A group of prominent American Jews released a letter last week,
calling on painful compromises for peace. The sacrifices they
envisioned potentially include hundreds of thousands of Jews leaving
their homes and livelihoods behind, being uprooted and relocated, all
for the sake of a Jewish majority in Israel. Similarly, in April 100
prominent American Jews signed a letter
to Prime Minister Netanyahu also calling for the proverbial “painful
sacrifices” for peace. Apparently, such painful concession letters have
become a trend.
This
summer, thousands of American Jews are making precisely such painful
sacrifices for peace. To preserve Israeli democracy, they will uproot
themselves, leave everything behind, and move. They do so voluntarily,
before the situation has reached a crisis. They do not await or expect
compensation from the government.
These are the Jews making aliyah from the U.S this summer. Of course, this is not the “painful sacrifice” the signatories had in mind.
The “demographic argument” for territorial
concessions holds that there are too few Jews in the areas under Israeli
control. If American Jews worry about this, the most direct and
positive solution is increasing the number of Jews in the area.
Fortunately, America has some five million Jews, even a small portion of
whom would be a real help.
On the other hand, expelling Jews from their
homes in the West Bank, where many have lived for generations, will be
economically and emotionally devastating for Israel. Moreover, it does
not change the number of Jews between the river and the sea, and thus
leaves Israel open to secessionist demands on behalf of Israeli Arabs
in, say, the Negev and Galil. It is now clearer than ever that the
Palestinian authorities continue to claim to represent Israeli Arabs as
well– witness the demand for the release of Israeli Arab murders as a
down payment on negotiations. Thus unlike expulsions may simply be
rearranging the demographic deck chairs on the Titanic.
Aliyah would steer away from the iceberg.
Adding even 150,000 American Jews would be a major boost to Israel. The
creativity and success of American Jews would give a massive boost to
the Israeli economy, and their very arrival would inject optimism and
momentum into the society. To be sure, American Jews would not radically
remake the demographic situation because of their extraordinarily low
fertility rate – the lowest of any ethnic group in the U.S. – but this
only emphasizes that American Jews are not well-positioned to give
demographic advice.
Obviously, one might think such a suggestion
is unrealistic. How can one expect 150,000 American Jews to leave their
lives behind to come to Israel – even if it is in the name of peace?
Sure, aliyah is a wonderful ideal, but for many people, it is just not
practical – they have jobs here, kids are in schools, their lives are
here. Just not practical.
Yes, moving 150,000 people is not reasonable,
realistic, or practical. So American Jewish leaders should not recommend
Israelis make the exact kind of “painful concessions” that they
themselves are unwilling to make.
Whatever one might think of the need “painful
concessions,” or the proper role of the Diaspora in Israeli affairs, on
this issue in particular, American Jews have no right to call for
Israelis to make painful sacrifices for peace – because they are
precisely the kind of sacrifices the former have, by definition, refused to make.
At the very least, one would wonder why
signatories of such letters, concerned as they are about Israel’s
demographics, do not as actively promote aliyah as they do expulsion.
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