Re: At least if things turn nasty for European Jews again, they will have some place to go. Unlike last time.
Sure... and let me tell you where the Jews --including ISRAELI Jews-- will dash to: the US of A.! Actually, the balance of emigration between the US and Israel already tilts in favor of the US: over 200,000 Jews merely used Israel as a springboard to the US vs 75,000 American Jews who emigrated to Israel.
The notion that a nation-state can guarantee a given minority against persecution is a lunacy --it might have been appealing 100 years ago, though... Yet, in todays' globalized society, there's no place to hide anymore.
Sometimes, I ask myself if the raison d'etre of Israel isn't merely symbolic, that is, a modern sequel of the holy crusades of yore.... After all, the first to claim Jerusalem and the holy land were Christian lords from Europe: they just couldn't --and probably still can't-- stand the sight of Palestine, the cradle of their faith, under the Muslim yoke. Besides, the timing of Israel's inception is not fortuitous: the Balfour Declaration, the UN resolution in 1947,... were devised in the WWII time-span, that is, in a much troubled period for Europe.
I guess that, in the aftermath of WWII, many a lucid observer anticipated the ensuing decolonization process, Europe's ebbing on the world scene, and the rise of the US. The Brits in particular had an edge over their European peers as they already ruled a worldwide empire... So, taking into account the demographic gap between Europe and the neighboring Arab world, and the "moral/ideological burnout" of Europe in the wake of the Nazi atrocities, Europe's rulers devised a Jewish outpost in Palestine as a geopolitical stopgap against the Arab thrust. Somehow, Europe's Christian crusaders contracted it out to their Jewish auxiliaries. Moreover, the merciless takeover of Arab soil by Jewish settlers would lure the Arab masses away from their real contender: Christianity/Europe. Indeed, Israel would act as a useful foil, a muleta of sorts, deflecting the energies of the Arab juggernaut from the actual jackpot --Europe itself....
Ironically, this Kulturkrieg devised by European crusaders will turn against them: Muslim immigration is no longer a dummy variable and, as more and more European cities get crowded by an ever larger Muslim populace, the whole Middle East crisis might end up in an anticlimax of sorts...
Gus |
