# Why do the people living in Israel continue to do so? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 3, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800 "2002-09-03T13:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/1 "2002-09-03T13:44:16Z")
Why don’t people move out of Israel in massive droves? Do people want to move out of Isreal in massive droves? Why wouldn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/2 "2002-09-03T13:56:21Z")
Its their land, their home. Next question? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/3 "2002-09-03T14:04:31Z")
\>\>Why don’t people move out of Israel in massive droves? What kind of vehicle is a massive drove? I’ve never heard of them. Are they reliable? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/4 "2002-09-03T14:05:43Z")
They are like SUV;s, only cuter. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/5 "2002-09-03T14:18:43Z")
You know, if separatists started bombing things in Canada, I wouldn’t move. I’d dig in, try to protect myself, and fight back. Leaving my country would be as stressful as civil unrest. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/6 "2002-09-03T14:19:53Z")
Yeah, but the mileage is terrible. Mini-droves are nice, though. ---
**Author:** ![dreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/7 "2002-09-03T14:26:31Z")
One of my very good friends from high-school lives in Jerusalem. His Dad owns a store there and my friend runs it. Once he was sitting at an outside restaurant and a suicide bomber came in, the bomb went off and he was badly burned on his right arm and right side and most of his hair was burned off. I’ve asked him why he still is there considering his parents live here in the US and he could come home anytime. He says it’s because his wife doesn’t want to move because her whole family lives there. I understand that but I still wish he would come home. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/8 "2002-09-03T14:28:59Z")
In short, **robertliguori** , If someone were bombing the U.S. every day or every week, would you move, or would you stay and defend and fight for your home? (N.B. I’m assuming you come from the U.S. If not, insert your country of origin in place of the U.S.) Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/9 "2002-09-03T16:49:53Z")
Where would they go? Many a times it’s not just only about wanting to leave. They have to pick a destination. And how easy would it be to leave? Given all the suicide bombings, curfews… it might even been difficult to get out of their towns. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/10 "2002-09-03T16:58:11Z")
Now we know how the 700,000 Palestinian refugees feel. Sorry to politicize; just had to say it. This does, of course, not justify terrorism in any form. ---
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/11 "2002-09-03T17:03:35Z")
Hmmm. Home vs. Not Getting Blown Up… Well, in all fairness, I’d probably stay in the U.S. But I’d certainly move away from major population centers and political capitals. If America was ever placed in a situation of constant terrorist attack/military retaliation, than Great Britain would gain a new citizen ASAP. Home and hearth aren’t worth life and limb. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/12 "2002-09-03T17:07:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robertliguori \* > \*\*Hmmm. Home vs. Not Getting Blown Up… Well, in all fairness, I’d probably stay in the U.S. But I’d certainly move away from major population centers and political capitals. If America was ever placed in a situation of constant terrorist attack/military retaliation, than Great Britain would gain a new citizen ASAP. > Home and hearth aren’t worth life and limb. \*\* That’s your opinion, and you’re certainly entitled to it, but obviously not everyone agrees with it. The large numbers of people who lined up to enlist on Dec 8, 1941 and the upsurge in military recruitment after Sep 11, 2001 certainly show that many people are willing to put themselves at risk for home and hearth. BTW, you’d become a British subject, not a citizen. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/13 "2002-09-03T18:08:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Great Britain would gain a new citizen ASAP. \*\* Assuming that they would let you in…Many countries have tightened their immigration requirements. Do you have important skills? D’you think they’d let you in? Even the U.S. isn’t letting “just anybody” in anymore. Also, Israel, by U.S. continental standards is this little _teeny_, extremely crowded place. There isn’t, physically, much of anywhere to go inside the country. They can’t get away from “major population centers” because practically the whole place IS a “major population center”. [Here](http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/ispopmap.html) a map of Israel with its population densities, as of 1993. The region in Israel that has the “very light yellow” low population density, still has between 65 and 259 people per square mile. And the whole rest of Israel has a population density of at least 300 to 777 people per square mile, at the low end, ranging up to 15,000 people per square mile up around Tel Aviv. Dunno where you’re posting from, but here in Illinois, the entire state, overall, has a population density of 223 people per square mile. However, the [Chicago and Cook County area](http://130.166.124.2/chiatlas/chi149.GIF) has the highest population density, ranging from 0 to 1,000 people per square mile at the extreme low end, and all the way up to 20,000 to 87,000 at the high end. So let’s pretend that Chicago is Israel and members of the Sac and Fox Indian tribes are mounting a suicide bomber campaign against the Chicagoans, and _you_ tell the Chicagoans, “Hey, why don’t you just move away from major population centers?” Well, where IS that, exactly? Where are they supposed to go? Orland Park? How do you think the people who already live in Orland Park would feel about that? And what are Chicagoans supposed to do for jobs, once they’ve arrived in Orland Park? Telling people in Tel Aviv to move to Beersheba is like telling Chicagoans to move to Orland Park. Also, it’s their **home**. As in “homeland”. Some people feel a certain sentimental attachment to a certain plot of land, and I would think more so in the case of Israel, seeing as how they didn’t always have it, and they’ve had to fight tooth and nail to get it in the first place, and now to keep it. Some people can’t just walk away from all that. And, er, far from people “leaving in droves”, people are still actually coming _in_. > **[The Jewish Agency for Israel - U.S.](https://www.jewishagency.org)** > > Since 1929, The Jewish Agency for Israel has been working to secure a vibrant Jewish future > [@](#): > > Canada helped Cuban Jews emigrate to Israel > > REUTERS > > OTTAWA, Oct. 11 — Canadian foreign affairs officials confirmed on Monday that the Canadian embassy in Cuba has helped hundreds of Cuban Jews emigrate to Israel since 1974 in a quiet, but not secret, programme. > > ‘‘Yes, the Canadian embassy in Cuba is involved in the provision of travel documents to Cubans who are desirous of emigrating to Israel,’’ Stewart Wheeler, spokesman for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said. > ''It perhaps is understandable that it wasn’t widely known but it certainly isn’t secret and it’s common knowledge in the Jewish community in Cuba that if you want to emigrate to Israel, you go to the Canadian embassy. And [Ethiopian Jews](http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/israel/documents/ethiopian.html). And [Alaskan Jews.](http://www.jewishsf.com/bk950623/ebfamily.htm) And lots of other people, whom these emigration websites were set up to serve. [http://www.aliyah.org/aliyah\_info.html](http://www.aliyah.org/aliyah_info.html) > **[The Jewish Agency for Israel - U.S.](https://www.jewishagency.org/)** > > Since 1929, The Jewish Agency for Israel has been working to secure a vibrant Jewish future [http://www.aaci.org.il/](http://www.aaci.org.il/) No, far from beating a hasty path to the exits, it looks to me like they’re standing in line to get in. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/14 "2002-09-03T23:38:17Z")
Hmm. Does a degree in Computer Science qualify? If not, I could always sneak into Canada. And why doesn’t a significant portion of the population of Israel decide that their home isn’t worth the risk? Could the U.S., say, solve the problem by offering refuge to anyone in Isreal who wanted to leave? Well, since I was asked, and answered, how many Dopers would leave their homeland if it was placed in a position like Israel’s? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/15 "2002-09-04T05:01:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, it’s their **home**. As in “homeland”. Some people feel a certain sentimental attachment to a certain plot of land, and I would think more so in the case of Israel, seeing as how they didn’t always have it, and they’ve had to fight tooth and nail to get it in the first place, and now to keep it. And also, I would think, an attachment to their fellow citizens as well–it’s their nation as well as their country. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/16 "2002-09-04T20:42:29Z")
There was recently a story in the news of 400+ Jews who moved _to_ Israel. There is a religious attachment to the land. [http://www.nefeshbnefesh.org/blueprint\_july2002b.pdf](http://www.nefeshbnefesh.org/blueprint_july2002b.pdf) We (the family KVS) are hoping to move there within the next 5 years or so. We’re trying to, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/17 "2002-09-04T21:21:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Knighted Vorpal Sword \* > \*\*There was recently a story in the news of 400+ Jews who moved _to_ Israel. There is a religious attachment to the land. > > [http://www.nefeshbnefesh.org/blueprint\_july2002b.pdf](http://www.nefeshbnefesh.org/blueprint_july2002b.pdf) > > We (the family KVS) are hoping to move there within the next 5 years or so. We’re trying to, anyway. \*\* Agreed. I also have cousins and friends who strived and worked towards being able to move to Israel. My wife’s sister did the same. Lastly, I visited Israel for the first time last December. While there, I had a feeling of being “home” that I did not expect to feel while I was there. It was so strong that were it not for certain family considerations, I would seriously entertaining moving. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/18 "2002-09-05T00:18:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*…many people are willing to put themselves at risk for home and hearth. > > BTW, you’d become a British subject, not a citizen. \*\* Very well put. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/19 "2002-09-05T21:24:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*Lastly, I visited Israel for the first time last December. \*\* Really - the first time? That must have been some experience. > [@](#): > > \*\*While there, I had a feeling of being “home” that I did not expect to feel while I was there. \*\* Slghtly off topic, but I remember my first trip there in 1987 or so. I was there for 2 weeks, and toured all over the country. On my first Shabbos back, I started crying in shule (the synagogue). There was such a huge difference between being in Israel and being here. Except for the 6 months we were in Israel after we got married, I’ve been trying to recreate that feeling here, but it can’t be done. ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800/20 "2002-09-05T22:56:19Z")
Maybe I’m naive, but I thought the OP was all about why anyone would want live in a frickin’ desert. And there are a lot of people who do, though some would probably move away if they had the chance. (Will the last inhabitant of Chad please turn off the lights?) Then again, there are plenty of places on Earth that are inhospitable, and inconducive to sustainable economic activity – yet people still live there. I guess the moral of the story is, “Everybody’s gotta live somewhere.” (I thought of this a lot while watching _Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner_.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-people-living-in-israel-continue-to-do-so/126800.md?page=2)