Israeli Majority

by Morton A. Klein

Gary Rosenblatt writes that the alternative to negotiating a “two-state solution” is “a Jewish minority in Israel and the end of a Jewish state as we know it” (“What Obama Needs From Us,” Between The Lines, Nov. 4). Untrue. Most Palestinians (98 percent) live today in territories under Palestinian control.
Moreover, a recent study by the American-Israel Demographic Research Group (AIDRG) discloses that fertility rates for Israeli Jews stand at 2.75 per woman — the highest in the industrialized world — while the Arab birth rate is expected to drop to 2.4 percent by that 2025. The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics figures indicate that the Jewish births in Israel have risen from 69 percent of the total in 1995 to 74 percent in 2006.  The AIDRP has also amassed impressive evidence, presented to the U.S. Congress last year, showing that the Palestinian Authority (PA) deliberately misled U.S. and international humanitarian efforts by creating a ‘Million Person Gap’ — inflating its population figures to total over 3.3 million, as opposed to the actual figure of 2.4 million.
These findings have enormous implications for the future — namely, a 67 percent Jewish majority over 98.5 percent of the land west of the Jordan River (without Gaza) can be expected, contrary to the projections of impending Jewish minority status.

But even if this were not the case, peace talks only make sense with a Palestinian leadership and society actually willing and able to make peace, not with a terror-sponsoring PA that incites its population to hatred and murder.

National President
Zionist Organization of America
Philadelphia