Aliyah And Yerida: Going Up And Going Down In Israel
By
Leonard Zwelling
In a recent edition of Danny Gordis’ podcast, Israel From The Inside, he discusses significant changes in who is coming to Israel (making Aliyah, going up) and who is leaving (Yerida, going down).
First, the very fact that there is significant Yerida is troubling for Israel’s future prosperity. Israel is a very small country of under 10 million in a very dangerous neighborhood, especially for Jews. In Israel, every person counts a great deal.
Second, a lot of the Yerida is by the most well-educated people in the country including many medical doctors and PhDs. Part of the reason is because these people can find work in Europe and the United States where the average Israeli may not be as mobile, especially if his or her only language is Hebrew. According to Gordis’ podcast guest, Israeli journalist David Rosenberg, the poor state of the Israeli educational system is part of the issue, too. There is also, the constant state of war in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and now Iran; the frequent recalls for redeployment service among former IDF members; the controversy about the state of the judiciary in Israel which consumed the country before October 7, 2023; and the expected direction of the current government and even of any alternative government post-election that is likely to continue the country on a war footing, expand the settlements, and never guarantee any security for Israelis from the threats surrounding the country.
I listened to this with interest as a recent young relative of mine went to Israel to consider making Aliyah and was home in 17 days. Life in Israel has become too difficult for most Americans. It certainly would be for me.
I sat with all this for a while. What would I like to see happen if I lived in a country surrounded by hostile forces, many violently anti-Semitic, where a large percentage of the young men in my country (the Orthodox Haredi) were exempt from the military service to which the rest of the population accedes? Combine this with the continuing threat by the leadership to neutralize any checks on its power by emasculating the courts and I too might want to leave if I had a marketable skill like medicine, science, or biotech.
I then kept my thought processes working. Is Israel today like Great Britain in 1940, under constant siege by surrounding totalitarian forces? It has been 78 years now since the Arab population of the area formerly known as the British Mandate of Palestine has been at war with the Jews of Israel. This was not just “Palestinian Arabs” (in the past the native Arabs of what is now Israel were just called Arabs). It was Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, too, but Israel has good enough relations with these entities now.
Despite many opportunities to carve out an Arab state from land conquered by Israel in the 1967 War when the above three Arab nations tried to drive Israel into the sea, Palestinian Arab leadership has turned down every offer. The Arabs of the area had only one goal—kill Jews. As far as I can tell, that is unchanged. At what point do the Jews of Israel say, this turmoil that has become the normal state of affairs for our country is causing us to lose the best and the brightest among us? This will damage our economy, our health care system, our educational institutions, and our military. Perhaps it is time to do what Great Britain had to do in 1940. Should Israel attempt to end the threat to its people posed by the surrounding Arab nations and populations in the West Bank and Gaza? The world calls this approach genocide and ethnic cleansing. In Israel it’s called surviving.
I believe that had October 7 not occurred, Israel and Saudi Arabia would have struck a deal by now with Saudi Arabia signing the Abraham Accords, getting a security deal from the United States, and then having the Saudis insist on new Arab leadership in the West Bank and Gaza that would have moved the needle toward something like a Palestinian state.
Instead, Israel is stuck in a constant state of war, violence is on the rise in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, and significant numbers of the elite of Israel are looking to leave or have left. They have had enough. Their commitment to Aliyah may not be forever and even the Sabras (native Israelis) may be ready to leave. No country can prosper under these conditions.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is too committed to military action to solve this dilemma. War will not bring Israel peace. Israel cannot bomb itself into peace. It is only with new leadership in Israel and in Gaza and in the West Bank that there is any hope for peace. Should Netanyahu retain power and start a process that will lead to the annexation of Area C of the West Bank (where the settlements are) as well as the area known as E1, which if annexed would make forming a Palestinian state almost impossible, Yerida is likely to continue unabated.
Israel has to remain attractive to all Jews with the thirst to make their Zionism a true part of their lives. That is not the case now, but that ought to be the goal of the next Israeli government.
What is so interesting is the United States is also struggling with immigration (Aliyah) and forced emigration (Yerida). The dynamics are obviously quite different as Trump wants to keep many people out and deport even more. This is harming the United States through the loss of farm workers, restaurant workers, and construction workers, let alone highly -educated professionals who want to come here to work and contribute.
The similarity is that both the Israelis and the Americans need new leadership with bold visions for the future. The question is, despite the elections in both places, is this likely to happen?
