THE MYTH OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC THREAT

The real number of Arabs living beyond the Green Line is 1,400,000. According to the Interior Ministry’s population registry, 385,000 Jews live in Yehuda and Shomron, including another 300,000 in East Jerusalem. In other words, the number of Jews living in the “territories” is already about half the size of the Palestinian population. The growth spurt in the Jewish settlements is staggering. During the second intifada, only 190,000 Jews lived in Yehuda and Shomron. That shows a doubling in population size within a decade. 

The Knesset recently welcomed Mr. Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, as its honored guest. When he was invited to deliver a speech in German before the Israeli Parliament, Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin immediately announced that he is boycotting the event. “It is not appropriate that the language used to send millions of Jews to the camps should be heard in the Knesset,” said Feiglin. Feiglin apparently understands what most of his parliamentary colleagues do not. When the President of the European Parliament makes an anti-Semitic speech from the Knesset rostrum, it is the most blatant trampling of this body’s last remnant of Jewish pride.

In making an observation after the fact, we find that it wasn’t just the language, but the content that hasn’t changed. This was an anti-Semitic diatribe under the guise of protecting the human rights of Arabs. The European Parliament that automatically votes against Eretz Yisroel at every opportunity has no right to preach to us about the value of human rights. If human rights really were a top priority concern of Mr. Schulz’s, he should have used the opportunity to cry out against the murderers – and not against the murdered.

The legislative body that allows terrorists such as Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh to join its ranks is the same one that assiduously crushes all that is holy in Israel. This is the legislature that passed – democratically, of course – the wretched proposal on expelling Jews from Yamit and destroying the settlement there; the same legislature that passed the expulsion from Gush Katif; the same legislature that has breached the wall of Judaism, establishing that a Jew is even someone who went through a non-halachic conversion. And now, this same legislative body has become a platform for anti-Semitic speeches in German, attacking the victims instead of the aggressors. 

THE REBBE: TEAR DOWN THE KNESSET

On the 7^th of Nissan 5741, after the signing of the Camp David Accords, the Rebbe said that there must be “And he shall tear down the house” – tearing down the Knesset and establishing a new one in its place. “Those same people who want to give away portions of Eretz Yisroel – regarding which it is said ‘I give you for a heritage’ – sit in the Knesset. Therefore, there must be ‘And he shall tear down the house!” said the Rebbe. 

“The current Knesset is not the true house, as in this house sit Communists, Moslems, and Christians – to the point that there are those who want to hand over all of Eretz Yisroel! They cry out that everything is appropriate for peace, even giving the whole country away.

“Throughout the history of the Jewish People, there has never been a situation in which Jews actually proposed doing something so dreadful as giving away portions of Eretz Yisroel that belong to them – into the hands of the Gentiles! While Jews have gone through much suffering throughout the generations, there has never been suffering such as what has occurred since Camp David!”

At the beginning of that sicha, the Rebbe explained that the dangerous proposals on giving away land are not only contrary to Jewish law, they are totally illogical: “Relinquishing territory from Eretz Yisroel is not only against halacha, it also contradicts simple logic, even the intellect and emotions of the animal soul. No normal human being willingly jumps into a fire or lets someone cut his throat; giving away parts of Eretz Yisroel is like jumping into a fire.”

The actions of the current Knesset are also against all logic. Why would a country let its accusers stand before its national legislature and smear it with false charges?

People have claimed throughout the years that the state of Israel is “the first flowerings of our redemption” as an aftermath to the tragedies of the Holocaust. Thus, the destruction of European Jewry became the sole basis for their claim to Eretz Yisroel. Zionism had been founded entirely upon the principle that the Jewish People live in their homeland in order to prevent another Holocaust r”l. A representative of the German people standing at the Knesset rostrum and making an anti-Semitic speech in German is proof of how the Zionist movement is coming to an end. 

THE THREAT NO LONGER EXISTS

The political left keeps trying to frighten us by declaring that if we don’t reach an agreement with the Arabs, the demographic threat will consume us. Yes, the same left-wing that continues to encourage control over Tel Aviv by work émigrés from Mauritania and the Sudan is scaring us with the demographic threat. Recently, there has been a grass-roots campaign to encourage Netanyahu in his efforts to achieve a diplomatic agreement. “If there will be no agreement, there will be no Jewish state here,” the lefties claim.

However, the facts prove an entirely different reality. Historians studying the demographic issue, such as Yoram Ettinger and Dr. Guy Bechor, have discovered that the demography in Eretz Yisroel is working specifically to our advantage. The findings show that even women who currently are not Torah observant are having more children than Arab women. If Arab leaders once said that they would defeat us through the higher Arab birth rate, today, this threat has been removed and there is no longer a need to worry about it. The Jewish family unit continues to blossom – in all sectors, ultra-Orthodox, religious, and secular – while the Arab family is gradually shrinking.

Even Arab emigration from Eretz Yisroel to countries such as the United States, France, and other European nations is growing. Several years ago, the nationalist camp claimed that we have to create a Ministry of Emigration Affairs and throw them out of the country. There were also those who demanded that we do this by coercion, and the Rebbe himself even suggested giving them “a few liras” and a one-way ticket to a neighboring Arab country. However, the public at-large – and especially its leaders – didn’t want to hear of it. Instead, they virtually begged them to stay – in order ch”v not to leave a bad impression before the world. As for those Arabs who did leave, even they received personal requests from Jewish settler leaders to come back and live in Eretz HaKodesh. The popular slogan “Sorry We Won” was a living testimony to the conduct of those who didn’t want the facts to confuse them under any circumstances, or else we might end up with a Jewish state here.

In a recent article with Dr. Guy Bechor, he explained why the demographic threat is no longer a factor: 

“No one knows how many Arabs live in the territories liberated in 1967, as the Palestinians misleadingly inflate their statistical information (including those who emigrated twenty years ago, while residents of East Jerusalem are counted twice – by both Palestinian and Israeli authorities). However, in October 2012, local elections were held in the Palestinian Authority (without Gaza and Yerushalayim), and the number of eligible voters – eighteen years of age and older – was 515,000. If you add a similar number of young people, we come to a little more than a million people. Adding East Jerusalem, about 1,400,000 is the real number.

“And what is the number of Jews in this same territory? About seven hundred thousand. According to the Interior Ministry’s population registry, 385,000 Jews live in Yehuda and Shomron, including another 300,000 in East Jerusalem (meaning that the Jewish and Arab populations are practically equal for the first time). In other words, the number of Jews living in the territories is already about half the size of the Palestinian population for the same region. The growth spurt in the Jewish settlements is staggering. During the second intifada, only 190,000 Jews lived in Yehuda and Shomron. That shows a doubling in population size within a decade.”

WILL ‘RAWABI’ BECOME A JEWISH CITY?

The truth is that even the Arabs understand that the best option for them is found outside of Eretz Yisroel. Those who want to be “people of the big wide world” find an excellent place for themselves in countries such as France and the United States, while those prefer to continue living in an Arab culture go to one of the twenty-three Arab states. The best proof of this is Rawabi, the first Arab city established in Yehuda and Shomron, designed to be a future home of the Arab population living beyond the Green Line. It turns out that the Arabs aren’t all that happy about living in high-rise apartment buildings with elevators. They aren’t buying houses in the town’s new and growing residential projects.

By the way, this city is being built on land used for yishuvim, causing serious harm to the settlement communities. However, none of this seems to bother those who have designated the area for the Palestinians, and they show no concern for the damage done to the Jewish population. In the meantime, the city has apparently become an integral part of Israel’s sovereign territory and is being populated specifically by Jews. For their part, the Arabs are leaving the region, as they aren’t thrilled about living in a modern city. As a result, ‘Rawabi’ may soon be transformed into the newest Jewish city of Yehuda and Shomron.