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.
I admittedly tend to be a very reactive comment maker and I fully recognize that most of my energy is directed at addressing other comments in these threads. But I think this article deserves a comment as to both the service it provides by making factual information, and by the informed analysis of that information it presents.
We can talk all we’d like about the solutions that have been paid little more than lip service, but the fact of the matter is that Israel has created a society that cannot sustain itself. Apartheid cannot sustain itself.
This actually great for Israel because it strengthens the ties between Israel and other countries.
Oh, by all means, keep right one exacerbating this situation, if you think it’s so awesome for Israel. I encourage it. :)
From that comment I will presume you’re one of those who haven’t participated in Israel’s brain drain.
It’s most definitely not good for a country when the educated people start to leave. Left behind will be the Palestinians, a whole bunch of angry settlers and Russian gangsters like Lieberman.
RE: “This actually great for Israel because it strengthens the ties between Israel and other countries.” – eee
SEE: US heartland wakes to ‘colonial project’
by PHILIP WEISS16 MARCH 2010
March madness. Indiana University is promoting a prof’s statement that in Israel, US is funding “colonialism… rejected everywhere in the world.” Amazing that this is on the Indiana University website. Note that Rafael Reuveny is former IDF and came here years ago (university bio – includes: Technion, Israel Institute of Technology B Aeronautical Engineering, six [...]
LINK – link to mondoweiss.net
” 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.”
Ahh, wouldn’t that be loverly! And as far as the manifold crimes committed by Israel, and by Israelis? Is that all wiped out by the Israelis becoming nice to the Palestinians?
Phil, you’re still trapped in the Blue Box. So what happens if Israel is actually asked to account for and pay for its crimes? You start telling us that will get in the way of the Israeli change of heart you see as a real possibility?
I know Phil, I know, Jews bring such light, such knowledge to the world and are generally so cute, that they are exempt from all normal requirements of humanity.
You’ll never change. Sad.
And I don’t remember the “gentile governors of the west” “opening their hearts”. As I remember it, they had to be forced into every concession.
What the hell is wrong with you? You are going to hang on to that Zionism, that dream of getting something, in fact everything, for nothing.
And what the hell makes you think the Judaism practised by Israelis is conducive to opening the heart? It’s been shut for three generations, what the hell is going to open it now?
And I still don’t understand on what basis you think Jewishness is a good foundation for governing a country.
As Israeli education continues to decline across all fronts, these figures only give hope that the nation will all that much sooner collapse under the weight of its own fanaticism.
“extend all the privileges of Jews to Palestinians.”
Sorry Phil, I didn’t reckon with Jewish scientific, Nobel-Prize genius. You have obviously discovered a way to bring people back to life. I should have known.
I guess now the only problem is to get the Israeli medical establishment to extend this resurrection technology to the Palestinians, huh. Maybe if the Pals beg hard enough, the Israelis might give it to them.
Anti-Zionism from the perspective of Jewish exceptionalism and superiority! I love it! How can you lose? I know, I know, you have no intention of losing, and you don’t know what it’s like, and you see no reason to start now, just for the sake of anti-Zionism.
MOOSER- Geez, why so harsh on Phil? I think his call for Jews to acknowledge their current position of strength, rather than eternal victims, and to extend to “the other” the same rights they have, is a positive thing. It won’t solve everything, but it is an important step. Sure, it won’t change elite behavior, but until you have some change of attitude among ordinary Jews, you will likely not get anywhere. I think this website has done a great job in bringing up and discussing pertinent issues regarding Israel/Palestine that you won’t find elsewhere. No easy task in our society. Some may find Phil insufficiently radical, but who is going to fund a radical website? Besides, Phil’s softer language goes down more easily than radical polemic, hence, can be more persuasive. I can’t help but feel that this is why these trolls keep appearing to attempt to subvert this website, which some find threatening. If not, why would they bother?
Well, Mr. Weiss, is this the Israeli heart you mention?:
“New Israeli military order on ‘lawful permits’ would seem to allow expulsion of all West Bank Palestinians”
Admittedly, this “show of heart” came after your post about the academics. But, I cannot help but wonder at the persistence of your delusion that there is a effective humane racially-neutral residue within Israeli society/government that offers any hope to non-Jews, especially Arab non-Jews, who are subject to the powers of Israel. We hear the pitiful bleating of the few humane in Israel, who are weak, who are battered, and who are despised.
Imagine what will happen when Israel attacks Lebanon again. This time when Israel attacks civilian infrastructure as they have repeatedly promised, I expect Hezbollah rockets to reach Tel Aviv. Note in the last war that Hezbollah only started their rocket attacks after the IDF started destroying Lebanese civilian infrastructure. I expect the same pattern to play out.
How many high tech companies are going to start deciding that Israel is not a good place to do business because its political establishment refuses to stop ethnic cleansing and colonization, refuses to make a just peace with its neighbors, and keeps picking fights with them? Rockets on Haifa make great victimhood propaganda, but rockets on Tel Aviv will affect the bottom line, and the Israelis know it.
oops, forgot a sentence …
“…and keeps picking fights with them? How many more highly trained Israelis, educated at great expense to Israeli taxpayers, will decide that a better life lies elsewhere? Rockets on Haifa make …”
Any statistics on brain migration in to Israel?
I teach management accounting at an MBA program now, and our biggest question is “what does this data tell us?”
There was a variance between expected cost of materials and actual. Did that result from increased freight costs, suppliers breaking contracts, change in the spot market price of commodities, poorly designed options hedging (that the purchasing department is responsible for), or abrupt change in product configuration causing losses on contracts not used for production purposes (that the marketing and/or quality departments are responsible for)?
What does the data tell you? What decisions can be made from that data?
Most of the “brain” that goes to Israel is dead, like the braindead fanatics who leave Oakland California and go to a colonial settlement to find acceptance and a sense of belonging. Just like gangsters feel a sense of belonging in prison, when they are surrounded by thugs and criminals. The same goes for the Yeshiva drones who know nothing but religious nonsense and have zero education in science or literature.
I think Witty should move there too. With his children.
I think Witty should move there too. With his children.
——————-
Move where? To Israel? Oh, no! Enough of them in our lands for goose sake!
Avi,
Your response is an indicator.
What does the data tell you? In fact, not just your gullible digestion. You think that you are such an avid skeptic? Question alreadyl
“Any statistics on brain migration in to Israel?”
There are somewhere between 700,000 and 1 million Israeli Jews living outside the country, many of whom are unlikely to return. Since 2007, emigration has been outpacing immigration in Israel. According to scholars John Mueller and Ian Lustick, “a recent survey indicates that only 69 percent of Jewish Israelis say they want to stay in the country, and a 2007 poll finds that one-quarter of Israelis are considering leaving, including almost half of all young people.” They report, “in another survey, 44 percent of Israelis say they would be ready to leave if they could find a better standard of living elsewhere,” and “over 100,000 Israelis have acquired European passports.” These figures are a bad omen for Israel.
link to amconmag.com
“over 100,000 Israelis have acquired European passports.”
From Mossad?
(And yes, I am pissed off about it. I have two passports. One is Australian, since I am an Australian, and the other is British, since I was born in Britain. And both are now compromised.)
I do not know about brain migration, but I am convinced about brain destination in Israel –
FINAL DESTINATION
The good hearted and hopeful Phil is looking for a silver lining where there is none to be found. Israel’s a lost case. A house infested from the roof to the foundations with termites cannot be salvaged, renovated or fixed up. It must be torn down and rebuilt.
couldn’t care less what happens to israel.
I AM concerned that israelis may displace Americans in American universities, research centers, government.
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Perhaps one of the best assessments I have seen was done in the light of education in Israel, with the bane of an occupational military. What are the goals of a system that prizes and pushes a murderous colonial settler occupation, and does this do to the education process?
“I’d like to welcome you to Sparta. Fascistan is here.
Yedioth Aharonoth devoted its first four pages Friday to the result of a poll commissioned by the Israel Defense Forces and the Education Ministry.
“The combat-ready and draft-dodging test,” the headline blared. Underneath it were lists of high schools across the country measured by the rate of service in IDF combat units among high school graduates.
Sde Eliyahu’s school and the Hispin yeshiva high school are at the top of the heap in a country where combat is tops, my brother. In most other countries around the world, including not-so-enlightened ones, schools compete with one another over educational and intellectual achievements of their graduates as well as their future success in society. In Israel, success is measured by combat service.”
NATIONS USED TO EXPLOIT AND DESTROY PEOPLE
“Arguing that a Jewish Majority in Palestine was not important, Einstein dismissed the goal of a Jewish state: “The state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and narrow-mindedness. I believe it is bad.”" EINSTEIN ON POLITICS
YES, IT IS THE SAME WHEREVER MILITARISM IS PUSHED
Can someone explain to me about haredim and work?
If I convert, can I claim that work is against my religion, and demand that everyone else support me?
And if so, can anyone direct me to a Haredi rabbi for conversion?
Sounds like a wonderful life.
Even God worked and rested only on the seventh day.
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