I have a subject that I want to discuss today which goes opposite the direction I normally go in this blog?who knows, maybe it's my new direction?I need to complain about the country in which I live, which I rarely do publicly. 

I live in Israel.  For the past few months, the subject of the Sudanese refugees coming into Israel in search of refuge from the violence and genocide in their country has been more or less in the spotlight.  They would come in, and the government would basically do nothing with them, dropping them off in an industrial area, for example, and tell them to wait.  Then simply leaving them and not coming back for them.

Our government has been deliberating what to do with these refugees for a while now.  In the meanwhile, the private sector and humanitarian organizations have taken over where the government has fallen short.  The refugees have been given homes and work and food and clothing - until last week. 

Last week the folly government of the State of Israel decided to not allow the refugees to enter Israel through the Egyptian border, as well as to kick out the refugees who have been staying in this country.  I can almost understand the political reasons for this - we don't have the money to take care of them, it may cause a wave of refugees and there is nowhere to put them in this tiny country, the usual terrorism that we are used to; but I will never accept them.  We are all humans, and the Darfur issue has been going on for years with little help from the outside world.  As Jews, not so many years ago, one third of our people were massacred at the hands of the Nazis with the aide of publics and governments which looked the other way.  Where in the hell do we get the right to do the same thing to these refugees, when we still haven't forgiven Europe and the US for doing to us?

I have no answer.  I am shamed and humbled as a person and as a Jew.  I pray for the lives of those refugees.  I have no faith in my government.  And I wish I had done more to help my world.