Immigration of Israelis to U.S. fuels concern

This short article appeared in the NY Daily News ca, Feb. 14, 2006. I found the article interesting now that it appears that Israel will be "voluntarily" giving up so much occupied territory. The article made me wonder if it is a growing lack of inhabitants that makes the current occupation unworkable.Also a lack of residents would result in a lack of soldiers for security.
This might also explain the recent push to get Bush to publicly proclaim That America would defend Israel.

With all the current discussion of legal and illegal immigration, the number of admittances makes me wonder if there is a special dispensation for some countries over others when it comes to instant immigration.

<snip>
IMMIGRATION OF ISRAELIS TO U.S. FUELS CONCERN
By Matthew Kalman
Special to the News

JERUSALEM - More Israelis live in New York than in Tel Aviv, a surprising report from the Israeli Consulate found.

There are 800,000 Israelis - more than 10% of the entire population of Israel - living in the United States.

Consulate officials believe that up to 400,000 of them live in the New York Metropolitan area alone - that's more than the total population of Tel Aviv, which stands at 370,000. An additional 200,000 live in California and about 100,000 in Florida.

The Israeli population is 7 million, of which 5.2 million are Jews.

<snip>

Israeli Knesset member Colette Avital described the mass emigration of young Israelis..."I am concerned that so many of our young people choose to leave the country and live abroad,"...saying many of the third-generation Israelis are in media, law, medicine and other top fields.

Arieh Mekel, the New York consul general, said his office had 70,000 Israeli families registered, with an average of five members per family. Israeli officials are concerned that the emigration is draining the country of some of its best brains.

Dozens of successful entrepreneurs who have fueled Israel's recent high-tech boom have emigrated with their newly floated Nasdaq companies to the U.S.

The Israeli government holds frequent employment and real estate fairs to entice back the emigres. It also offers financial inducements. But despite these efforts, Mekel said, only 365 returned in 2005.

"Wehave significantly boosted our efforts to return Israelis home," he said.

******

How about honest peace talks; compromise with the Palestinians; recognition of Palestinian statehood; return to the '67 borders; compensation for Palestinians who lost their homes in the years up to the '67 war...

In other words, if they would stop the policies that have turned their country into a war zone, maybe the kids would decide to stay.

would stop it, but also, I think it is partially the "glamour" of living in the U.S., especially living in NYC (where I just happen to live as well). No matter how wonderful life may be in Israel, it just doesn't have the cache of cultural richness that Broadway and Hollywood have. It is one thing to have a country that is primarily made up of one ethnic group but like anything else, the lack of diversity becomes boring. I would imagine that a lot of people move to America for the fusion of cultures.

When these kids come here I think they escape having to go into the army in Israel and they certainly don't have to go into the army here.

With the right family connections, jobs are not a problem for most of the family members who want to work in the U.S.

I guess I can't blame ANYONE for wanting to live in America. I'm a native-born citizen, but I had one parent who was an illegal immigrant arriving here ca. 1930, dying here in a job-related accident ca. 1942.

has shut off Fed funds for stem cell research and stem cell PhD's - it might be a way to replenish the supply of stem cell PhD's -- at least they won't go back to Beijing or Bangalore ;)

---I live and work in Silicon Valley ---



HAD ENOUGH?

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I must admit that the brain power does add immeasurably to American wealth.

There is only one thing that REALLY bothers me and that is dual citizenship. Being able to vote in both countries. To me, one cannot be equally loyal to each nation.

is not 100% and easy to get out of....and those who do are not hounded by the state nor the IDF...