The Demographic Problem--Of The Palestinian Arabs

The topic of Israel's demographics is in the news again--and every time it is, the situation seems to get better.

Using information from researcher Bennett Zimmerman, Demographic analyst Yoram Ettinger has concluded:

the Jewish fertility rate in Israel is among the highest in the industrialized world. Forty years ago, Arab families had an average of six children more than Jewish families in Israel, while today, the gap has closed to less than one child.

Jews in Judea and Samaria have an even higher fertility rate. Prof. Dan Meyerstein, President of Ariel College, said recently that fertility in Yesha is "crazily higher
than the rest of Israel" - 4.4 children, as opposed to the national average of 2.8.

Since 1995, the annual number of Arab births within Israel's Green Line has stabilized around 37,000, while the annual number of Jewish births has increased by 34% (from 80,400 in 1995 to 107,000 in 2006).

And the good news in the numbers does not end there. Among Ettinger's other findings:

• The Jewish population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean has grown 164-fold since 1882, while the Arab population has grown six-fold.
  
  
• Since 1948, the Jewish population west of the Jordan River has grown 9-fold, from 650,000 to well over 5.5 million, while the Arab population has slightly more than tripled, to 3.8 million. This last number, incidentally, is the total number of Arabs in Israel, including Judea, Samaria and Gaza - and not in Judea, Samaria and Gaza alone, as the Arabs report.
  
  
• Jewish immigration into Israel has brought Jews to Israel every year since 1882, while a net average annual emigration of over 10,000 has characterized the Arab population of Judea and Samaria (especially) and Gaza since 1950.

The immediate impact of this is the message it should send to Israel's leaders that there is no imminent Demographic threat pushing Israel into making concessions to preserve an endangered Jewish majority in Israel.

Not only do the numbers indicate there is no need to make concessions, but they also indicate that making territorial concessions will endanger the demographic superiority that Israel has:

"Demography is not an existential threat to the Jewish State. Therefore, there is no need to retreat from Jewish Geography in order to secure Jewish Demography. In fact, a retreat from Jewish Geography would upset the migration balance in the area, facilitating a potential immigration of 1-2 million Palestinians into Judea & Samaria and from there (due to economic pressure) to the Green Line, thus wrecking Jewish Demography."

...A retreat from Judea and Samaria could pose an existential threat to the Jewish State."

Of course it would help if there were any indications that the government was open to news outside of, and contrary to, their preconceived notions.

Then there is an additional consequence of the lower and shrinking number of Palestinian Arabs--the amount of aid the West provides to the PA.

Maybe they should stop providing aid altogether to the PA and just buy Mahmoud Zahar a bigger suitcase.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Demographics and Palestinians.