October 29, 2007
AND THE BITTEREST IRONY IS...:
Palestinian census carries sobering subtext for Israelis: An expected spike in population could loom large in future negotiations with Israel. (Joshua Mitnick, 10/30/07, The Christian Science Monitor)
In the decade since the inaugural Palestinian census of West Bank and Gaza residents, the politics of numbers has inspired support among Israelis to withdraw from most of the Palestinian territories. But since that last census, the trepidation among Israeli Jews to return the country to its narrow borders prior to the 1967 Six Day War has been trumped by fears of a "demographic problem": Israelis may one day wake up to find themselves a minority in control of a Palestinian Arab majority. [...]The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) counted 2.6 million West Bankers and Gazans in 1997. Mr. Della Pergola expects the number to have grown to about 3.4 million. And even though Israel's population is 7.1 million, approximately one-fifth are Arab citizens and residents who identify as Palestinians. With a fertility rate that outstrips Jewish Israelis, Palestinians are expected to draw even in the not so distant future.
...that preventing Palestine from developing a normal economy is keeping the birthrate high. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 29, 2007 7:51 PM
It's not an irony. It's a stated objective of the ennemies of Israel since the 1970's, and one reason why the Arab world has not wanted to solve the problem.
Posted by: Jorge Curioso at October 29, 2007 9:22 PMIn view of the birth-rate decline in the rest of the Muslim world, is it possible that the birth rate statistics have been fabricated for the purpose of scaring Israelis to the negotiation table?
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at October 29, 2007 11:08 PM11:08? It looks like there's a Daylight-Savings Time glitch in the timestamp.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at October 29, 2007 11:10 PMThe irony is on the Israeli side of the wall
Posted by: oj at October 29, 2007 11:36 PMThis would matter, if numbers mattered. Mere numbers are a liability now. These issues will not be resolved by speeches and majority votes, but by . . .--we all no the rest of it.
When Israel loses the spirit of the wagon train, they had best begin packing, for they are done for.
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 30, 2007 4:11 AMThe numbers cited are further proof of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, if any proof were needed.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at October 30, 2007 5:16 AMDemocracies solve things by the numbers.
Posted by: oj at October 30, 2007 6:05 AMRodger. Settlers are not in a democracy with the natives. Settlers may admit natives to their polity, later, but as fellow-settlers, not as folk-enemies plotting a reconquista.
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 30, 2007 12:31 PM