Austin American Statesman · Austin, Texas · 22 January 2002

CP-2002-081

To fight growth of Arabs, Israel entices migrants

Experts say Jews will become minority in area sometime this decade

By ROBERT W. GEE / American-Statesman Staff

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Transcribed from the clipping

RA’ANANA, Israel — Esther Leibovich is unambiguous about her allegiances. “I was born Argentine; I am Argentine; I always will be Argentine,” she said. But she is also Jewish, and that’s what matters to Israel. Leibovich, 41, moved to this tranquil suburb of Tel Aviv three weeks ago with her husband, Jorge, and three children.

They were aboard the first of three planeloads of Argentine Jews to immigrate to Israel since Argentina’s economic collapse in late December.

These newcomers, many of whom were unemployed and struggling to make ends meet in Argentina, are receiving so many government benefits in Israel — subsidized housing, free job training and a generous package of grants and loans — that they are making money, for about six months, just by living on Israeli soil.

In a high-stakes battle of demographics, Israel is trying harder to entice Jews from abroad to immigrate to their biblical homeland. Argentina’s Jewish community of 200,000 — who are mostly middle class but increasingly jobless — represents the latest hope for migration to Israel.

The Israeli government this month also added South Africa and France to the list of countries whose Jews can take advantage of a new, expanded basket of incentives to move to Israel. Demographers predict that sometime this decade Jews will become the minority in Israel and the disputed territories.

There are at least 4.2 million Arabs living in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, compared with roughly 5 million Jews. For years, Palestinian leaders have encouraged large families in an effort to outnumber Israelis. In the 1980s, Yasser Arafat personally urged Palestinian women to give birth for the cause. Jews make up 80 percent of the Israeli population.

The other 20 percent, mostly Arab Muslims, average a birth rate of 4.5 children per mother, compared with 2.5 children for Jewish mothers. The result by 2050 will be an Israel with a Jewish majority of two-thirds that is ever-shrinking.

Even the extraordinarily large families of ultra-orthodox Jews, about 20 percent of the Israeli Jewish population, are not expected to mitigate the demographic shift. “Time is running out, and I can see within Israel an explosion. Yes, I am very afraid,” said Arnon Soffer, a professor of geopolitics at the University of Haifa.

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