Last week, 400 immigrants from North America arrived in Israel, the vanguard of the Nefesh B’Nefesh aliya program. While Israel remains in the throes of the worst terrorism in the country’s history, the largest North American aliya in Israel’s history touched down to a festive and excited welcome. For months, people in Israel have been talking about the impending wave of North American immigration.
One person who did not speak so excitedly about it is Tommy Lapid, the bombastic head of the Shinui party, and Israel’s single biggest anti-Semite. In a July 6 article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Lapid was quoted as saying, “Part of the problem is the character of the immigration from the United States is that it’s more Orthodox. We get very little support from the Conservative or Reform Jewish communities in the United States. So what you end up with is a
mushrooming native population of ultra-religious, followed by a migration of religious North American Jews who, quite frankly, we could do without. We can do without ultra-Orthodox Jews who do not recognize the Zionist state, do not join the army, and do not contribute a thing to Israel.”
Nefesh B’Nefesh did not differentiate between levels of religious observance in choosing which people to bring to Israel. For them, as for the State of Israel and the vast majority of the Jewish people, a Jew is a Jew, and being one is sufficient to grant a person entry into the Jewish homeland.
The State of Israel is beset by what conventional wisdom considers a huge demographic problem. Simply put, the Arab birthrate is vastly higher than the Jewish one, and without immigration, the Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel in the not too distant future. The events of the last 21 months show us what we can expect should that come to pass. The State of Israel will be destroyed and the Jews will once again be expelled from our homeland.
Tommy Lapid knows this. He is an experienced observer of events in Israel. He is also well aware of the terrorism and anti-Semitism that abounds in the Arab realm in the Middle East. He himself experienced such horrors during his youth, as he survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe. And just as Hitler did not differentiate between religious Jews and secular, neither do the Arabs.
Lapid does not exactly support the Osloist capitulation of Israel to Arab manipulation and violence. He doesn’t exactly oppose it either. He has no firm position on the matter. His entire political existence is at the expense of the religious. His preference for segregation and outright banishment of the religious are more extreme, and more dangerous, than the policies of Austrian extremist Joerg Haider, whom he despises as a potential Nazi reclamation project.
In the interview with the Florida paper, Lapid continued, “You look at Beit Shemesh and you see all the problems that religion is causing in Israel. They attack Russians because they want to eat pork, or because some of their husbands happen to be Christians. Then they get upset about a McDonald’s being open on Saturdays.”
I live in Beit Shemesh. What Lapid has attempted to do with this quote is use only part of a larger issue to sensationalize his pure hatred of the religious. The issue in Beit Shemesh is not an example of the problems religion is causing. It is what happens when the Jewish character of the State is ignored by those who should be paying close attention to it. It is an example of the problems caused when non-Jews are given the opportunity to ignore that character and damage it
recklessly by assuming a fictitious Jewish identity of their own.
The connection between the immigration of the Nefesh B’Nefesh group and the city of Beit Shemesh is quite relevant, since about half of the new immigrants will be settling here. But the issue does not end there. Lapid’s interview was given to a South Florida newspaper in the same community from which Nefesh B’Nefesh emerged, and from which its leader, Joshua Fass, immigrated to Beit Shemesh today.
What Lapid’s blather shows quite plainly is that this man would rather have non-Jews, perhaps even Arabs, immigrating to Israel instead of religious Jews with a firm commitment to Judaism and to Israel.
There are others to the left of Lapid, who constantly trumpet the “demographic problem” to justify divesting Israel of her heartland and 250,000 Jews of their homes. Last week’s planeload of new Israelis is the Jewish answer to the demographic problem. So are the religious segments of the population, whose birthrates are at least twice that of the secular population, and often much more.
While Arabs have an average of 8 children per family, Israelis in general are having an average of just over 3. Breaking down those numbers, secular Israelis have just over 2 children per family, while the religious have between 5 and 12 — or more. Rather than stating that the “Ultra-Orthodox Jews… do not contribute a thing to the State of Israel,” as Lapid did, it wouldbehoove the secular left to realize that what the Ultra-Orthodox contribute is the one thing the
secularists do not: more Jews in Israel.
That contribution has been bolstered by the Nefesh B’Nefesh. Very few among that group are “Ultra-Orthodox.” This alone makes the timing and medium of Lapid’s statements misplaced. But what these new Israelis have accomplished, simply by landing at the airport and immigrating, is the continuation of the purpose of the State of Israel.
The historical timing of Israel’s independence can be described, rightly or not, as the ultimate Jewish answer to the Holocaust. After one-third of all Jews in the world were wiped out due to pure, unbridled anti-Semitic hatred and worldwide collusion, the Jews took matters into their own hands and created a home for themselves. Today, following increased anti-Semitism in most parts of the world, and with the comments of Israel’s leading anti-Semite ringing in their ears, 400 more Jews call Israel home, despite Tommy Lapid, despite anti-Jewish terrorism.
To the Nefesh B’Nefesh group of new Israelis, I would like to say what Tommy Lapid cannot. Welcome Home. It’s about time.
(Copyright 2002 Yehuda Poch.)