Israel Matzav

'Tomorrow's President has Today all wrong (#tomorrow12)

Two weeks ago, I attended a conference that is known as the President's Conference whose theme was 'Tomorrow' and used the Twitter hashtags #tomorrow12 and #tomorrow2012. Well, you can't get tomorrow right if you've got today all wrong, and Israel's President, conference sponsor Shimon Peres, has today all wrong.

In apparent criticism of the government report calling for the legalization of West Bank outposts which was released this week, President Shimon Peres said Tuesday at a ceremony honoring Theodor Herzl that the settlement enterprise serves a demographic threat to Israel as a Jewish state.

"Israeli settlement in territories densely populated by an Arab population could bring about a threatening demographic change; that is, it could endanger the Jewish majority in Israel" Peres said at the ceremony held at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl.

"It is doubtful that a Jewish State without a Jewish majority can remain Jewish," the president added.

For a moment, let's ignore the fact that Shimon Peres is a figurehead who has no truly elected position and no real political power. But he's also got the demographics all wrong.

There is no demographic threat to Israel's Jewish majority. Not even if you annexed all of Judea and Samaria tomorrow morning with its Arab residents. The demographic bogeyman is a lie.

Labels: demography, Judea and Samaria, outposts, Shimon Peres

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:56 PM