Bring the Expatriates Home

By Moshe Feiglin

Tevet, 5768
Dec., '07

Israel's Ministry of Absorption has recently announced a new project in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary -- bringing its expatriates home. Personally, I am very moved by the idea. I still remember how Rabin called the "yordim," literally, those people who descend from (leave) Israel "cowardly weaklings." By the way, Rabin's son lives in New York, as do Olmert's sons and quite a few other famous members of Israel's "high society."

The expatriates, as it turns out, are not "cowardly weaklings." They are part of more than one million Israeli citizens who have emigrated from Israel in the last sixty years. It is easy to understand those who left. For sixty years, the State of Israel has given people a lot of good reasons to abandon ship. Today it is supplying even better reasons. After the left-wing brainwashing to which most Israelis are constantly exposed at school and in the media, it is hard for many to explain what they are doing here, in the first place.

There are one million Israelis in the Diaspora whose souls are here, despite all of Israel's flaws and insanity. They know that Israel is much greater than the sum of its parts. The State of Israel is now mature enough to admit that we need them as much as they need us. And on its 60th birthday, it lovingly beckons them to return, enticing them with perks and making the rules more flexible, saying to them, "Brothers, we want you here. This is your home. Let's turn over a new leaf."

After we have encouraged all sorts of non-Jews to immigrate to Israel, after we have brought alcohol, churches and neo-Nazis to our cities in the guise of aliyah, we have discovered that the diamond is buried in our own back yard. The Israeli expatriates already know the language, have relatives and friends here and can quickly be absorbed into the county, becoming part of the return of the Nation of Israel to an active role in history.

In the Diaspora, the Jews are dwindling away. If the current rate of assimilation continues, the Jewish population outside of Israel will decrease by 80% over the next fifty years. And that does not take physical attacks against Jews into account. In a year or two, the majority of the world's Jews will be in Israel. It may not make the morning headlines, but the Diaspora is waning and the Nation of Israel is returning home.

I don't think that France or England would try so hard to bring their expatriates home. But the Nation of Israel is motivated by a historical destiny that pushes us forward, even though we do not exactly understand why or to where. This process is larger than life, and we are the stars of the drama. Bringing the expatriates home reveals the uniqueness of the state of the Jews. It gives me one more good reason to be proud of my country.