More on Reverse Aliyah. This is from the Forward in June:
A recent survey by the Jerusalem-based Menachem Begin Heritage Center found that 59% of Israelis had approached or intended to approach a foreign embassy to ask for citizenship and a passport.
My emphasis. Holy smoke! Author Yossi Alpher at first says it's because "you can’t easily get the Diaspora out of the Jews" then admits the obvious: "Despite the aspirations of Zionism to create a safe haven for the world’s Jews, Israel is hardly the safest place in the world. Can we blame Israeli parents for wanting their children to have another option, an insurance policy..."
Can we blame not just militant enemies, but Israel's militant policies for making Israel too tough a place to live? Let me add that I've only been to the place for ten days, and I found Israel beautiful and impressive, but cleansed of Arab life, but it would seem Israel needs another Herzl, to legitimize anti-Zionist migration. What does this all mean? Is one-state inevitable? Where is the analysis of this amazing fact? The great editor Gene Roberts used to say that Big stories don't break, they ooze. This one is oozing. Are Jews just quietly leaving the party? The same way Norman Finkelstein says that young Jews are gettin off the Zion bus?
Another comment: Alpher is an Israeli who worked for Barak. Let's understand what this means. Americans like the amazing David Bloom, a pro-Palestinian Jew, don't get invited to write for the Forward, but Israeli Zionists are in there all the time. (Thanks to Dennis Drew for the tip.)
Because of the dual-citizenship issue, it is very hard to get accurate demographic data on what's going on in Israel. Draw your own conclusions on why the data is not being published.
This 2004 Zionist study concluded that The Jewish State is withering on the vine–
link to aisisraelstudies.org
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"The scarcity of information regarding emigration is mainly due to political and social sensitivity of the subject. … And how long must a resident reside abroad before any country should consider him or her an emigrant?"
Um, most Israelis need second passports in order to travel abroad, because Israel is not universally recognized.
"Can we blame not just militant enemies, but Israel's militant policies for making Israel too tough a place to live?"
Can we blame dissenters for ignoring history?
There is also the return to Israel phenomena, that you'd have to research to make any relevant conclusions.
Of the four Israeli ex-patriots that I've known well enough to know their story, three have returned to Israel.
I was held in a Bombay holding cell for a day in 1986 because I had an Israeli stamp on my passport.
That was the cold war time though, when India was more communist than capitalist.
That wouldn't happen now. Now Israel is hero as a common opponent of pan-Islamics.
It's not the travelling abroad we're discussing, Shii, but the staying there.
Interesting, D.
3518 people in 2003 emigrated from Israel, out of a population of 6,000,000.
That's .0506% of the population.
On the hand, we only allow 10,000 per year from Mexico, a population of 106 million.
That's .0094% of the population.
I read a lengthy English-language Israeli report that said 80% of the Israeli population is now Russian. It was also complaining about some policy change that Avrum Berg (Avraham Berg) enacted in the 90s wherein Russians who were not Jewish could emigrate as well. It contributed tremendously to the rise of anti-semitism in Israel that is reported overseas but rarely here.
I dont have a link. But I saved it and now can't find the doc.
Whites in South Africa wanted to make sure they had European (etc) passports as well. It's part of the deal for the dominant ethnicity in a racist settler state.
If an Israeli wants to emigrate to the United States, how difficult is this? I have read interviews with Israelis who talk about immigration to the United States as something they could easily do at any time if they were so inclined. I'm not talking about people with dual citizenship. I'm talking about Israelis.
Are the rules different for Israelis than they are for citizens of other countries?
Are the rules different for Israelis than they are for citizens of other countries?
Yes. For ordinary folk they are. Business visas are usually arranged via attorneys who specialize in that.
For ordinary Mexicans, it can take years. I know some for whom it was four (extremely FAST) to over ten years.
For ordinary Canadians, fast is four months. Two years is not uncommon, sometimes three or four.
For ordinary Malaysians with a proven and documented business reason, a couple of weeks.
For ordinary Israelis, they make an appointment at the Embassy and they get it on the spot, or within a week.
I saw a poll of Palestinians that showed even higher numbers of them want to emigrate. Take for example, the late poet Darwish who was a "proud Palestinian", and even had a house in Ramallah, but ended up his life outside the country.
There used to be queues round the block for Polish embassy, from Israelis seeking to get polish passports. Now that section has been massively expanded and can cope, but apparently the application numbers keep raising.
At the same time, there has been massive investment in properties and businesses in Poland from Israeli based companies and individuals.
The campaign to regain possession of german and jewish properties in Poland is also gathering speed, although it is nowhere near as advanced as campaign to regain possession of Roman Catholic Church properties.
Curiously, while repossession of properties is openly and passionately discussed on the pages of newspapers, the subject of repossession of jewish property is reported but not discussed.