers proves they are falsified” by Salo Aizenberg. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has documented significant discrepancies in Hamas’ fatality numbers in their report entitled How Hamas Manipulates Gaza Fatality Numbers: Examining the Male Undercount and Other Problems. At least 1000 rockets fired by Hamas landed in their own territory, and Hamas have gunned down civilians who were attempting to obtain aid from the IDF troops, as can be seen on video footage uploaded to the Stand With Us Youtube account. The war in Gaza has one of the lowest civilian casualty rates in recorded history. As Colonel Richard Kemp’s research and calculations have shown, the Syrian Civil War resulted in 250, 000 deaths, the Yemeni civil war resulted in 150,000 deaths, the Tigray War in Ethiopia has killed 80,000 people and 2 million people have been killed in warfare in Sudan. In fact, every significant war in the middle east and Africa has had a much higher death toll than the Hamas war, including the Iraq-Iran War with an estimated 500,000 to 2 million deaths, and the Congo War which has been blamed for 6 million deaths since 1996. The USA and Britain also killed a far higher number of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Saudi Arabia has killed 400, 000 people in Yemen.
Taffy says
There are no civilians in Gaza. They are all Hamas, even foreign journalists and UNRWA workers. Even the children from about age 5 are indoctrinated with a kill all the Jews and destroy Israel mentality, and many of the ~10+ year olds have brandished AK-47s and other weapons against IDF soldiers, most getting “eliminated” in the process. Then of course Hamas uses these kids’ demise as propaganda, showing the world that the Israelis are shooting children.
My attitude is in accord with Jewish Law as set forth by Maimonides in his magnum opus “Mishnah Torah” book Kings and Wars, chapter 5, which requires the complete annihilation of an enemy that attacks. But, before waging war against an attacker, the king must give it the opportunity to unconditionally surrender, and accept the 7 Noahiide laws and be subjugated to the king. This deal is all or none and a partial acceptance is the same as no acceptance.
Using these principles, the IDF should completely level Gaza and kill everyone therein!!!
Finally, the wars described in the Book of Judges strongly imply that wars should be fought to ensure peace for at least 40 years. Biden’ proposed cease fire ensures peace until Hamas decides to again break a cease fire and attack Israel as they did on October 7th and by indiscriminately firing rockets into Israel.
If there is a mosquito infested swamp near a city causing malaria to its inhabitants, one does not spray insecticide around people’s
homes as a solution. Instead, the whole swamp is drained, and voila, no more mosquitoes or malaria!
BareNakedIslam says
Great analysis.
Az gal says
Wow. That reminds me of my German citizenship request which was turned down (when I have a German parent). Terrorists & criminals are preferred these days.
Taffy says
Congress needs to de-fund Homeland Security until Mayorkas gets his act together and withdraw all BS special screening requirements for Israelis coming to the US. Also, the border needs to be shut down NOW, for the illegals entering. Congress should may payments to Homeland Security dependent on compliance with and enforcement of, a sane immigration policy (not an open border).
A W says
No… DHS needs to be disbanded. RINO Bush created that mess. We don’t need them. Really, what are they doing?
Marko Matamoros says
This traitor, Mayorkis has allowed this invasion to happen! He’s not going to do $h!t about the border!