Assimilation Threatens Israel

By Linda S. Heard
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Sep 16, 2009, 00:16
Courtesy Of The Online Journal

Let’s face it, without the financing and the protection of Washington, Israel would be forced to abide by international laws and treaties like every other country on earth, else risk being labelled ‘a rogue state.’

If the United States pulled the rug from under its favoured ally, Israel would no longer be able to continue its policy of nuclear ambiguity, would be called upon to abide by UN Security Council sanctions, and would face serious censure for launching aggressive strikes and wars.

Well, that’s never going to happen, you might think. America and Israel have been joined at the hip for decades and there is little sign that this symbiotic relationship is about to wane. The fact is that US politicians, even those of Arab descent, are under the sway of American public opinion that leans towards Israel, as well as the powerful pro-Israel lobby known to punish politicians who refuse to embrace its diktats.

But nothing is forever, as they say; a truism the Israel government knows only too well. And there could come a day when America decides that its strategic interests are no longer twinned with Israel’s. There are three factors at play that could alter the status quo.

Firstly, as the years pass, Holocaust victims are diminishing and, with them, their firsthand memories. As the Holocaust recedes into the annals of history, there may come a day when the passions of future generations of Jews throughout the diaspora towards ‘mother’ Israel could dampen. When, and if, that happens, the lobby will lose financing and clout.

Secondly, there is a growing trend for young American Jews to marry outside the religion. Indeed, statistics from 1996 to 2001 show that 47 per cent of Jewish Americans chose partners from outside the faith. It’s a similar story in Europe, while in Russia the percentage rises to 80 per cent. Some Jews refer to this as “the Silent Holocaust.” If a Jewish woman marries a non-Jewish man, any children of the union would still be accepted by rabbinical authorities as Jewish, but not vice-versa.

This shift is a huge departure from the days when Jewish youth would think twice about marrying a non-Jew out of fear of being disowned by their families or, worse, even declared dead. Conservative parents would sometimes even ritually tear their clothing as a symbol of mourning their errant child.

Thirdly, as David Sax writes in Vanity Fair, “never in history have Jews been so integrated and accepted into the mainstream of a diaspora country. Today, nearly half of American Jews marry outside the faith, while synagogue attendance continues its decline. Yiddish, a language that the majority of [Eastern European] Jews once spoke, has been reduced (for most Jews) to a smattering of funny-sounding catchphrases.” Sax maintains that American Jews are questioning their sense of self and seeking a new identity.

To say the Israeli authorities are concerned about intermarriage is an understatement as a recent $800,000 (Dh2.93 million) advertisement campaign co-sponsored by the government and the Jewish Agency indicates. Ads that ran in newspapers and on television featured missing persons fliers inscribed with traditional Jewish names and the word “Lost,” while a television infocommercial was more explicit.

It urged anyone in Israel who knew young Jews living outside to contact the advertisers because they were in danger. “Together, we will strengthen their bonds to Israel, so we won’t lose them,” was one ad’s message. Others warned that assimilation was “a strategic national threat” because “more than 50 percent of diaspora youth assimilate and are lost to us.”

Unfortunately, for the campaign’s instigators, the advertisements elicited the opposite effect from that intended. The very people it sought to warn were outraged and insulted. Thousands of American Jews and children of mixed marriages either voiced their displeasure on the Net or made furious phone calls. Among the protesters were international Jewish organisations, Jewish columnists and liberal rabbis. The furor was such that the Jewish agency was forced to announce that the campaign has now been aborted.

No one likes to be judged or threatened and such vulgar scaremongering tactics haven’t won Israel any friends. Moreover, American Jews resent being made to feel guilty because they have chosen “the wrong partner” or have blended into the society in which they live. Israel will have to find another way to win the loyalty of young foreign-born Jews or to lure them into its arms to reduce the upcoming demographic imbalance between Jewish Israelis, on the one, and Palestinians in 1948 areas on the other.

The real existential threat to Israel is not Iran or the Palestinians. It lies in the stagnation of the Jewish population within Israel due to dwindling immigration from former Soviet Union countries as well as a comparatively low Jewish birth rate. The only way Israelis can have genuine security is to urge their government towards the peace table. It’s time they heeded the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.

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