Threat to Israel from within, not without

By Linda S. Heard

"......First of all, as reported by Bar Ilan University, non-Jews in Israel constitute 28 per cent of the population and this percentage is increasing year-on-year with the admittance of foreign labour and non-Jewish immigrants from former Soviet Union countries who immigrate on the strength of a Jewish ancestor.

Members of the latter group are usually economic migrants who feel little loyalty to their new home and are strangers to the concept of Zionism. In September, eight young Israelis were arrested for engaging in neo-Nazi activities triggering calls for an overhaul of right-of-return laws.....

Israel's puissance and security within the region is arguably dependent on support from Washington in terms of billions of dollars in aid, loans and weapons. Instrumental in securing such support is the powerful pro-Israel lobby, which can make or break an American politician's career. But what if American Jewry decides the lobby no longer serves its interests?

American Jews are assimilating as never before with two out of three refraining from identifying themselves in terms of being Jewish and more than one-third living in non-Jewish households, according to the Council of Jewish Federations.....

There is also the possibility that the US public could one day decide it no longer wants its country to involve itself in Middle East wars waged primarily for the benefit of Israel's regional hegemony. And Israelis themselves are wakening up to the fact that support from US Evangelical Christians is not altruistic but rather based on self-interest as the right-wing pundit Ann Coulter illuminated when she declared on TV that Jews need to be perfected by becoming Christians....."