What enrages Tzipi Livni: French Jews mobbing aliya fair
In an interview with Army Radio Sunday, Rabbi Moshe Sabag, spiritual leader of the Great Synagogue of Paris, said that he expected French aliyah – immigration to Israel – double this year. While 2014 set a single-year record for French Jewish immigration to Israel, Rabbi Sabag believes that “14,000 or 15,000 immigrants will come to Israel this year as a result of what has happened. There is a sense of insecurity and that these events are just getting worse."
Israel is prepared to absorb them, said Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency. Sharansky was in Paris, along with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, to attend the mass rally against terror being held in Paris Sunday afternoon. Sharansky popped in on the Fair, telling potential immigrants that “the Jewish Agency embraces the French Jewish community at this difficult time and is extending its full support by helping provide for the physical security of Jewish communities across France, increasing our assistance to any individual who wishes to immigrate to Israel, and working to ease immigrants' integration into the Israeli workforce and Israeli society.”
According to The Jewish Agency's figures, 2014 saw a dramatic increase in Aliyah from France with the arrival of 7,000 new immigrants, more than double the 3,400 who arrived in 2013 and triple the 1,900 who came in 2012. The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the third-largest in the world (after Israel and the United States), with some 500,000 Jews. More than 1% of the entire community immigrated to Israel over the course of 2014, which saw the arrival of the largest number of French immigrants in Israel's history and was the first time more immigrants came from France than from any other country. Even before the most recent events, Jewish Agency officials had predicted that the increase in French Aliyah would continue and that the number of immigrants from France would reach 10,000 in 2015.And this bothers former 'justice minister' Tzipi Livni, now a member of the Labor party.
"Israel needs to be a symbol for every Jew in the world as not only a safe haven, but also of Zionism and moral values," she said.
"Jews should not immigrate because it is a safe haven. I want them to make aliyah despite the concrete barriers in Jerusalem, despite the fact that we have to fight terror. I want them to come because of Zionism."
Livni then went on to criticize the call itself, which she says will do nothing to enhance the security of Jews living in Europe.
"The events in Paris do not only involve Jews and are not just their problem. This is a global struggle against extremist Islamic terrorism and we need to enlist the world to fight against it too," she stated.
"Israel must work smarter - not to worry about whether they [the rest of the world] understand what we go through, rather how to join an international coalition for the defense of our shared values."Reality is that very few Jews make aliya for reasons other than Israel being a safe haven (the exceptions come mostly from English-speaking countries). Livni seems to be determined to make Israel unsafe and unwelcoming. She also fears that French immigrants fleeing Islamic terrorism aren't exactly likely to vote for the Israeli Left. It's long past time to end Livni's political career.
Labels: aliya, France, Knesset elections 2015, Tzipi Livni
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:17 PM
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