Within 72 hours, you can get a free electronic permit to visit and reside in Israel for three months and extend it for two years. This is a multi-entry permit if you are from the 99 countries, names of which have been published. The following month the permit becomes paid, but it will only cost seven euros. The important thing about travelling to Israel is that it is losing thousands from its population every day. It does not seem to be able to compensate them, if it cannot provide security for those coming to it.
Since October 7, half a million have left Israel and will not return. According to Portuguese and German statistics, a million have left Israel since then. There are demands to restore the identity of European Ashkenazis who lost their first nationalities.
Two years ago, with the rise of extremist movements and the efforts to approve so-called judicial reforms, it became clear that more than a third of Israelis wanted to leave. Half of the Jews residing in Israel hold their original nationalities, and others residing outside it. Many of them have obtained Israeli citizenship, to be used when needed. Their relationship with this country is determined by general circumstances and specific individual needs.
This makes the turbulent security situation repulsive to investors, negatively affects demographics, and weakens the army and its combat capabilities.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant needs to recruit 10,000 immediately and form 15 new battalions. But he cannot find men. On the contrary, it is said that 900 officers requested to be discharged this year. We do not know the exact number of their soldiers, nor do we know the number of reserve forces who refuse to return to Gaza.
Eyes were focussed on the Haredim, who chanted the slogan, “We are ready to die but will not serve in the army.” The Supreme Court decided to cancel their exemption from conscription, which has been in effect since the founding of Israel, when they were 400 people. Today there are 63,000 in the age which qualifies them for service. Their number is expected to increase, due to the increase in childbirth among them. This constitutes 20 percent of the population, after only 10 years.
Israel’s favourite game remains to dilute the nature of its identity, leaving it lost between religion and secularism, Europeanization and assimilation in the East, fighting for expansion, while negotiating the elusive nature of what was called Israel. It was established to be a homeland for world Jews, at a time when religious frameworks in the West were faltering. At that time, European Jews were reading Spinoza and Marx instead of the Talmud. They came as Zionists to Palestine for their nationalistic motives, asking how to be a Jew without necessarily being religious. These were supported by European socialists and English evangelicals who were motivated by the idea of Christ’s return to the Holy Land. We had to wait a little while for support to come overwhelmingly.
Israel still benefits from remaining in the grey zone. Sometimes it is a non-religious Zionist, and sometimes it is Jewish. May mix the two together, accusing others of anti-Semitism. At one time it was the spoiled daughter of the West, and at another time, as Ben Soussan claims, it waged war against the British and the Arabs together, with the help of the Jews. We do not know whether they are superior and God’s chosen people, or whether they are persecuted and tormented on earth.
[by Sawsan Al-Abtah in Asharq Al-Awsat]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque