Seth J. Frantzman
I keep hearing stories about how the problems in America will lead to “mass immigration” to Israel. Most recently the opposition leader Herzog claimed that Israel much get read for this “mass aliyah” from America.
Currently around 3,000-4,000 come a year from the US, and many of them eventually return eventually return.
But here’s the rub. Ostensibly the aliyah will be caused by rising anti-semitism, yet we also hear at many events and conferences that there is an increasing divide between the values of younger American Jews and Israel. Many of these potential immigrants, for instance, deeply oppose Trump and are active against racism.
Now wait a sec. So the narrative is that large numbers of increasingly liberal and left-leaning American Jews, intersectionality, safe spaces, micro-aggressions and all that, will come to Israel, a country that has official segregation in its school system. Not just official state educational segregation between Jews and Arabs, but official state segregation of religious and secular.
So those in the US who oppose the draft will come to Israel where there is a military draft.
So those in the US who oppose nationalism and chauvinism and are very much against Trump’s tough talk will immigrate to a country where almost every politician talks like Trump and where the kinds of speeches Trump gives would be consider tame.
Those who talk about white privilege, will come to a country that openly privileges one group over another and actually then bifurcates that group into different groups, each of which get different sets of privileges, and not to mention a country with 1,000 acceptance committees that openly and officially discriminate based on race, ethnicity, religion, class, background, etc?
They will move to a country where the price of a car is 50-100% more than America but where the median monthly income is 70% less ($1,294 compared to $4,328).
I find this unlikely.
But sure, let’s see 400,000 Americans arrive. And let’s see if they stay. If they come I hope they will finally elect people in Israel that will get rid of the segregated education and remove the racist, separation committees that allow for “separate development” akin to the things we saw in the Old South up until the 1950s. And maybe get rid of other major differences.
Oh, yeah, also in Israel you can’t intermarry, you are barred by from intermarriage outside your religion, because there is no separation of church and state, so Americans, sure, they will come to a country where many of them cannot get married because their parents are intermarried?
And I suppose they will find such things as the lack of free speech, or other lack of “civil rights” issues a bit disconcerting…
My guess? They stay in America and fight against racism in America and there will be an uptick in aliyah, It might even double, but not “mass”.
Seth J. Frantzman - author - analyst 