Israel Matzav

'Peace Now' upset: Jews keep having children

'Peace Now' described as 'severe' a report indicating that the number of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria increased by three percent in the first six months of the year. At the end of June, the number of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria reached 260,932, up from 253,748 at the end of last year, the mainstream Yesha revenants group said, citing a report by the Interior Ministry's population registry.

The total growth of nearly 7,200 people in the Jewish cities and towns in the first half of the year can be attributed both to 'natural growth,' as well as people moving to the Jewish cities and towns, Yesha spokeswoman Emily Amrusy said.

She noted that only 50 families from the former Jewish cities and towns in the Gaza Strip have relocated to Judean and Samarian Jewish cities and towns over the last year.

I want to give you an idea of what 'natural growth' means. One of my wife's brothers-in-law is one of the founders of a Jewish town in Samaria. He and my wife's sister have lived in the town since they were married in 1979 (and I mean that literally - they went from the wedding hall to a caravan in the town). They have six children bli ayin hara. In January, the oldest child got married. At the time, because she was in nursing school in the center of the country, the young couple lived in an expensive hole in the wall in the center of the country.

She has now finished school, and they want to move back to her parents' town. The short story is that they are moving back. The longer story is that the only way they were allowed to move back was if she fit into the town's 'natural growth,' which meant that someone else's child who was newly married had to decide that they did not want to live in the town. Physically there were enough houses for both. But the 'natural growth' means that not even all the children of residents of the town can live there. So instead, they are paying $400-$500 per month for closets in the center of the country. Pathetic.

The Yesha Council's unusual decision to publicize the population figures for the Jewish cities and towns comes at a time of widespread Israeli opposition to the premier's Judea and Samaria surrender, expulsion and suicide plan in the wake of the war in Lebanon and in Gaza, with the controversial proposal now considered to be dead on arrival.

In contrast, the far-left settlement watchdog group [The JPost wrote that - not me. I can't remember the last time Piece by Piece Now was called 'far-left' by the mainstream media in this country. CiJ] 'Peace Now' called the increased 'settlement growth' "severe," and said that it proves that the government's 'settlement policy' has not changed. That's right - the government hasn't imposed a one-child limit on the revenants yet. Maybe we need to be more like China.

Peace Now spokesman Yariv Openheimer said that according to their own statistics, the bulk of the growth in the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria has been in haredi communities over the Green Line. Piece by Piece Now will be investing in 'birth control education' in towns like Kiryat Sefer and Beitar starting next month. Otherwise, they'll have even more Jews to 'resettle' if they ever succeed in dismantling the country. And we wouldn't want to infest Tel Aviv with all those Haredim now, would we?

/sarcasm

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:55 PM