Perspective

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

n CONTACT: SUZANNE CASSIDY, 291-8694, SCASSIDY@LNPNEWS.COM

ALSO INSIDE: GENERATION NEXT

IN WAKE OF PARIS ATTACKS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Nov. 14 photo, people hold a rally in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the victims of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks on Paris. The banner reads, in French, No to terrorism.
The candles spell out the French word for solidarity.

How should we respond to Islamic State groups atrocities?

ISMAIL SMITH-WADE-EL

NAZLI HARDY

JOE PITTS

ANDR MOINE

LNP COLUMNIST

SPECIAL TO LNP

COMMENTARY

SPECIAL TO LNP

Facing evil while

holding on to
our principles

Islamophobia only
aids terrorists
twisted cause

We need to slow
refugee process to
ensure our safety

On the bond with

France, Americas
oldest ally

A simple fact: There is evil in the

world. It besets us.
It is perhaps difficult to see or recognize, but it fills the shadows and
all the places where goodwill is not.
We have seen it at its most direct.
Since Nov. 13, our glowing screens
have made us witnesses, again, to
horror from half a world away.
From time to time, evil shows
its face directly, cackling while we
shudder. But what is most disturbing about evil, what is most unsettling, is how we may indulge it in our
own anger and fear.
There are many of us in America,
many in Lancaster County, who believe that the Syrian refugees whom
we would welcome into this country
may include Islamic State group operatives among their number. What
an opportunity to take advantage of
American generosity and turn it on
us, striking us at the heart.
I remember sitting, mouth agape,
watching news of the World Trade
Center attacks on a television my
teachers had wheeled into our
classroom. I found out later that
I had lost a cousin that day at the
Pentagon.
In a world we share with al-Qaida,
Boko Haram and Islamic State,
I cannot tell anyone else how to
grieve. I cannot tell you what your
fear feels like. I cannot describe the
impotent anger and sadness that
grow when evil takes a loved one
from you.
But I can tell you what happens
when fear and the desire to defend

Islamic State groups greatest tool,

as it spreads its message and pursues its brutal war against humanity,
is its name: Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria, or ISIS.
In four letters, it attempts to take
ownership of 1.6 billion Muslims,
including the people of Iraq and
Syria. Not only is Islamic State a
brutal and inhumane organization,
it is savvy and successful in driving
splinters of fear, terror and anger
through billions.
According to a report last year by
The Independent newspaper, Islamic State fighters numbered about
200,000. Imagine a world of 7 billion
people united against 200,000 deranged militants.
Islamic State knows its numbers,
too, and would like to have 1.6 billion Muslims associated with its
cause. We can either aid that cause
by branding Muslims 23 percent
of the worlds population as the
enemy, or we can hinder that cause
by recognizing that Islamic State
members represent far less than
even one-half of 1 percent of the
worlds population.
Having been in a subway tunnel
during the 9/11 terrorists attacks
in New York City, I went through a
period of deep personal reflection, a
struggle to understand what I stand
for, what I believe in, what I fight for
and against, who I am. During this
time, along with others, I also faced
visceral Islamophobia. As it turned
out, this Islamophobia did not
thwart any further attacks by

Throughout my time in Congress,

Ive worked to protect religious
minorities around the world.
Whether they have been Rohingya
Muslims in Myanmar or Christians
in Pakistan, Ive tried to find ways to
protect the vulnerable.
In January, then-House Speaker
John Boehner appointed me cochairman of the House Human
Rights Commission. The first thing
I did as co-chairman was to conduct
a hearing on Islamic State terrorists, and I will soon conduct a hearing on their attempts to commit
genocide against Middle Eastern
Christians.
What we have learned at these
hearings has been shocking. For
almost two years, Islamic State has
been conducting a demonic campaign of rape and murder, including against children. Over the past
seven years, half of all Syrians have
been either killed or displaced
from their homes. Islamic State has
nearly succeeded in exterminating
the Yazidis, members of a religious
sect.
Islamic State controls a land area
roughly the size of Great Britain
nearly twice the size of Pennsylvania. Syria is, at this point, effectively
a failed state, incapable of enforcing
its own laws and protecting its own
people.
Under such circumstances, civil
society becomes impossible. There
is little economy to speak of in this
region but for Islamic States trafficking of people and black-market

When the massacre started in

Paris on Friday, Nov. 13, I was deep
into grading French essays and did
not pay attention at first to what
Colleen, my wife, was trying to tell
me.
Later that evening, I began to
realize what was happening. Like
many, we searched all sources of
information to know more and try to
understand.
I did not call my sister Josiane
in Paris. For her, it was the middle
of the night. Early next morning,
though, I had an email: Cest terrible!
She and her family were fine but she
was telling me about Marie, a young
architect, a friends daughter who
that evening went to La Cigale, a
place similar to Le Bataclan and not
far from it. She was safe. They were
worried about Pierre, though. He is
the son of other friends, a musician
who sometimes plays at Le Bataclan. They were without news, and
Josiane had written: Il ny a pas de
mots (There are no words).
By the time I talked with Josiane
and her husband Daniel on Skype on
Saturday morning, we knew Pierre
was safe. We talked for a long time,
mostly piecing together all the information we had gathered.
The mood was somber. There was
nothing else to say. You do not comment on horror. You witness. One
concern was clear, however: Some
in France were going to exploit the
event politically to promote an antiimmigrant, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim agenda, not today but in weeks

SMITH-WADE-EL, page E4

HARDY, page E4

PITTS, page E4

MOINE, page E4

n Ismail Smith-Wade-El is a Lancaster city

resident.

n Nazli W. Hardy, MBA, Ph.D., is an as-

sociate professor of computer science at

Millersville University and a Millersville
resident.

n U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts is a Republican representing the 16th Congressional District,
which includes most of Lancaster County.

See Jessica Knapps op-ed on Page E3 on strict refugee vetting process.

n Andr Moine, Ph.D., is a professor of

French at Millersville University.

E2

LNP | LANCASTER, PA

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Opinion

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In our words

Thank our emergency

responders in real way
THE ISSUE
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act,
(HR 1786 or S. 928) would permanently renew the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund and the World Trade Center Health Program; the latter
provides health benefits to first responders and others who are ill because
they worked at ground zero. Some lawmakers would prefer to extend
the programs five years at a time.

The Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris were a

painful reminder of the horrors that were visited on the United States on 9/11.
There, as here, emergency first responders
rushed into the fray, despite the danger.
As we approach Thanksgiving, all of those
charged with responding in emergencies
police officers, firefighters, EMTs, emergency
room workers, National Guard members,
emergency management officials deserve
our heartfelt thanks.
In Lancaster County, they respond to shootings, domestic violence incidents, building
fires, vehicle fires and crashes, floods, chemical and carbon monoxide leaks, all manner of
problems that would have most of us running
in the opposite direction.
East Petersburg Borough Councilman Todd
Weiss participated in a firefighter training
simulation that required him to venture into a
dark, smoke-filled building. As he wrote in an
op-ed for LNP last month, he lasted just a few
seconds before he had to get out.
In addition to the usual crises for which they
train, emergency responders also now have to
be prepared to respond to terrorist attacks.
Lancaster County isnt a likely terrorist target, though as Randy Gockley, director of the
Lancaster County Emergency Management
Agency, told LNP last week, You just dont
know in this day and age.
We have to prepare for any potential situation, whether its a rural area or an urban
area, he said.
So the South Central Task Force, an initiative launched by Gov. Tom Ridge in 1999, and
of which Lancaster County is a part, is prepared for a terrorist attack, as unlikely as it
may be.
And the men and women who would be
called upon to respond are ready and, most
amazingly to the rest of us, willing to do so.
That willingness is why they deserve more
than just our thanks. If theyre ready to risk
their lives for us, we need to be willing to compensate them or, should the worst happen,
their families for what they do.
Thats the gist of the argument of the 9/11
responders, who are seeking, under the proposed Zadroga Act, a guarantee of ongoing
medical care and monitoring for injuries and
illnesses resulting from their response to the
9/11 attacks; and they want victims and their
families to receive a similar guarantee.
The bill has 256 co-sponsors in the U.S.
House; among them is Republican Rep. Pat-

FIND MORE ONLINE

rick Meehan, who represents the 7th Congressional District, which includes some of
the easternmost municipalities in Lancaster
County.
Both Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. are co-sponsors in
the Senate. Republican presidential candidate
Sen. Marco Rubio also is a co-sponsor.
But Republican Rep. Joe Pitts, who represents the 16th Congressional District, which
includes most of Lancaster County, is not.
Three Republican lawmakers have introduced HR 3858, which would reauthorize
the September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund for five years, at a level critics say is inadequate. It would draw from a criminal forfeiture fund to put $2.77 billion toward the
victims fund; the rest of the money would go
to other victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
Pitts and the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, on which he sits, have released for
discussion a draft of a separate bill that would
provide for a five-year extension of health care
coverage for 9/11 first responders and survivors.
Pitts, in a statement, said he supports extending the authorization of the World Trade
Center Health Program. But he added: Any
reauthorization, just like any other bill, ought
to be fiscally responsible. I support a reauthorization that maintains Congress Constitutional power of the purse and that is fully offset by cuts in other government spending.
We understand the need for fiscal responsibility. But we already incurred a debt to
the 9/11 responders and their families. And
that debt has to be paid, no matter what, and
without subjecting the 9/11 responders to the
uncertainty of a legislative debate every five
years.
A similar debt is owed to the families of two
Lancaster County firefighters, Keith Rankin
and Ed Steffy, who both died in the line of duty
about four years ago.
The federal Public Safety Officers Benefits
program, managed by the U.S. Department
of Justice, is meant to pay each family of an
officer killed in the line of duty a little over
$300,000.
The Rankin familys application was recently approved after a four-year wait. The Steffy
family still is waiting.
Those who put their lives on the line for us
shouldnt need to beg for us to provide the care
or compensation theyve been promised.
And neither should their families.

bit.ly/ZadrogaAct | bit.ly/HR3858CompensationAct | bit.ly/LancasterCountyPrepared

bit.ly/FirefightersCompensationLNP

CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
THE WASHINGTON POST

Obamas reaction to Paris

leaves Europe on its own
WASHINGTON Tell
me: Whats a suicide
bomber doing with a
passport? Hes not going
anywhere. And, though
Im not a religious
scholar, I doubt that a
passport is required in
paradise for a martyr to
access his 72 black-eyed
virgins.
A Syrian passport was
found near the body
of one of the terrorists. Why was it there?
Undoubtedly, to back up
the Islamic State groups
boast that it is infiltrating operatives amid the
refugees flooding Europe. The passport may
have been fake, but the
terrorists fingerprints
were not. They match
those of a man who just
a month earlier had
come through Greece on
his way to kill Frenchmen in Paris.
If the other goal of
the Paris massacre was
to frighten France out
of the air campaign in
Syria the way Spain
withdrew from the Iraq
War after the terror
attack on its trains in
2004 they picked the
wrong country. France
is a serious post-colonial
power, as demonstrated
in Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic
and Mali, which France
saved from an Islamist
takeover in 2013.
Indeed, socialist
President Francois
Hollande has responded
furiously to his countrys
9/11 with an intensified
air campaign, hundreds
of raids on suspected
domestic terrorists, a
state of emergency and
proposed changes in the
constitution to make
France less hospitable to
jihad.
Meanwhile, Barack
Obama, titular head
of the free world, has
responded to Paris with
weariness and annoyance. His news conference in Turkey was
marked by a stunning
tone of passivity, detachment and lassitude,
compounded by impatience and irritability at
the very suggestion that
his Syria strategy might
be failing.
The only time he
showed any passion was
in denouncing Republicans for hard-heartedness toward Muslim
refugees. One hundred
and twenty-nine innocents lie dead, but it
takes the GOP to kindle
Obamas ire.
The rest was mere
petulance, dismissing
criticisms of his Syria
policy as popping off. Inconveniently for Obama,
one of those popper-offers is Dianne Feinstein,
the leading Democrat on
the Senate Intelligence
Committee. She directly
contradicted Obamas
blithe assertion, offered the day before the
Paris attack, that the
Islamic State (aka ISIL)
was contained and not
gaining strength. I have
never been more con-

cerned, said Feinstein.

ISIL is not contained.
ISIL is expanding.
Obama defended
his policy by listing its
multifaceted elements.
Such as, I hosted at
the United Nations an
entire discussion of
counterterrorism strategies and curbing the
flow of foreign fighters.
An entire discussion,
mind you. Not a partial
one. They tremble in
Raqqa.
And We have mobilized 65 countries to
go after ISIL. Yes, and
what would we do without Luxembourg?
Obama complained of
being criticized for not
being bellicose enough.
But the complaint is
not about an absence of
bellicosity but about an
absence of passion, of
urgency and of commitment to the fight. The
air campaign over Syria
averages seven strikes a
day. Seven. In Operation
Desert Storm, we flew
1,100 sorties a day. Even
in the Kosovo campaign,
we averaged 138. Obama
is doing just enough in
Syria to give the appearance of motion, yet not
nearly enough to have
any chance of success.
Obamas priorities lie
elsewhere. For example,
climate change, which
he considers the greatest
threat to our future.
And, of course, closing
Guantnamo. Obama
actually released five
detainees on the day
after the Paris massacre.
He is passionate about
Guantnamo. Its a great
terrorist recruiting tool,
he repeatedly explains.
Obama still seems to
believe that even as
the Islamic State has
produced an astonishing
wave of terrorist recruitment with a campaign
of brutality, butchery
and enslavement filmed
in living color. Who can
still believe that young
Muslims are leaving Europe to join the Islamic
State because of Guantnamo?
Obamas other passion
is protecting Islam from
any possible association
with violent extremism. The Islamic State
is nothing but killers
with fantasies of glory.
Obama can never bring
himself to acknowledge
why these people kill
and willingly die: to advance a radical Islamist
millenarianism that
is purposeful, indeed
eschatological and appealing enough to have
created the largest, most
dangerous terrorist
movement on Earth.
Hollande is trying to
gather a real coalition
to destroy the Islamic
State, even as Obama
touts his phony 65. For
11 post-World War II
presidencies, coalition leading has been
the role of the United
States. Where is America today? Awaiting a
president. The next
president.

n Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for The Washington

Post; Twitter: @krauthammer

LNP | LANCASTER, PA

OP-ED/LETTERS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

E3

Letters to the editor

LETTER POLICY

No, a tree is not an act of

bigotry, but the responses of
those who declare this to be a
Christian country, expecting
everyone to get into the
Christmas spirit, and reacting
intolerantly when we dont,
may very well be.

Veterans Day event

good for children
RABBI JACK PASKOFF
MATTERS OF FAITH

Saying Happy Holidays

does not a war on
Christmas make
Let me be clear. I dont drink coffee. Ive had
one cup in my whole life to keep me awake
during a three-hour class in rabbinical school
30 years ago, and even with abundant milk and
sugar, I couldnt transform it into something I
considered palatable.
I wouldnt be able to distinguish Starbucks
from any other brand, and it would take a lot
for me to pay attention to the design of that
coffee companys cups. With that in mind, I
need to say that I am dismayed by this idea of
a war against Christmas because Starbucks
chooses another design for its seasonal cup,
or because someone might simply wish a
Happy Holiday instead of assuming everyone is Christian and wishing a Merry Christmas.
Its hard to believe that there is a war on
Christmas when one-sixth of the year is
devoted to merchandising for Christmas, and
just less than that to Christmas music on the
radio. I have never seen a church boycotted on
Dec. 25, or bricks thrown through windows
of homes in which trees were visible to the
outside.
On the other hand, how does a non-Christian
child respond when wished a Merry Christmas by an unknowing, well-intended store
clerk? (Is a Christian child really confused or
offended by being wished a Happy Holiday?)
Teachers routinely assume that a 7-yearold Jewish child can and wants to be singled
out to answer questions about the finer
points of Jewish belief and practice. No
Christian child would be asked that. (Feel
free to substitute Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu for Jewish. Dont even get me started on
the Muslim child in public school who, every
number of years, must endure holiday food
celebrations yes, latkes included while
he or she is fasting for Ramadan.)
If you walk into the Supreme Court building
in Washington at this time of year, you will
be greeted by a multistory Christmas tree. If
there is a menorah or a symbol of any other
faith, it is dwarfed by the tree. The odd juxtaposition of the tree in the building that to me
represents the First Amendment is striking.
(Constitutional scholars, rest assured I am
familiar with the Supreme Court decisions on
this matter. My reaction is purely a visceral
one.)
In 1790, George Washington had a correspondence with the Jews of Newport,
Rhode Island. In a letter to that community,
Washington, echoing a previous letter he
had received from the Jews there, wrote, It
is now no more that toleration is spoken of
as if it were the indulgence of one class of
people that another enjoyed the exercise of
their inherent natural rights, for, happily,
the Government of the United States ... gives
to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no
assistance. Granted, a personal letter from
the president does not constitute law, but it
hopefully reflects an attitude and represents
the country accurately.
No, a tree is not an act of bigotry, but the
responses of those who declare this to be a
Christian country, expecting everyone to get
into the Christmas spirit, and reacting intolerantly when we dont, may very well be.
And here comes a Jew quoting Christian
Scripture. In the Gospels, Jesus comments
on the most important religious principles by
which a person should live. He immediately
returns to the teachings of Judaism with which
he was raised. He talks about the oneness of
God and the commandment to love God (citing
Deuteronomy), and the mandate to love our
neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus). I have to
wonder, if those are truly the most important
teachings, would Jesus really have cared about
the design of a coffee cup?
To me, this season is a time to reflect on
miracles and light, to enjoy family, to eat and
drink (probably to excess), and hopefully to
encounter God in meaningful ways. It is a time
to bring peace, warmth and joy to the poor, the
oppressed and the lonely. I hope we can all keep
this in mind as we celebrate Thanksgiving, perhaps the most American of all holidays, and as
we move into the winter holidays for Christians
and Jews.
May it be a joyous and meaningful season for
all.

n Jack Paskoff is rabbi at Congregation Shaarai

Shomayim in Lancaster. He also is a correspondent

for LNP. Email him at jpaskoff@shaarai.org.

JESSICA KNAPP

n Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters must include an

address and telephone number for verification purposes. Letters
should be limited to 250 words and on topics that affect the public.
Letters will be edited for grammar, clarity and length. Only one letter
per writer per month will be published.
How to submit letters:
Email LancasterLetters@lnpnews.com
Fax 399-6507
Mail to Letters, c/o LNP, P.O. Box 1328,
Lancaster, PA 17608-1328

On behalf of the Veterans

Honor Park of Lancaster
County, I was honored to participate in the 2015 John R.
Bonfield Elementary School
Veterans Day celebration in
Lititz.
The administration, teachers and students chose to
build this years celebration
around the mission of the
planned park, which is Honoring Veterans Past, Present
and Paying Forward to the
Future.
Together, the Bonfield
students, staff and families
raised an astonishing amount
of money for the parks future construction in Warwick
Township. All of us associated
with this important project
are extraordinarily grateful.
Our gratitude, however,
extends beyond the funds
raised.
While the Bonfield event
wonderfully recognized the
sacrifices all veterans in attendance have made for our
liberty, in my view the principal beneficiaries that day
were the children gathered
in the gymnasium with the
vets.
The educators at John
R. Bonfield, and at schools
throughout the county with
similar programs, have chosen to teach their children
early on that at least one clich rings eternally true: Freedom is not free.
C. David Kramer
Chairman
Veterans Honor Park
of Lancaster County
Lititz

A utopia nobody
wants to live in
Imagine my surprise to see
my home and the homes of
my neighbors spread across
the front page of the Sunday
LNP, Nov. 8, under the banner Still sprawling! So our
neighborhood is the poster
child for what is wrong with
development in Lancaster
County?
The idealists at Lancaster
County Planning Commission envision a utopia in Lancaster County, where everyone lives in densely packed
mixed communities containing single homes, duplexes,
townhomes, and apartments,
all clustered together with
commercial centers providing
walk-from-door-tostore services.
So hows that working out?
Area developers are having
a difficult time selling units
in such communities. And
there is a reason most of
them wait until most of the
homes in the communities
are sold before building the
towering apartment buildings that overshadow the
homes. As the commercial
centers take shape, they produce plenty of walk-fromdoor-to-store shopping
as long as the shop you are
looking for is a pizza shop, a
Chinese restaurant or a nail
salon.
We and our neighbors built
homes in our neighborhoods
because that is where we
wanted to live. We are very
happy here.
The reason developers
must beg for buyers in their
utopian villages is very
simple: That is not where
people want to live. Perhaps it would be better if the
Lancaster County Planning
Commission would let the
people decide the types of
communities in which they

want to live; the free market

certainly produces a better
result than utopian government mandates.
Robert Weaver
East Lampeter Township

Want war? OK but

only if were all in
There is currently a great
hue and cry of lets go to war
sentiment. Before we make
such a radical decision for
entering into another neverending war, I heartily suggest
a first step re-institute the
draft.
The Selective Service,
intact but dormant, must
be reopened. Instead of a
standing army of volunteers,
we need universal conscription. Instead of an extremely
small percentage of soldiers
defending us from perceived
threats, we must all get involved.
To allow everyone to take
part, existing draft rules
must be changed, with every able-bodied male and
female ages 18 to 26 entered
into a lottery. All ways of
avoiding service must be
eliminated, with no lame
excuses Im in college,
Im from a connected family (wealthy or political).
Lets go to war? Then involve the entire country. Sons
and daughters serving equally, instead of a few while the
majority have no skin in the
game. Other measures must
be instituted to implement
our patriotic fervor:
The 1 percent with most
of the nations money must
show their fervor by bearing
a commensurate amount of
the cost.
Taxes must be raised to
ensure all monetary military
costs incurred are covered.
Sacrifices must be made,
with rationing reintroduced.
Starting with gasoline and
quickly going on to include
many necessities to support
the full-out fight for which so
many are easily, loudly and
cavalierly asking.
Let all of this begin to happen. Then, I will begin to believe our nation really wants
the bellicose solutions so
many are advocating.
Robert J. Andrews
Lancaster

VA needs
a shake-up
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be turned
upside down like a snow globe
and shaken vigorously. When
returned upright, the organizations structures should remain
but the flakes will then be seen.
The VA should be entirely
run by veterans. I also believe
every veteran with a disability
rating should be delivered a
monthly case of MRE (meals
ready to eat) rations.
Brent Becker
West Cocalico Township

Pa. driving age

should be 18
Im writing because I feel
the driving age in Pennsylvania should be 18. I feel a
16-year-old person isnt responsible enough to get behind the wheel.
If the Legislature wont
pass such a law, then licensed
drivers should be with any
drivers under 18 to make
sure they pay attention and
dont do any texting while
driving.
Lawmakers need to look
into this.
Mark Mousley
Lancaster

SPECIAL TO LNP

Explaining the strict

refugee-vetting process
Gov. Tom Wolfs plan to continue to allow
Syrian refugees to resettle in Pennsylvania
has sparked outrage among a large number
of Pennsylvanians. They fear that, by allowing Syrian refugees to settle here, we will
allow terrorists affiliated with the Islamic
State group into our communities.
To me, this is heartbreaking. I have spent
many years working with refugees, both in the
United States and in a camp overseas. I love the
refugees I work with. I also love my country
and value the safety and security of all the
incredible people who call America home.
What I have found, in the days following
the attacks in Paris, is that most people dont
understand what a refugee is or how the U.S.
resettlement process works. Its complex,
lengthy and exceptionally thorough. It has to
be, in order to ensure that the integrity of this
life-changing program isnt compromised.
Our resettlement program gives new lives
and hope to people who have been persecuted
and traumatized beyond anything most of us
could ever imagine.
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention,
the United Nations states that a refugee is
a person who fears persecution because of
his or her race, religion, nationality, political
opinions or membership in a social group. The
refugee must be outside his or her country of
origin because of this persecution, and the persecutor must be the government or an agent
that government cannot or will not control.
Syrian refugees are vetted more than any other group that arrives in the United States. While
all refugees undergo extensive background
checks, the small number from Syria who are
pursuing resettlement in the U.S. are subject to
additional layers of security screenings.
The resettlement process begins with a
referral from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That
agency first must determine that individuals
or families qualify as refugees under international law. Next, a Resettlement Support Center, which contracts with the U.S.
Department of State, compiles the refugees
personal data and background information for the security clearance process. This
information is presented to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, whose agent
interviews the individual or family.
With the information collected by the
Resettlement Support Center, the extensive security clearance process begins. This
includes a series of in-depth interviews, during which the refugee applicant must prove
that he or she has been persecuted in his or
her home country. Background checks are
performed in the applicants home country,
and other security clearances are conducted
to search for information in U.S. law enforcement and intelligence databases. The State
Department, the FBIs Terrorist Screening
Center, the Department of Defense, and the
Department of Homeland Security all participate in screening refugees prior to their
arrival in the U.S.
Fingerprints are collected and scanned
through criminal databases, and biographical
information (such as past visa applications and
international travel) are scrutinized to make
sure the applicants story is cohesive.
Another interview is then performed by a
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
officer. Based on information gathered
during the interview, plus what is in the
refugees case file, the officer determines
whether the applicant is a good candidate for
resettlement to the United States. If yes, this
conditional approval gets referred to the U.S.
Department of State for final approval. Once
an applicant receives an approval from the
Department of State, he or she undergoes a
rigorous medical screening conducted by the
International Organization for Migration.
After passing the medical screening, being
assigned to a resettlement agency, attending a
cultural orientation and undergoing a final security check, refugees are finally able to travel
to the country they are being resettled.
Fewer than 1 percent of the worlds refugees are approved for resettlement to a third
country. The vast majority of refugees end
up staying in their country of asylum (the
country to which they fled after leaving their
home country). To me, this staggering statistic illustrates just how difficult the resettlement process is.
The United States and Lancaster County
have a proud history of welcoming newcomers. The U.S. resettlement program embodies the image of the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the stranger, the tired, the poor, the
huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
And thats exactly who Syrian refugees are
the tired and the poor, who are yearning
for a chance to breathe free in a land where
they are no longer subject to the horrifying
cruelties perpetrated by the Islamic State.
So, those of you who are urging our government to close our borders to Syrian refugees,
I beg you to look at the facts. Take some time
to reflect on what it means to be an American, and remember the principles on which
our great country was founded.

n Jessica Knapp is the coordinator of the Lancaster

County Refugee Coalition, which was founded by

Church World Service, Franklin & Marshall College and
Lutheran Refugee Services.

E4

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Smith-Wade-El

Hardy
Continued from E1

self-proclaimed Islamic
terrorists, and it never
will.
Islamophobia only
further fuels the cause
of the terrorists and
their message that they
are fighting a war being
waged against Islam.
According to the FBI,
nearly 14 percent of the
victims of all reported
anti-religious hate
crimes in 2013 were
Muslim (60 percent of
the victims were Jews).
The numbers are
rising. Since the Paris
attacks, there have
been several incidents
of hate-filled attacks
against Muslims. A

Pitts
Continued from E1

oil.
No wonder then that
people are fleeing the
region in what is the
largest migration since
World War II. In just the
past two months, more
than 250,000 people
have flowed into Germany and France. In
all of last year, 662,000
people applied for asylum in Europe; this year,
600,000 already had
applied before this latest
influx.
The United States will
take in 70,000 refugees
from around the world
in 2015, a much smaller
number. Nearly half of
these are from East Asia.
Thus far, we have
taken in about 1,800
Syrians. Of these, only
53 have been Christians, and only one
Yazidi, even though

Moine
Continued from E1

to come.
The next day, we
talked about the outpouring of expressions
of sympathy for the Parisians and France: the
French colors on public
monuments in the U.S.;
football players holding the French flag high;
observed moments of
silence to honor the victims; President Barack
Obama talking about
the values of the French
Republic Libert,
Egalit, Fraternit; and
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerrys public allocution of the same in
perfect French. Deeply
and truly touching!
And now, as I am writ-

LNP | LANCASTER, PA

we should. We should
do good when we have
the opportunity, not
despite fear or terror,
but because of it. When
we do not, people suffer,
people die.
U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia once quoted Cicero,
Inter arma enim silent
leges In times of
war, the laws are silent
when he warned that
we would one day repeat
the errors of the Japanese internment.
If we cast aside our
laws in times of crisis,
then what are we? This
is perhaps what unsettles me most about the
declarations of governors who would ban
Syrian refugees from
their states, or lawmakers who suggest the
National Guard could

gather them up and

return them.
To deny refugees the
right to live freely once
admitted to the country
is contrary to our nations fundamental laws
and principles, including the Equal Protection
Clause.
A bill passed overwhelmingly on Thursday in the U.S. House
would require the heads
of the FBI and the
Department of Homeland Security, and the
director of national
intelligence, to certify
that each Syrian seeking
to resettle in the U.S.
would pose no security
threat. This adds an
onerous and unrealistic
step to the process. Perhaps thats the intent.
Islamic State presents
a legitimate security
threat, its true, and we
should endeavor to protect ourselves against
its malicious aims. But
that threat is unlikely to

come from the rigorous and lengthy refugee

resettlement process.
It would be much
easier for a would-be
terrorist to simply apply
for a tourist visa and,
if he wished to remain
in the country under
legal auspices, apply for
asylum then.
The Tsarnaev brothers, who perpetrated
the Boston Marathon
bombings, were the
children of asylum seekers who first entered
the U.S. on a tourist visa.
Every one of the 9/11
terrorists entered our
country via student,
business or tourist
visas.
There is no evidence
that any of the people
involved in the Paris
attacks were refugees. Agence-France
has reported that the
passport found near one
of the suicide bombers was stolen or fake.
It bore the name of a

deceased soldier in the

Syrian Army, which is
fighting Islamic State.
Last week, according to
The Washington Post,
Serbian police arrested another man at a
refugee camp carrying a
passport with the exact
same details.
German Interior
Minister Thomas de
Maziere has suggested
that this passport is a
false trail designed to
engender hate and fear
against Syrian refugees,
whom Islamic State
has called sinners for
fleeing its regime. The
twisted hope is that
the refugees, and other
Muslims worldwide,
will find themselves
confronted with ignorance and hate, bolstering Islamic States
recruiting efforts.
If refusing refugees
is exactly what Islamic
State wants, maybe we
should stop playing
into the groups hands.

Perhaps we should take

our cue from Paris, and
France, broadly. While
France has vowed to
take the fight to Islamic State, continuing
airstrikes and angling to
organize a coalition of
military action against
it, French President
Francois Hollande
affirmed his nations
commitment to take in
30,000 refugees.
Frances grandest act
of defiance is to continue living, to honor its
commitments, and to
show that the principles
of its democracy cannot
be uprooted by the attacks against it.
America and Lancaster
County both have strong
traditions of welcoming refugees, supported
by lawmakers, the faith
community and other
ordinary citizens. Would
that we not betray that
tradition now.

mother picking up her

children in Canada was
attacked; a Quran was
torn apart, smeared
with feces, and left at a
mosque in Texas.
Islamophobia does
not stop Muslims from
being Muslims. Bearing
the burden of Islamophobia, most Muslims
will continue with their
prayers and their ordinary way of life.
Islamophobia is the
very thing desired by
Islamic State. Hurting a
woman wearing a hijab
(a veil or headscarf ), or
bullying and scorning a
Muslim child does not
win any fight against
Islamic State. The best
way to take a stand
against Islamic State is
for all of us to showcase
the collective conscience

of the human race by our

actions.
I have been influenced by compassion
shown me by people
from all walks of life
and all religions. I was
born to a two-room tin
house in Bangladesh.
My parents were finishing up their university
studies, so my Muslim
grandparents looked
after me and showed
me deep love that still
abides in me.
When my first-grade
teacher in Zimbabwe
yelled at me in frustration because I did not
know how to recite The
Lords Prayer before
lunch, a little girl next
to me showed me what
to do using rudimentary
sign language. A Roman
Catholic friend let me

stay in her apartment

for a week while I looked
for a job in New York
City. A stranger told me
about an apartment in
her neighborhood that
turned out to be the one
I could afford.
There are countless more examples of
compassion and camaraderie shown to me by
people. I never asked
them their religion, and
they never asked me
mine, but I am grateful
for their humanity and
compassion.
I earned my U.S. citizenship through my education and profession
chemical engineering
and computer science
after a rigorous process
of security checks.
Refugees escaping
from Syria and Islamic

State terrorism will go

through checks that are
even more thorough.
The governors of more
than half of Americas
states now say they will
refuse to take in refugees from Syria not
unlike like Qatar, United
Arab Emirates, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Oman
and Bahrain. Some
political leaders are
suggesting that Muslim
refugees in particular
should not be allowed
into the United States.
If only these proposals
would secure us peace in
this life, or the next.
When I was in that
first-grade class in
Zimbabwe, I was cast as
an angel in the Nativity play. I had learned
some English by then,
and I still remember the

words I had memorized

to the song we sang
about a Middle Eastern
couple seeking refuge
with their newborn child
in a stable.
The song started with
the words, There isnt
any room, and you cant
stay here. There isnt
any room for strangers,
but ended with these
words: Come in from
the night to a stable so
bare, which is full of
warmth and friendliness
and safe from dangers.
There is a little room for
strangers.
Compassion, courage
and freedom are the
resounding voices of the
United States of America. That is what I hear
permeating through the
darkness of Islamophobia.

these groups are specifically targeted and most

persecuted by Islamic
State terrorists. The
Obama administration
has announced plans to
surge admissions of
Syrian refugees into the
United States, including
admitting at least 10,000
through the end of September 2016.
Unfortunately, the
debate about how to
respond to this crisis
has been made into a
false dichotomy, caricaturing two extreme
positions: one that is
anti-immigrant, and one
that would write a blank
check to the world.
The last thing we need
is a debate between
straw men. But thats
just what President
Barack Obama has
fostered. He has lashed
out against those who
disagree with him, even
making the convoluted
argument that they are
un-American, and

helping Islamic State by

making America look
anti-Muslim.
I can think of 47 House
Democrats who would
probably take exception
to that characterization.
I joined with them and
a veto-proof majority of
the House on Thursday
to make the refugee
resettlement process
safer by requiring comprehensive background
checks of refugees from
Iraq or Syria before they
can be admitted into
the United States, and
certification from the
FBI and Department
of Homeland Security
that they do not pose a
threat.
People of goodwill
can still come here, but
we just want to be sure
that they are who they
say they are, and that
the American people
are safe. The refugee
resettlement process
can take between 18
months and two years to

complete.
Would-be terrorists
are more likely to use
faster means of getting
here, such as our highly
porous Southern border,
or coming in on student
visas as the 9/11 hijacker
Hani Hanjour did. (The
other 9/11 attackers entered the United States
on either business or
tourist visas.)
But it is simply a fact
that terrorists already
have been able to
disguise themselves as
refugees. For example,
al-Qaida members and
Iraqis Waad Ramadan
Alwan and Mohanad
Shareef Hammadi successfully immigrated to
Kentucky as refugees
before being arrested
by federal law enforcement in 2009.
Last week, I signed
on as a co-sponsor to
legislation that would
prioritize persecuted
religious minorities
in the asylum process.

Contrary to the presidents harsh rhetoric

against his fellow
Americans, prioritizing helping persecuted
minorities is not a religious test. As I have told
the State Department,
these groups ought to
be given priority simply
because they are in the
most danger. In fact, it

is federal law right now

that persecuted-religion
status be taken into
consideration in asylum
eligibility.
Ever since William
Penn, Pennsylvanians
have been generous and
welcoming to oppressed
minority groups. We can
be welcoming, and still
be prudent.

ing, the American flag is

at half-mast!
Later, I could not help
remembering other
times when the feelings
had been quite different. When France, for
instance, did not join
in the attack against
Saddam Hussein in Iraq
in 2003. French wine
flowed down the gutters in American streets,
and some in Congress
dubbed french fries
freedom fries. Over
the years, though, my
compatriots, too, have
uttered their share of
blanket statements
blaming all Americans.
Why such a difficult
friendship? And why
do we need to be hit by
tragedy to be reminded
that we are friends?
After 9/11, on Sept. 13,

2001, Le Mondes frontpage editorial headline

read Nous sommes tous
Amricains (We are all
Americans). In January,
after the attack on the
French magazine Charlie Hebdo, the hashtag
Je suis Charlie was all
over the Internet. And
now the present outpouring of support!
Other memories came
to mind: overwhelming emotions in the
American cemetery in
Normandy. Yorktown,
Virginia, in October
1981, when I fleetingly
saw U.S. President Ronald Reagan and French
President Francois
Mitterrand standing
side-by-side for the
bicentennial ceremonies
of America celebrating
with its oldest ally a vic-

tory over its closest ally!

That is what Obama
called France on Nov. 13
our oldest ally.
Not the closest. Yes, I
know; the British still
are.
Two countries separated by a common language, George Bernard
Shaw is credited with
saying of the Americans
and the British. Could it
be that what separates
the Americans and the
French is their pursuit of
common ideals through
different paths?
Indeed, we may very
well parse the world
around us with different
tools and find different
answers to address similar or shared challenges,
but when it comes to
fundamental values
about what it means to

be a human being on
this one planet, we are
very close. That is why
I believe we are in this
fight together.
In the meantime,
while we are still struggling to define exactly
who the enemy is, how
to name it and how to
fight it, could we all
agree to leave our Muslim neighbors alone
and spare them additional harassment?
The deranged, coldblooded criminal
elements mowing down
innocent civilians regardless of their religion
do not deserve the label
they claim. They are not
fighting for a religion or
for an ideology. Somewhere in the Middle
East, there are intelligent and ruthless people

pulling the strings. I

believe that power is
their real motivation.
They pursue their goal
beneath a mask, draping
themselves and their
assassins in the mantelet of a religion with the
help of a few religious
fanatics in their midst.
Casting it as a religious
war or clash of civilizations is such an efficient
way for them to thrive
and grow. They do so every time they can fan the
flames of resentment.
These age-old recipes
have worked again and
again throughout history.
And that is why we
should all be careful in
the U.S., in France, in
Europe and the rest of
the world not to fall
into that trap.

Continued from E1

ourselves overwhelm
our better nature.
In 1942, after Pearl
Harbor, we forced more
than 100,000 JapaneseAmericans into internment camps, ripping
them from their homes
and businesses, placing
them behind barbed
wire and labeling them
potential enemies.
In 1939, Cuba, Canada
and the United States all
denied entry to the fleeing Jewish passengers
aboard the St. Louis. The
ship returned most of
them to continental Europe, where more than
200 of them would die.
The facts of the Syrian
refugee crisis are not
the same, but the moral
principle is. When we
can help or protect
people, regardless of religion or national origin,

PERSPECTIVE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

French soldiers cross the Champs-Elysees Avenue

Monday passing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

OPINION

LNP | LANCASTER, PA

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

E5

Sunday Conversation
EUGENE ROBINSON
THE WASHINGTON POST

Paris attacks put nary a dent

in Republican fields bombast

Obamas dithering sparked the refugee crisis. Hes

now using a smattering of refugees as a cynical prop
to prove hes the hero of his own morality tale.

JONAH GOLDBERG
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

Obama playing out the clock

in fight against Islamic State
Youre all suckers.
That has to be what Barack Obama
is thinking as the country falls for his
head-fake.
Lets recap:
George W. Bushs surge reduced the
Islamic State groups precursor, alQaida in Iraq, to a paltry 700 members, according to CIA Director John
Brennan. Its membership has grown
by something close to 4,000 percent.
As it metastasized, Obama yawned,
calling it the JV team.
When Syrian President Bashar
Assad violated Obamas red line,
Obama yawned again, and the refugee crisis was born.
By August 2014, Obama was grudgingly conceding he needed a new
counterterrorism strategy. One tactic
he ruled out: building up pro-American Syrian forces. He told New York
Times columnist Thomas Friedman
that was an unworkable fantasy.
Then, within weeks, Islamic State
beheaded American journalist James
Foley. On vacation in Marthas Vineyard, Obama denounced the murder.
Within eight minutes of that statement, he was on the golf course. He
later conceded that was a mistake.
I should have anticipated the
optics, he told NBCs Chuck Todd.
Part of this job is also the theater of
it. ... Its not something that always
comes naturally to me. But it matters.
Lets put a pin in that.
On Sept. 10, 2014, Obama gave a
televised White House address in
which he finally laid out his Islamic
State strategy. Key to his plan: bringing the fantasy of training Syrian
rebels to life.
This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one
that we have successfully pursued
in Yemen and Somalia for years, he
said with theatrical confidence.
By late January, the Yemeni
government i.e., our partners on
the ground had collapsed. But the
White House continued to insist that
the strategy was a success.
In September, our effort to train
rebels in Syria was exposed as a
boondoggle of epic proportions. A
$500 million program had produced
four or five fighters, according to
Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of U.S.
Central Command.
When 60 Minutes correspondent
Steve Kroft asked about this spectacular failure last month, Obama replied that he always knew it wouldnt
work.
Steve, this is why Ive been skeptical from the get-go about the notion

that we were going to effectively create this proxy army inside of Syria,
Obama said.
A day before the Paris attacks, the
president told ABCs George Stephanopoulos that Islamic State had
been contained inside its borders.
This was shortly after Islamic State
had murdered hundreds of Turkish,
Russian, Iraqi and Lebanese civilians
all of whom lived outside those
borders. Then, the next day, Islamic
State slaughtered more than 100
people in Paris.
That brings us to Mondays press
conference in Turkey. For a moment,
it seemed like the press had finally
grasped the staggering failure of
Obamas strategy. One reporter after
another asked the dyspeptic and
defensive president why we werent
making better progress against these
rapists, slavers and murderers.
They repeated the question
because Obama kept saying his
strategy was working. He described
the slaughter in Paris as the kind of
setback we should expect from a
successful strategy. Even liberals
were aghast at Obamas failure to appreciate the theater of his job.
Oh, but he gets it. Put aside the fact
that his strategy was always theater to begin with. His phony war on
Islamic State was always more about
seeming to do something while running out the clock until his successor
inherits his mess.
Obama knew the media would take
their eye off the ball if he distracted
them with a passion play about GOP
bigotry. He ridiculed Republicans for
their cowardice and cruelty in raising
concerns about the potential security
threats posed by Syrian refugees.
Never mind that such caution is
informed in part by warnings from
the heads of Obamas CIA, FBI and
Department of Homeland Security.
Obama ludicrously mocked the
idea that we prioritize Christian
refugees victims of Islamic State
genocide as an Islamophobic
religious test that was not American, even though his administration
already gives special preference to
Yazidi refugees from Iraq and federal
law requires taking religion into account when screening refugees. For
Obama, politics ends at the waters
edge, unless hes speaking abroad.
Obamas dithering sparked the
refugee crisis. Hes now using a
smattering of refugees as a cynical
prop to prove hes the hero of his
own morality tale. The reality is that
hes a villain in his own theater of the
absurd. And were the suckers in the
audience falling for it.

n Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a senior editor of Na-

tional Review and a Tribune Content Agency syndicated columnist. Twitter: @JonahNRO

WASHINGTON The impact of

the Paris attacks on the Republican
presidential race may turn out to
be minimal, especially because the
establishment candidates arent
making any more sense than outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
Theoretically, a deadly rampage
by Islamic State terrorists ought to
make Republican voters think twice
about presidential hopefuls who
have zero experience in government
and no expertise in foreign or military affairs. But the contenders who
hold or held high office are offering
little more than bellicose rhetoric
and overblown pledges of toughness.
Not that its easy to match Trump
for hyperbole. Refugees from Syria
are now pouring into our great country, he said on Twitter. Who knows
who they are some could be ISIS.
Is our president insane?
But Chris Christie, who should
know better, went not just over the
top but around the bend. He said all
Syrian refugees should be turned
away, including orphans under 5.
As governor of New Jersey, maybe
hell order a security sweep of the
Garden States elementary school
playgrounds.
For the record, Syrian refugees
are not pouring into the United
States. Theres hardly even a trickle:
Since the civil war began, slightly
more than 2,000 refugees have been
admitted. Compare our meager total
with the estimated 2 million Syrians taking refuge in Turkey or the
hundreds of thousands flooding into
Europe. Boosting the number to
10,000 over the next year, as Obama
plans, would still mean that the U.S.
contribution to alleviating one of the
worst refugee crises since World War
II doesnt amount to a drop in the
bucket. I could describe in detail the
lengthy pre-entry vetting process,
which can take up to two years, but
why bother? As far as the GOP field is
concerned, generosity of spirit is for
losers.
Carsons response to the Islamic
State is, unsurprisingly, vague and
off-the-wall. He wrote an op-ed in
The Washington Post calling for a
military strategy virtually identical
to President Obamas, augmented by
a multi-pronged communications
strategy that leverages our strengths
in media production and messaging,
combined with cutting off traditional
access routes to social media for
radical Islamist groups. He seems to
mean we should create a really cool
smartphone app.
But Marco Rubio, too, called for

a dramatic escalation in socialmedia warfare. He said Sunday that

where we strike them, we capture
or kill their leaders, we videotape
the operations, we publicize them,
because this is a group that heavily
uses propaganda to attract fighters
and donors from around the world.
And John Kasich proposed a new
government agency to promote
Judeo-Christian Western values to
the world.
Sen. Lindsey Graham had the best
response to Kasichs brainstorm: I
think that was the Crusades.
Jeb Bush, the ultimate establishment candidate, seemed to sense
both opportunity and peril. The
United States should not delay in
leading a global coalition to take out
ISIS with overwhelming force, he
said in a speech Wednesday. Militarily, we need to intensify our efforts in
the air and on the ground.
Coming from anyone else, those
words might strike Republican voters as tough and sober. Coming from
a candidate named Bush, however,
they could portend a geopolitical
blunder of historic proportions.
Perhaps that is why Bush is vague
on how many U.S. ground troops he
would send and what they would do,
saying he would rely on the judgment
of the professional soldiers advising
him.
If that sounds familiar, its because
all the establishment GOP candidates pledge to rely on the generals to tell them how many troops
to send. Obama says he follows the
generals counsel, too.
Rogue candidate Trump, of course,
needs no advice. He says he will
bomb the (expletive) out of (the Islamic State), applauds the fact that
Russian President Vladimir Putin is
doing the same and vows to destroy
the oil fields that provide much of the
Islamic States wealth.
He says all of this in typically
bombastic fashion. His claim that
he will win by sheer force of
personality is deeply unserious. But
the actual policies he rants about
may resonate with GOP voters:
Rely on air power, get other countries to put troops on the ground,
take no chances with refugees, talk
really tough.
Two recent polls of New Hampshire Republicans, conducted since
the Paris attacks by WBUR of Boston
and Fox News, show that Rubio may
be doing a little better in that state
and Carson a little worse. But Trump
remains far ahead of the pack. Plus a
change.

n Eugene Robinson is a columnist for The Washington Post. Twitter: @Eugene_Robinson

(Even) the contenders who hold or held high office

are offering little more than bellicose rhetoric and
overblown pledges of toughness.