Hirsh Goodman (husband of New York Times reporter Isabel Kershner) is a liberal Zionist who moved to Israel from South Africa a long time ago. On Tuesday he has a book coming out called The Anatomy of Israel’s Survival, and in an interview in the Canadian pro-Israel newspaper the National Post, he hints that if things don’t work out the way he hopes they will (two-state solution), he’s outta here (h/t commenter longliveIsrael):
Q Where do you see Israel in 10 years?
A If I look at the trend, I think that Israel will be politically redefined. I think the issue of the ultra-Orthodox, in terms of how they relate to the state, will be in high gear toward resolution. I think in 10 years the IsraeliArabs will be the commercial bridge between the West Bank and Israel – if the issue is resolved – and if it’s not resolved there will be more Jews living on the West Bank than Arabs living in Israel and that will be a point of no return. We are at a tipping point. I am not an alarmist. It is just demography. And maybe that is why [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, and the last of the right wing in this country, are so hesitant about making peace. They want to protract things to this point, and the consequences of reaching that point to Israeli democracy, and to having a xenophobic Israel where Israel is the international pariah country, is a country many of us would not like to live in.
