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Subject: 
Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Tue, 6 Jan 2004 10:51:34 GMT
Viewed: 
318 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Lindsay Frederick Braun wrote:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Arthur wrote:
I found this a good read:

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1115643,00.html
Babies who threaten to topple Israel:>  "At the heart of all this is simple
mathematics. Forecasts from the United States' Population Reference Bureau
show Israel's population doubling in 45 years, that of the West Bank in 21
years and that of Gaza in 15 years. In other words, Palestinians in the West
Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and Israeli Arabs will outnumber the Jewish
population by 2020. This has led commentators such as David Landau, editor
of the English-language edition of the newspaper Ha'aretz, to warn of a
'cataclysmic' demographic challenge if Israel is to retain its identity as a
Jewish democratic state."


There is hope for the Palestinians after all!

Scott A

(BTW: Some would argue that Landau has misused the word "retain").

This sounds remarkably like the natalist scares/forecasts of interwar Europe
(and, in fact, even before WWI) that raised a cry over German fecundity that
would destroy France and England; it also isn't unlike dire predictions
concerning the rise of the Hispanic plurality in the US and the "threat to
English-speaking, Protestant values" I keep hearing about.

The Republicans in Northern Ireland are also said to be playing the waiting
game.

Somehow, it never
quite comes to that--because something always intercedes, or the demographic
shift reconciles itself to a new synthesis.  In a way the argument is
bankrupt just because the world won't be the same in even 21 years, so it's
kind of silly to be projecting linear demographics that way.

I'm not sure how silly it is:
+ Israel’s population growth has not been internal.
+ The current state of affairs must be acting as a disincentive for the
"Diaspora" to move to Israel.
+ The birth rate is higher in the Palestinian community.

I'm sure I read that Sharon has also acknowledged this as an issue.

Personally, I find the insistence on Israel being a "Jewish state" a little
questionable; I don't feel Scotland must remain either "white" or "Christian"...

Scott A



Just my two cents.

LFB



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
 
dr_scott_arthur@yahoo.co.uk (Scott A) wrote in <Hr2E5y.17H7@lugnet.com>: (...) Many Jews feel that a Jewish state is the only place on earth where they can be reasonably safe. A feeling that's not wholly unwarranted, given details like the WW2 (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Babies who threaten to topple Israel?
 
(...) This sounds remarkably like the natalist scares/forecasts of interwar Europe (and, in fact, even before WWI) that raised a cry over German fecundity that would destroy France and England; it also isn't unlike dire predictions concerning the (...) (21 years ago, 6-Jan-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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