Conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel has made a name for herself fighting “radical Islam,” which to her is synonymous with any form of Islam.  For instance, in response to Osama bin Laden’s death, she wrote “One down, 1.8 billion to go… many of ’em inside U.S. borders.”  Regarding the teenagers murdered in last year’s massacre in Norway, she writes:

Now these kids’ families know what it feels like to be victims of the Islamic terrorists whose Judenrein boycotts and terrorist flotillas against Israel they support.

She refers to the victims, who were as young as 14 years old, as “hateful, privileged brats.”  Their crime according to Ms. Schlussel–some of them expressed support for Palestinian rights and boycotting Israel.

You would think that mocking murder victims and calling for genocide against Muslim men, women, and children would put Ms. Schlussel outside the boundaries of civilized conversation.  Her work might be appropriate for a neo-Nazi website like Stormfront (though I imagine they won’t have her since she purports to be Jewish), but not for the main stream media.  Unfortunately, Ms. Schlussel appears regularly in the New York Post and the Jerusalem Post, as well as other media outlets.

The thing about her is that not only is she hateful, but she is a liar.  When the facts don’t support her miserable view of the world, she makes up facts to help fuel her hate (and her readers’ hate).  This is certainly the case with TPS for Syrians.  She writes:

Barack Obama and Janet Napolitano just gave thousands of Syrian Muslims–all of them either sympathizers with Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood–permission to stay in the United States forever.

The Syrians in our midst–many of them here illegally–will now be untouchable by ICE (which isn’t arresting illegal aliens, anyway) for at least 18 months on the books.  But, as we know, in each case in which the U.S. has granted TPS for 18 months, the aliens got to stay forever.

And to add insult to injury:  these people, as with the Libyans and others who were granted TPS by Obama, will be able to work without restrictions in the U.S.–taking jobs from U.S. citizens.

Of course the first lie is that Syrians in America sympathize with Islamic terrorist groups.  There is no evidence what-so-ever to support this claim.  Indeed, the Syrians I have met in the U.S. oppose Islamic extremism and oppose the Assad regime (one of my clients–a medical doctor–was arrested and held in a torture prison on account of his opposition to the regime).

A second lie is that the Syrians, “as with the Libyans and others who were granted TPS,” will stay in the U.S. forever.  First of all, Ms. Schlussel is wrong (or more likely just made up a “fact” to suit her argument)–Libyans were never granted TPS in the United States.  Second, there is no reason to believe Syrians will stay here “forever.”  While TPS has been extended repeatedly for certain countries (mostly in Central America), that has not been the case for other countries, like Liberia, and–according to the Center for Immigration Studies (a restrictionist organization)–TPS for Sudan is winding down.

A third lie (and I simply don’t have time to address them all) is that Syrians in the U.S. are “untouchable by ICE (which isn’t arresting illegal aliens, anyway).”  In general, people with criminal convictions are not eligible for TPS.  Further, if a person with TPS commits a crime or if there is reason to believe that he is a security threat, he can–and probably will–be arrested.  Finally, contrary to Ms. Schlusser’s claim that we are not arresting illegal aliens, DHS has deported record numbers of aliens during each year of the Obama administration.

It’s too bad that Ms. Schlussel’s lies are able to distort the public dialogue on this important issue.  It’s also too bad that a person who claims to be the “granddaughter of immigrant Holocaust survivors” would perpetrate the same type of hatred and lies that led to the Holocaust.  I expect better from my fellow Jews.