What does America’s left wing Democrat party’s racial alignment look like? Not surprisingly, white Europeans with liberal perspectives combined with most of the minority communities.
What does Israel’s current right wing government; e.g., the Likud party’s racial alignment look like? Surprisingly, it consists mostly of minorities. A fact that is often ignored by the anti-Israel crowd who accuse Israel of being an apartheid state, is that Israel’s majority population is comprised of Jews of color; Jews who escaped from Arab lands (Sephardic or Mizrachi), Iran, and Ethiopia.
This is the mirror opposite of the U.S. The darker skinned “minority” is the core base of support for Israel’s right-wing government. This minority also is deeply rooted in traditional values.
As background, Sephardic or Mizrachi Jews had been returning to Israel for the past millennium in trickles. Then came the pogroms and ultimately the unspeakable Holocaust in Europe. The result was a huge influx of European Jews returning home in the last century and a half. The surrounding Arab nations subsequently expelled their Jews, many of whom were long established in those countries, and they, too, fled to Israel, arriving after the European Jews. The darker-skinned arrivals were often treated as second-class citizens by some of their European Jewish counterparts. They ended up living in difficult conditions mainly in the periphery. Most brought strong religious values and traditions.
Today 54% percent of the Israeli Jewish population is either Mizrachi, Persian or Ethiopian. ............ To Read More....
My Take - Demographics is a foundational force whether it's dealing with domestic or international politics, and in this case, it's going to alter the foundational structure of Israel's economy, government and politics, both domestic and international. I think this is one of the most insightful pieces I've read on Israel.
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