Israel Sought, Wins Quota Against Jewish Emigres To Germany
It might be apparent to anyone living in Gush Katif, but for those who aren’t even under Israeli jurisdiction, it might come as a shocking surprise that The Israeli government has decided that Jews are no longer allowed to live wherever they’d like. The SF Chronicle reports,
The Israeli government, concerned about the declining number of Russian Jews emigrating to Israel, has persuaded Germany to institute unprecedented measures restricting the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union, according to several Israeli officials.
Prompted by an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign waged by Israel, new immigration rules would grant residence only to Jews from the former Soviet Union who are under 45, fluent in German and financially stable. The rules, announced late last month, do not include Jews from other non- Soviet countries or any other ethnic or religious group. They are expected to take effect at the beginning of next year.
What’s especially odd about this is that Israelis hate new Russian olim. And not just the man on the street Israeli, but the government too. They see them as stubbornly refusing to assimilate into greater Israeli society, probably not even Jewish, and in general stirring up trouble. I’ve heard people express a thought similar to this multiple times: “We got all the good Russians in the ’70s and ’80s. Now we’re just getting criminals and goyim.”
Of course, there is some truth to that. Many Russians steadfastly refuse to learn Hebrew or socialize with non-Russians (sounds like some Americans in Jerusalem almost), many of them are indeed goyim, and some young Russians have a bad habit of thumping on Ethiopian immigrants. But it must really suck for actual Jewish Russians who genuinely want to become Israelis to be lumped in with their less savory countrymen by the Israeli people.
Of course, if I were the Israeli government, I would be worried less about stemming the flow of the remaining Russian Jews moving to Germany and more about stemming the constantly-increasing flow of Israelis leaving the country. I’m all for increasing aliyah, but why don’t they look into doing something about decreasing yeridah?
Another raw move by the Zionists.
The Israeli government has decided that Jews are no longer allowed to live wherever they’d like.
Erm, no; you’ve misunderstood the policy. What Germany has done is cap the number of ex-FSU Jews that Germany accepts under the German Right of Return.
That doesn’t stop Jews from applying through normal immigration channels, natch.
Why would Israel want Jews to make aliyah only because they can’t get into Germany? By pursuing policies to help them when their demography wars the Israeli government is making a fool of itself and of Zionism. What next? [“uhm.. we decided that we like anti-semitism in the diaspora (but not in Israel), so please mistreat your Jewish citizens.”] I dont see why they have to go messing stuff up Jews in the diaspora just cause their nation-state has borders broader than its population (maybe they should have looked to shrink the borders rather than to coerce Jews into coming there).
Jews let Hitler win by abandoning Europe; we must disprove the fiction of the nation-state by living in the diaspora. Sure, Israel’s great too, but the world need not be segregated into tiny self-contained ethnic nation-states.