There are huge arguments going on in Israel about whether October 7th would have played out differently had Bibi received a wake-up call earlier. Personally, I find it hard to imagine that it would have made any significant difference; Bibi has never been the type of person to take quick, decisive action. But what I find particularly interesting is that there is another wake-up call going on, which Bibi and his coalition partners are most certainly aware of, and yet which they are determinedly ignoring.
The wake-up call is this:
It’s a chart showing the demographic breakdown of first-graders. Last year, forty-seven percent were non-Zionists - Arabs and charedim. According to current growth rates, within five years it will exceed fifty per cent.
We don’t even need to wait until they grow up. Long before then, charedim and Arabs will already number a third of the population, and the country will collapse. You can’t have a strong army without lots of soldiers, a strong economy, and strong national morale. And you can’t have any of those when a third of the country is undereducated, underemployed, and refuses to serve in the IDF, while insisting on being funded by everyone else.
I had a talk the other day with a supporter of the current government. They were claiming that Eisenkott/ Bennett will join with Raam. Yet that is extraordinarily unlikely; and meanwhile, the current government is insisting from the outset that they will partner with far more dangerous anti-Zionists! My interlocuter claimed that it’s essential to save the country from short-term destruction. But there is no short-term threat on the horizon that threatens the country. On the other hand, the long-term threat of economic and military collapse is a near-certainty, barring radical change. And this may well be the last opportunity to make such a change, if it’s not already too late. There is nothing more important than ensuring that Israel will always have a productive, Zionist majority - which is currently looking extremely unlikely.
If and when that national collapse happens, nobody will be able to claim that they didn’t get a wake-up call.
On another note, I’m pleased to announce that this Thursday, I will be giving a slideshow-accompanied presentation in New York about the art of Noah’s Ark:
This Shabbos, I will be speaking at Or Torah in Skokie; my plans for the following Shabbos are still being confirmed, but I will announce them here as soon as I have them!