More on Israel in crisis. David Horovitz, the editor of the Jerusalem Post, and a leading Israel lobbyist, publishes a soulless list of Israeli employment and education statistics compiled by an Israeli-American scholar, Dan Ben-David, that show that: Educated Israelis are fleeing the country, and that the growing Palestinian minority is not as educated as its Jewish counterpart, and the Palestinians are way underemployed.
The significance of these figures is, that it doesn’t matter if you talk about the Green Line or the ’48 territories, or the occupied territories, Israelis must learn to live with Palestinians. This is our Jewish test in the 21st century, to reckon with our power. To quote the great Meir Ariel song about the bifurcated soul of Israel/Palestine: "At the end of every sentence you say in Hebrew sits an Arab with a Nargilah."
Until Jews come to terms with their other, there will be no progress. Israelis must open their hearts, and emulate the gentile governors of the west, and liberalize their society and extend all the privileges of Jews to Palestinians. It’s the only way. Imagine if Israel could be a light unto the world?
Here is Horovitz’s analysis [emphases mine]:
For every 100 British academic scholars hard at work in Britain, the figures showed, 2.1 British scholars had moved to the US. For France, the number was 2.9. For Italy, 4.2. For Canada, where cross-border movement is a two-way street, the number is 12.2. And for Israel? For every 100 Israeli academic scholars hard at work in Israel, a staggering 24.9 have moved to the US.
…Turning to employment, Ben-David again unveiled a picture still grimmer than conventional wisdom holds. Focusing on men aged 35-54, “those in the age group who have no excuse for not working,” he showed nonemployment in the OECD averaging 11.9%, with Spain the worst afflicted at 14.5%. InIsrael, the rate is 18.9%.
The most troubled sectors, as is widely known, are the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors: some 27% of Israeli Arab males and a staggering 65.1% of haredim in that age group aren’t working.
And here’s where Ben-David’s economically and socially terrifying peek into the future really begins to resonate. Because if you look at who the Israelis of tomorrow are going to be, you realize that, as things stand, we are becoming a country of more and more nonworkers. In 1960, 15% of kids going into primary school came from the Arab and haredi sectors – the sectors so blighted by not working. By the 1980s, Arabs and haredim were up to 26% of new primary school kids. In 2000, that figure hit 40% and, as of 2008, it had shot up still further, to 48%. By 2040, according to current projections, Ben-David said soberly, “78% of primary school enrollment will be haredi and Arab. If we don’t grapple with these sectors, we’re goners.”
…The employment rates of Israelis aged 29-54 with a university degree contrast utterly with all the negative statistics. Among Arab women in that age range who don’t finish high school, fewer than 10% have work, but among Arab women with a degree, the figure is 70%. And it’s around 90% for Arab men and for non-haredi Jewish men and women.
Put simply: Employment is a function of education. Get a degree, get a job. Improve education here, and you raise growth, tackle poverty, raise incomes.
