Quote (DizzyBusiness @ Oct 17 2023 02:45pm)
It is more complicated than just absorbing the population. The combined countries of the West could easily absorb all Israelis as well but that won't happen either. If the M.E. countries genuinely support an independent Palestinian state then assisting in removing Palestinians from it would be counter productive at best and assisting in ethnic cleansing at worst. The reality of what would happen if say Egypt said "we will take 1 million Palestinians" is that a million of them would be herded out like cattle, many of whom probably wouldn't want to leave.
Regarding the refugee issue, I don't think it says much about the Muslim world, the countries you mentioned were largely destroyed as a result of western actions, most likely the resettlement/refugee plans were designed and approved by those countries as well.
Also it isn't as if refugees have the luxury of choice, they go where they can and wherever will provide the best start at a new life. If my country was bombed into the stone age I would rather be a refugee in a foreign land that gave me a house/food/job/etc than be living in a refugee camp in a more culturally similar area. It is nice we offer those things but it isn't something every country can feasibly do even if they wanted to. Given the major issues this type of mass immigration has been causing in western countries I wouldn't say it's a great investment either.
Many refugees do actually have the luxury of choice and precisely for the reasons you mentioned choose to go the lands that will give them cushy aid and not stick around in the first place they are safe. Not all those countries around there are dumps that wouldn't be able to help. The gulf Arabs have higher living standards than us living in the west. You're telling me UAE, Qatar, SA, Bahrain, can't lift a finger and take in some people? Many of them also played a role in some of these wars. Not trying to go into too much detail but Syria for example, was mainly a war between the ruling Shiites, which remained in power and rebel Sunni groups backed armed and funded by Wahhabist SA and the other gulf rich nations, including the Turks (obviously we also also supported many of these rebels). So they do bare some of the brunt.
To me it's highly hypocritical for many of these surrounding countries to be the first to sound the alarm and be critical of Israeli actions yet do so very little to support fellow Muslim refugees or even make serious attempts to diffuse the situation by at the very least acknowledging Israel's right to exist.
Edit: But I do agree with you on the fact that our interference in the region has been a net negative and we're probably at least somewhat responsible for the shit show.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Oct 17 2023 01:29pm