Letters to the Editor
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‘Call It a Banana’
In “Call It a Banana,” [Opinion, May 22, 2006], yes, there is a real problem of significantly reducing the current flow of illegal immigrants. And there is no denying that this will be a difficult problem to solve and it must be solved if we are to keep benefiting from legal immigration. But almost all economists who specialize in immigration conclude that, in purely economic terms, this large influx will, if anything, benefit almost all native Americans. So why must we bring in cultural issues? I have been visiting LA for over thirty years and I have actually witnessed the children of the Hispanic cleaning women and laborers I saw in the 1970s today successfully helping the “Anglos” with running the city and managing many of the businesses. Why shouldn’t this favorable effect occur throughout the country between now and 2026?
Dave O’Neill
Adjunct Professor of Economics
Baruch College, CUNY
‘Battle of Britain’
In [Editorial, “Battle of Britain,” May 23, 2006] The American Jewish Committee was privileged to honor Melanie Phillips with our Mass Media Award at our 100th Annual Meeting earlier this month in Washington, D.C. Beginning in the early 1990s, the American Jewish Committee, alerted by leaders in moderate Arab and Muslim countries concerned about the U.K. as a magnet for Islamist extremists and their recruiting and fundraising activities, began raising the issue, only to be rebuffed by British officials who sought to minimize the problem and instead touted the country as a “non-discriminatory” haven for political and religious refugees. “The U.S. should be much more concerned about what is going on in the U.K.,” Ms. Phillips cautioned when addressing our annual meeting. “The United Kingdom has become the key European center for global terrorism and extremism, while our British political and security establishment has the last decade looked the other way, and is still refusing to face up to the nature of the danger we face because it is terrified of being declared racist if it does so.” Her central message is that “truth” is the strongest weapon to defeat the radical Islamist threat.
David Harris
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
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