© www.inminds.co.ukIsraeli Passport in flames
Hard-line Israelis reject the idea of reasonable compromises for peace, arguing that any significant concessions to Palestinian sovereignty would threaten Israel's security or the Zionist cause, but Lawrence Davidson notes that demographic trends, including a growing Jewish exodus from Israel, could have far worse consequences.If the historical goal of the state of Israel is to provide the world's Jews a secure national home, a place of refuge in a world of real or potential anti-Semitism, it seems to have failed.
It has failed not because this writer says so, but because an increasing number of its own Jewish citizens say so.
There have been studies originating both in Israel and abroad that show
"as many as half of the Jews living in Israel will consider leaving ... if in the next few years the current political and social trends continue." This finding is in addition to the fact that
yerida, or emigration out of Israel, has long been running at higher numbers than
aliyah, or immigration into the country.
The
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics states that as of 2005, 650,000 Israelis have left the country for over one year and not returned. The great majority of these were Jews. In addition,
polls show that at least 60 percent and as high as 80 percent of remaining Israeli Jews "sympathize with those who leave the country."
Among those who stay, there is the conviction that the safe thing is to have a second passport issued by the United States or a European country.
As the
Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy puts it, "if our forefathers dreamt of an Israeli passport, there are those among us who are now dreaming of a foreign passport."
Comment: In a response to two readers doubting these videos were from Libya, Susan Lindauer posted: