U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a letter last week, signed by over 140 U.S. House Democrats, urging the State Department to “reverse [their] recent decision to halt temporary medical-humanitarian visas for children from Gaza.”
To my astonishment, I find myself agreeing with congressional Democrats.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why the State Department halted all visitor visas from Gaza.
As explained in an Aug. 16 post on X, the action was prompted by “security concerns” and the need to “conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”
Secretary Rubio defended the decision, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that evidence existed “that some of the organizations bragging about, and involved in, acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas.”
As a Jew and a Zionist, I’ve watched the Democrats regress into the anti-Israel party who only offer lip-service to combating antisemitism.
I sleep better at night knowing that the current administration is working to prevent those who pose a threat to my children from entering our country.
In the same breath, however, I am a dad who doesn’t want any child deprived of life-saving medical care just because he or she has been steeped in disdain for Jews by parents and indoctrinated by their government to despise me and my children.
This concern for others, even those who despise our very existence, is why the American people (as opposed to the government) are the very definition of “generosity.”
In the immortal words of President Ronald Reagan, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”
Government, regardless of who is in power, is nearly always incompetent, bloated and turns good intentions into nightmares.
We the People define our great and generous nation, not a bunch of bureaucrats with political clout.
Security for the American people still needs to be the top priority.
Even though the government is guaranteed to make mistakes, there are still very simple measures our country can take to ensure those coming to the United States are not a threat.
Continue the current vetting processes and do not permit men over the age of 16 to gain entry to the country.
Only children and women should be eligible for medical help and only women can accompany children to the United States.
This is common sense.
However, the fact that we as a nation are even having this conversation makes no sense. Why are injured Gazans traveling from the Mideast to the United States for care?
Our “friends” in Britain, Ireland, Spain, and France are a four or five-hour flight from the Mideast compared to an 18-hour flight to New York City.
The anxiety and physical toll on anyone requiring medical attention is exacerbated by long-distance travel.
Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all have good medical facilities and are a short plane ride away.
So why aren’t Gazans being treated in fellow Muslim countries that will have no language and cultural barriers and would certainly make communications and recovery easier for children?
Shouldn’t the UN be coordinating these medical-care efforts?
The truth is that the children of Gaza are regarded by the EU, UN, and Arab League (with help from their allies in the Western press) as tools to demonize Israel and advocate antisemitism.The world cares about Palestinians only when they can be used to discredit Israel’s right to exist.
These organizations were nearly silent when, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 650,000 Arabs, the overwhelming majority being Muslims, including hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, were massacred by the Iranian-backed al-Assad regime.
Ironically, Israel set up medical facilities to treat and care for Syrian people injured during the killings. The rest of the Muslim world turned a blind-eye to this actual “genocide” because there weren’t Jews to blame.
Can’t blame Jews, can’t be news.
Still, the children of Gaza, the ultimate pawns in Hamas’s and progressive war against Israel and the Jews, remain in need of care.
I can only pray that when a child is being healed by a Dr. Rosenberg at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York or a Dr. Goldstein at Cedar-Sinai in Los Angeles, the children can see Jews and Americans as fellow human-beings.
The children should be welcomed, treated, and the bill sent to our “friends” in London and Paris.
Paul Miller is a Chicago-based media and political consultant. His commentary has been published in USA Today, New York Daily News, New York Post, Fox News, Newsweek, and The Hill.
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