From the day of its creation, the state of Israel has developed a fear of the demographic issue. There’s hardly any discourse on Jewish-Arab relations where demography doesn’t play a central role. There’s hardly a discussion of Jewish settlements in the Galilee and Negev where the genie of demography doesn’t assert itself — how many Jews versus how many Arabs. If it’s found that the margin of Jews is high, a sigh of relief is heard. If the margin of Arabs is high, a warning siren is heard.
One can understand and identify with the reasons that, from its first day, Israel had adopted the policy of “the Jewish majority.” The long history of the Jewish people as a persecuted minority has bred a determination to change this situation, to guarantee Jews security in their new/old country. Accordingly, the young nation prepared itself to absorb Jews — as many as possible. Its leaders spared no effort and no resources to make sure that a large gap would remain among Jews and Arabs in the country.
