See here.
As Gary Leupp writes:
"Helen Thomas referred to countries with historically large Jewish populations. Lots of Israelis are in fact leaving Israel for those countries. About 14,000 Israeli Jews left annually between 1990 and 2005. According to a 2007 poll, half of Israeli youth between ages 14 and 18 express the desire to live outside of Israel, which they see as having a bleak future. A huge percentage of Israelis has or plans to inquire about obtaining foreign nationality; many Europeans offer this generously to descendents of citizens who can prove their ancestry. The Berlin synagogue has 12,000 members and is flourishing. There are now maybe 55,000 Jews in Poland, many emigrating from Israel following Poland’s admission to the EU."
Looks like Curzon was right about the Balfour Declaration: the "advanced and intellectual" European Jews would hate living in the Middle East. They cannot wait to go home. In a desperate attempt to shore up an non-Arab majority, although Muhammad is now the single most common name for newborn boys within Israel's pre-1967 territory, Israel is flying in Russians who insist on taking the IDF Oath on the New Testament alone, Russian Nazis, East Africans who have invented a religion based on the Old Testament brought by Christian missionaries, Peruvian Indians, anyone at all. No wonder that German Jews feel less and less affinity with the place.
Islam? Who mentioned Islam, as such? Ask the Holy Land's Latin Catholics, Melkite Catholics (one of whose Archbishops was aboard the flotilla), Maronite Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Anglicans and Lutherans what they think of the Zionist project. Ask them why they founded, and continue to give considerable support to, the PFLP and DFLP. And ask the Catholics and Orthodox of Lebanon why they offer prayers during the Mass and the Liturgy for the success of Hezbollah, which is allied to several of their own political parties.
In reality, the bulwark against Islamist expansionism was the old Levantine civilisation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Druze, with Arabic as its lingua franca and with its de facto capital at Damascus. But a dreadful wound was inflicted on it in 1948, from which it has still begun to recover hardly, if at all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
True.
ReplyDeleteMany Azeri Jews who immigrated to Israel after the collapse of the USSR and the Azeri-Armenian conflict have moved back to Azerbajan because the place is safer, more independently prosperous and many are making a killing in the oil industry.
David,
ReplyDeletePeople migrate all over the place.
For example, 427,000 people emigrated from the UK in 2008. That is, I believe, a much higher (i.e. about 4 times higher) rate of emigration than is occurring from Israel.
About 14,000 people migrated to Israel in 2009, which pretty much offsets emigration from the country.
The more telling number about people's investment in the future is the number of children people are having. I believe the fertility rate in the UK is about 1.95 - and that includes for immigrants who have a much higher rate than do the "indigenous" British population. Israel's fertility rate, for its Jewish population, is about 2.72. That, I suggest to you, is a vote for Israel's future, contrary to what Professor Leupp thinks and shows his statistics to be phony.
The rest of your comment makes no sense. Israel wants to be multi-ethnic and multi-religious. It just wishes for Jews to play a leading role. That is roughly the same as is the case with respect to the English in the UK. So, that there are people of Russian background who are Christian - a tiny group, as it were - is not a problem except to people who want to define Israel to their own biases about what they think Jews want or should want.
"Israel wants to be multi-ethnic and multi-religious. It just wishes for Jews to play a leading role."
ReplyDeleteI've heard it all now.
David,
ReplyDeleteYou may have heard it all but, having known quite a few Israelis and, on top of that, having read what the Israeli government's position on immigration is, what I write is factual.
In any event, Professor Leupp's take is a fantasy that is based on misusing statistics. His is typical of those who will say anything negative about Israel, whether or not it makes any sense. Why you choose to associate your views with his is beyond me.