One cannot simply paper over the fact that different cultures do not all blend easily together.
I arrived in Israel in 1992 with two suitcases and a box of books. When I came here, the world was disconnected enough that you could still see a guy wearing a shirt that said something like, “Chicago #1 Football Cubs Pro” or the like and be very proud of it. Official Michael Jordan or David Beckham shirts were still rare. Rather, one might see a hat with “NY Yankees.” Those days are long gone, as everything has been internationally homogenized. You can get anything here that you can get in the U.S., just at a much higher price. If they opened a Costco between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it would not need to have doors, as people would go there 24 hours a day.
One of the assumptions of the World Economic Forum (WEF) crowd is that people are more or less interchangeable. They are very supportive of unfettered immigration from Central and South America into the U.S. and mass arrivals of Muslims from the Middle East into Europe. As anyone who is honest would note, such large-scale movements of people, especially when not accompanied by total assimilation, can cause enormous social disruption. Those on the left like to tut-tut such concerns, but those who live in fear of Venezuelan gangs or Pakistani men don’t have the luxury of going to Davos to find out how harmless all of these immigrants really are.
When my parents married and had children, they made a decision that millions of other immigrants had made before and after them: their most important goal was to make sure that their children were Americans. For ages, immigrants arriving in the U.S. consciously chose to put religion, customs, language, dress, and other features of the old country in the background if not completely jettison the same. “My son is going to be a good American.” The result of such behavior was the melting pot, in which a Polish immigrant’s son could be the best friend of a Chinese immigrant’s son. They played ball together, went to public school together, spoke perfect English, and had dreams of being doctors, lawyers or whatever they wanted to be. There was a very cute movie about an Army unit formed from Japanese Americans during World War II. They fought in Italy and suffered casualties. The movie stressed that the children of Japanese Americans were no less American than anyone else. And that was the goal, and in order to reach the goal, all things associated with the old country needed to be put in the backseat when it did not fit into being an American. Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Nuclear Navy, said that the first time he ate a non-kosher meal was on his first day at the Naval Academy.
My parents’ dream was realized in December of 1982 when I was accepted by Harvard. I called each of them to share the news. My father was having lunch with his fellow professors while my mother was at a knit shop with other Jewish women. I wish that we had had video calls in those days, as I would have loved to see their faces.
What we see today throughout the Western world is the importation of people who keep their old ways front and center. Go find a government office that does not put its phone messages in English and Spanish. Why do illegal aliens in the U.S. boo the American soccer team during matches against Mexico? Why do Muslims in Canada and Europe simply close off major thoroughfares in order to make mass prayers in Christian countries? The acceptance of huge numbers of immigrants and the concomitant lack of demand to integrate has led to disaster. If Muslims in Europe had fully integrated into British, French, Dutch, etc. culture, their high birth rates could have led to a rebirth for these countries. But since they have chosen Islam over their host countries, they are simply biding their time until they will take political control and institute Sharia law throughout Europe. The Europeans failed to demand integration because they don’t believe in their cause any longer. They don’t believe in their history, their religion, or their enormous contributions to mankind. They only see themselves as evil colonialists of yore and incapable of telling others to be like them. European countries could have demanded that every immigrant speak the local language, pass a citizenship test, and declare his allegiance to his new country. Instead, the immigrants were left to bring Islamabad to London and Istanbul to Hamburg. The few movements that want to reverse the flow have been kneecapped: Farage talks of working with Pakistanis, AfD has been sidelined in Germany and Marine Le Pen can work at McDonald's for the foreseeable future—after her release from prison.
In the U.S., bringing in large numbers of unvetted immigrants may have allowed for more low-salary workers and better nannies and gardeners. But it has also led to enormous internal turmoil. Those of us who do not live near the border or in one of the cities that received illegal aliens from Republican governors may not understand the challenges faced by those who do. Schools cannot handle the extra load; ditto for social services and medical providers. Rents go up, salaries go down. Crime goes up, and quality of life goes down. It is a great credit to Donald Trump and his team that the number of illegal entries is at historic lows. Immigration into America or any country is a privilege, and the host country has every right to determine whom to let in. Between controlled borders and ejection of illegal aliens, a stable baseline is being created for a future of controlled, legal and pro-U.S. immigration.
American universities have accepted billions from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other oil states. One result is the acceptance of so many Jew-hating Arab students. If those students had not been on campus, protests against Israel after the October 7th pogrom would have been negligible. But with them, the protests were turbocharged against the Jews. These people simply import their hatreds, and nobody—not government officials nor university administrators—wishes to weaken their traditional hatred that they brought from home.
Not all cultures can mesh simply because we are all humans. Culture matters, and while we should all do our best to get along, cohesive communities require respect and enough commonality to become one. Remember the stories of Haitians eating the local pets in Ohio? Let’s ignore the facts for a moment. If you have a large population that does not eat such things and then you import people who think that such practices are normal and wonderful, are you not setting people up for strife? Europe is lost, not because it’s too late but because they don’t feel any great urge to fight against the end of their cultures. The U.S. still has time to right the ship. And Donald Trump and his people are on it.
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