When it comes to Japan, the hysteria was mainly based on a misunderstanding of comparative advantage and the process of creative destruction.
When it comes to Israeli Arabs, sure, as Israeli Arabs become more educated, wealthier and less religious, their birthrate is likely to become lower. A Muslim country like Tunisia has 2.03 children/woman and Turkey has 2.15 children/women so there is not mutual exclusivity between being a Muslim and having a low birthrate.
The Haredim though, don’t seem to show signs of slowing down.
How common is it for Haredim to become non-Haredim? To have few children?
What systems do the Haredim use to increase their numbers and how could those systems fail?
My point is that if the secular Jews did not see themselves as under existential threat from the Arabs, and the Haredim as a bulwark against that, then they would likely take a harder line.
I am not familiar with the specific dates of these predictions. If someone predicted that the Arabs would be a majority in the 1970s then they were wrong. I am not aware of such predictions - certainly they were not mainstream. (Your own cite says 1990.) But my point is that while such predictions have in general turned out to be wrong, this is largely due to mass immigration from Russia.
That seems a bit misleading. I would say a population that is projected to increase from 20% to 25% in 15 years is a pretty serious threat to the majority. Also, it’s unclear if the “Israeli norm” includes the Haredim. If it does (& I would guess it does) than it does not counter my point - to the contrary if anything.
Actually I would. And before you start with “hurr durr first they came for the christians”, in that society they would certainly print that headline, in fact they would print it even if it wasn’t true.
The only society that wouldn’t print that would be one completely free of religion, which would certainly be the best to live in.
The point of the article in the OP is that they are taking a harder line - and the Hardedrim don’t like it. Hence dressing in death camp outfits etc.
They were wrong when they predicted Israel would be overwhelmed in the 70s, they were wrong when they predicted Israel would be overwhelmed in the 90s, and any who seriously predict Israel will be overwhelmed in the future are … ?
I think the pattern is pretty clear.
Huh? An increase from 20 to 25% is a “threat”? I thought the “threat” was supposed to be something more along the lines of OMG ISRAEL WILL NO LONGER BE MAJORITY JEWISH THEY MUST CHOOSE WHETHER TO BE JEWISH OR DEMOCRATIC CAN’T BE BOTH.
To which I say - this demographic threat thing has no legs, objectively speaking. Demograpy will change over time. So will Israeli society. Change is inevitable. But so far, every single imagined threat arising from demography has poven to be just that - imaginary - and mostly cooked up by two opposite sides:
(1) Israeli extremists attempting to whip up fear among Israelis for their own ends; and
(2) Anti-Israeli types, hoping that the bedroom could do what the battlefield could not.
Yeah, but it’s Channukah, Hannukah, Hanukkah, and a couple of other spellings that I can’t recall at the moment. It’s those gutturals and the lack of vowels.
I was thinking more Diablo actually, an order of wizards organized by an archangel. After some searching, it turns out they were called the Horadrim, which is pretty close.
Thanks to these charming fellows, women are not allowed to speak at of all things a gynecology conference. How very Talibanish. But hey, what do women have to do with gynecology, right?
Because bringing back Jews to Israel is supposed to be YHWH’s job, so Zionists have no business doing that or generally interfering with divine plans.
Anyway, I had read about the bus riding women issue, which is alluded to in the video, wanted to ask about it but forgot. Seems like the right thread to do so. How does it work exactly?
Are “regular” Israeli women prudent enough to actually sit in the back of the vehicles while crossing ultra-orthodox neighborhoods? I’ve a hard time assuming they do that, but on the other hand, if they seat wherever they feel like, I can’t see how the ultra-orthodox could harass every single woman in the bus for not being “properly” seated or in any way enforce a “women seat in the back” rule. Or is it just an isolated incident where a lone regular woman happened to ride a bus filled with UO and was told to seat in the back with all the other (presumably UO) women?
I recall hearing of an incident on a bus in Jerusalem. An orthodox guy in the wool coat (the hat and coat are cool!) had the window open. The girl sitting next to him asked him to close it. He replied that if she were dressed modestly she wouldn’t be cold. She had a witty reply that escapes me.
