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The Sky Is Not Falling, Israel Will Not Disappear
People wave Israeli flags following the release of hostages who were seized during the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and held in the Gaza Strip, in Ofakim, Israel, Nov. 30, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
I was born and raised in Canada, an affluent country, rich in natural resources. An old joke tells us that when Moses was leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, he actually meant to bring them to Canada, but since he stuttered, it came out of his mouth as Canaan.
For Jews trying to escape Nazi Europe before, during and even after World War II, Canada was not a welcoming place. However, in recent decades, Canada has become a haven for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and refugees from all parts of the globe.
Yet, according to a recent report, a record number of Canadians are leaving the country. In 2024, emigration from Canada reached its highest level since 2017, with 81,601 people packing their bags and heading for the exits.
If it was up to me, after a lifetime of traveling to many places, I would be tempted to designate New Zealand as the Promised Land — a land of plenty, a land with a wonderfully temperate climate, and, perhaps most importantly, a land located in a quiet neighborhood. Yet, New Zealand is experiencing a period of stagnating population growth as, emigration-soars.
Why am I bringing this up? Because of a recent flurry of apocalyptic articles, in news sources such as Neue Zurcher Zeiting, a Swiss daily newspaper, which reported that Israel’s emigration rates surged, rekindling old fears, when population growth was a major worry for the Jewish State.
Another article, in the Middle East Monitor, a pro-Palestinian news source, gleefully reported on Israel’s growing emigration — stating that half a million Israelis have fled and predicting dire consequences for the Jewish State.
Does this mean that someone should put up a sign at Ben Gurion Airport telling the last Israeli leaving the country to turn off the lights?
Not at all. Here are the facts: Israel is today a country of nearly 10 million people, three quarters of whom are Jews. Yes, it is true, in the year 2024, 82,000 Israelis emigrated, a higher number than usual, but not unheard of. There have been other periods, particularly during the 1980s, when emigration exceeded immigration. Moreover, 24,000 Israelis returned from abroad and 33,000 new immigrants arrived, mostly from Russia, but also from Western countries.
Israel’s population actually grew in 2024, because of its high birth rate, by far the highest in the 38 member OECD. The average Israeli woman gives birth to nearly three children, about double the OECD average. (It went up in 2023/2024 during the war with Hamas and Hezbollah.) The higher fertility numbers are true for both secular and religious Jews.
Israelis live in a free democratic society. They are free to come and go, and emigrating Israelis (yordim, as opposed to immigrants, those who make aliyah) have existed since before the state was established. What is different today is that the number of Israelis living abroad (expatriates) has become substantial.
In fact, nearly a million Israelis live abroad, more than 600,000 who emigrated, plus about 300,000 children born to Israelis living outside Israel. This means roughly one in ten Israelis live outside the country. Is this demographic situation unusual? Not at all. About the same percentage of Canadians live outside Canada due to high costs within the country. The number for New Zealand is even higher, almost 22%.
About 80% of the expatriate Israelis are Jewish, and they now form a growing proportion of the diaspora Jewish community. Roughly one third live in Europe, where, to some extent, they have replenished declining Jewish populations. The rest are in North America. It remains to be seen how this shift in the makeup of the Diaspora plays out. I wonder whether the recent post-October 7 rise in antisemitism in much of the Western world will lead to an increase in the number of expatriate Jewish Israelis who return to Israel.
Predictions about the demise of the Jewish State are not new. My favorite is one by William Eddy, former special assistant to the US Secretary of State, who toured the Middle East in 1947, just before the UN voted on the partition of the Palestinian mandate. He reported, “When partition comes, the Arabs will throw the Jews out … They will have no difficulty at all.”
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
The post The Sky Is Not Falling, Israel Will Not Disappear first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.