'If a million American Jews moved to Israel, there'd be peace'

Just hold on a minute on this one buster!!!! We have had our number of american "olim" and we could have done without them. On the oher hand, as with all olim there are good ones and not so good ones. First and foremost, they have to get it that they are not coming to win back the "Far West" from the Indians.

While I don't disagree, what percentage of settlers come from North America??? Would an influx of over 1 million strong American Jewish aliyah not go straight to the Jewish communities over the green line?

Cut the nonsense, all the Jews in America, wont bring peace. Peace is already there from the Jews, most are willing & complient peace partners. Our job is done. The mindset of our Arab neighbours needs to change, that is the only solution to peace. Even if we were to stupidly give away all "disputed land" to them, be honest, do you think that they would be our beautiful peace partners.

Just today I read an item in this newspaper that Zahal does not need as many persnonell as it has already has. A few days before I read that one of the suggestions relative to inducting Haredim was that the duration of the service would be reduced for all soldiers to two years. I read that General Shermweister is concerned that the induction of Haredim en mass would effect the efforts to bring women into Zahal. All of these issues appeared in this newspaper of which Mr. Burson reads, or perhaps, havng read his comments "skims". None of the above seem to support the slogans that some Israeli Haredi bashers like to hear. It seems to me, if the findings of the HaAretz journalists that point out the above details are true, one, more than a certan number of personell currently serving in Zahal are redundant, two, Haredim would create a situation that would change socio-cultural patterns in the Israeli Army, and, cause difficulties in the efforts of Zahal to bring about equal opportunities for women personell The bottom line seems to be that a realistic look at the needs of our Army, are not what we hear from the top brass, or our politicians--as always it's easier to drape your shortcomings with the Israeli flag.

These pages in Haaretz often decry all the American Jews who go to live on the West Bank. But they're not the "real" American Jews, right? They're not the enlightened, liberal, beautiful people like yourself, who will NEVER come to Israel unless they're kicked out by America. That's the Catch-22, isn't it--the ones that want to come here, are the ones you don't want. Pretty ironic--and telling.

...and that is precisely the problem with 'Israel.' It's not really anyone's country. ...except for the Palestinians, of course.

An Israeli also made a similar suggestion to me, that if there was an influx of European Jews it would reverse the extremist trends that are becoming the norm in Israel and hopefully lead to a 2-state peace agreement. What Israelis like this fail to realise is that (1) if Israel wants to destroy its moral core and even find itself ultimately subsumed into a single bi-national state why should the burden of saving it have to fall on diaspora Jews (2) the Israelis that are leaving the country are more likely to be those who oppose the country's religious extremists and ultra-nationalists. Why not first address the problems that are causing these people to leave.

Well, first of all, this article seems to suppose that all americans are left to center and in my experience this is very far from the truth. The real reason there is no peace is because we are viewed as weak and indecisive by our" partners for peace" ,If it was still a question of the territorial dispute between Israel and the palestinians it could probably have been solved years ago but as , in recent years, it`s turned into a full blown dispute between judaism, jews and the west and muslims and the islamic world it is now a clash of cultures that will never bring about the liberation of palestine, rather the subservience of the entire region to Islam, regardless of race or religion, that`s why a growing number of palestinians and muslims from other countries now look to Israel to take some kind of leadership role in the battle between secularism and religiosity ..........Israel , ironically, seen as the light unto the secular of the region.

Nicely said, Bradley

and if a million Russian Jews moved to Brooklyn?

TO BE HONEST THE ONLY HOPE FOR ISRAEL TO BE A STABLE DEMOCRACY AND FIND PEACE LIES IN MASS ALIYAH FROM NORTH AMERICA. OTHERWISE WE ARE ON THE WAY TO BE A THIRD WORLD DESPOT RUN BY RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS.

I don't know about peace but a million US jews with our history of democracy , civil rights and not traumatized by repeated war could only help

I am not Jewish or Palestinian. But I will make two points. First, I think the wealthy Arab states have done practically nothing to elevate the Palestinians. Second, I think the Israelis would help the Palestinians improve their lives if the Palestinians would just accept that the Israelis aren't going away.

Unbelievable. There is no peace here not because of a lack of rights of minorities... there is no peace here because Arabs have no interest in making peace with us- no matter what we do or give them. They state it clearly themselves over and over. I also believe Americans make Israel a better place... but not because we bring that lovely dovey liberal nonsense here! Keep that nonsense for Manhattan- where it belongs.

This is very dangerous thinking, and the height of arrogance.

Breathtaking tunnel vision. Burston only sees the world through his agenda driven self-crowned elite glasses. Of those amerians who are candidates for aliya, 90% ould be orthodx and 50% of those haredi. What is he talking aout. What he really means is if 1 million Burstons would come on aliya then the heavens would open and the angels sing and the world of islamo-fascism woould dissappear and all Arabs would be followers of Kierkegard and Kant istead of Muhammed and Khomeini. How many of us would want to live in a country of 1 million Burstons????

You don't need to have a PhD in History to guess who these scapegoats will be...

OH if only they had arrived not 5 and not 20 years ago but in the late 50's and early 60's . What a diferent world it would have been . The Marroccan jews would have got off our backs with their " elit" chip on the shoulder screaming ashkenazi ! We would have cried less,prayed less, listen to some decent innovative modern western music instead of redundant half crying " mediterranean " {arab] music Road signs would be in understandable english -driving would be civilised -even the Beatles may have visited -and not treated as a bad influence on the children , Developing towns would stop shnorrroring western dollars whilst hating western Jewry. IF IF ONLY what a diferent world israel would have been . Shame the USA JEWRY did let us down in those early formation years of Israels infancy. MODERATOR PLEASE PRINT MY VIEW -UK IMMIGRANT 1957 .

Tis pretty weird Mr. Burston left such a rational proposition to Helen Thomas to make. And even more irrational that he sensored this post first time. Second time is a charm?

Your point about Yiddush over Hebrew has been made before. But Yiddish is a language of exile and specific to only some Jews. Using Yiddish as the 'national' language woould look and sound like Afrikaans. It would have excluded every Mizrachi. More than Judaism even, Hebrew is the one thing Jews from all strands have in common.

Most Palestinian Christians left so called Palestine for fear of their lives. Since lots of so called Palestinians living in Syria, all peace loving Palestinians should join their brothers in Syria and now is the perfect time because of Syria's political trouble.

Only really really stupid people believe they can illegally dispossess their neighbours and have peace

Meir Kahane was an American Jew who made aliya. So was Baruch Goldstein. A million--or even a thousand-- like them would have made Israel even worse.

Rabbi Dov Lipman is naive, the sole reason he no doubt sincerely believes that a world inhabited exclusively by the naive would be a world of perpetual peace. An arguable proposition?

My impression in israel, was that the Americans brought with them their racist rhetoric they'd learnt in America.

An interesting and revealing thought. I've always thought Israel would have struck a deal for peace if the original Eastern European Zionists had stuck with heir native Yiddish instead of choosing Hebrew, and an exotic pronunciation to boot. Yiddish is a language of accommodation, with a rich European history. Hebrew cut them off from that, from their own past, from their connections with the rest of the world. They went further and changed their names. We can see the consequences both on a personal and national level.

Is the text available in English? I tried watching the You Tube video of the speech but my conversational Hebrew skills are not good and I could not understand most of what he said

It's fair to say that most of Israel's population derive from countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, which didn't experience as much diversity, democracy and freedom of expression. But on the other hand, there are elements from the Western world and complete laissez-faire (eg. getting tattoos purposely to defy Jewish & Islamic laws) and the deteriorating social responsibilities, are not to be envied. Also, politically speaking, Americanized Israeli candidates such as PM Benjamin Netanyahu, are highly supported by a good proportion of the new Aliyah since 1990, Russian Jewry, younger generations of the Sephardim and the Orthodox - all significant sectors within Israel's pluralism. Besides, accepting the criteria for human rights starts in one's family household.