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From: meth@csd2.UUCP (Asher Meth)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Jews and ISRAEL
Message-ID: <3780073@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 12:57:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: csd2.3780073
Posted: Mon Aug 26 12:57:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 10:56:43 EDT
Organization: New York University
Lines: 82


  NOTE :
  Extracted from an article about "Jews and Israel", 
  including relations with South Africa.

>...  This is aside from that if every Jew in America went to
>Israel to stay the result would be one impossibly overcrowded "homeland."
>     Daniel R. Levy   levy@ttrdc

I beg to differ with you, on several levels.

(1) The land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, is referred to as "eretz tzvi", the land
of (which is like a) deer. It looks small, but it is like the skin of a deer.
Namely, while on the deer, the skin stretches to cover his whole body. Once the
soul has been removed from the deer, the skin seems to shrink greatly; it
cannot be stretched to fit the body that it once held.
So it is with the holy land, Eretz Yisrael. When Jews live there, and follow
the teachings of HaShem, it can support any number of them (no matter how large)
for then they embody the spirit of the land.  When Jews do not live there,
it just cannot support many inhabitants. They will always struggle to find 
enough food, and may have to live like nomads, travelling from place to place, 
in order to survive. It is interesting to note that there are people  who live
like that in Eretz Yisrael itself, today, in the here and now (i.e., this is 
fact; note the Bedouins).

(2) The British government imposed quotas on the number of Jews permitted to
enter Israel, turning away many who had no place to go (e.g., during WWII,
earlier, too) - a historical fact. Besides the reason of "not wanting to upset
the Arabs, and not upsetting a 'balance' in the area, will the world say OK?"
(terms we hear all too often from both sides of the Mediterranean), the British
conducted a scientific study to determine just how many people could live in
this area of land, given its natural resources, climate, etc. With the results
of this study (a proper scientific study, as far as I have heard), the British
could easily justify closing the borders of Israel to unwanted Jewish refugees.
The land just could not support more than the paltry sum of approximately
300,000 people. You just cannot overrun the place with hundreds of thousands
more people, no less millions.
Was this study correct ? Yes, and No.
Yes : Scientifically, and with respect to any other nation (non Jewish), the
land could not support more than the said 300,000.
No : The land of Israel is not like all other lands. It is intrinsically tied
to the Jewish people. When the Jewish people live in Israel, it can support any
number of them, millions, too. (Today's Jewish population in Israel is about
3 million, if I am not mistaken - 10 times as much as the British report said
that it could hold !)

(3) Have any of you out there ever been to Israel ? Are you familiar with its
topography ? Have you seen all those hills, everywhere (except on the coastal
plain) ? Have you seen those cities/towns that exist and that are being built
on those hills ? Empty, barren hills, unpopulated for years and years, full of
big rocks, for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see. As you drive along
the road, winding around the mountains, all you see are empty hills, or hills
with recently built towns (read, settlements); and plenty of room to spare.
One hill may be built up; the surrounding ones are still barren. 

Do not let the propaganda fool you into believing that all new settlements are
built upon the ruins of old, established Arab villages, whose residents are
being sent to live in delapidated refugee camps, under the friendly protection
of that great arm of the world peace-maker and peace-keeper UNRWA (United
Nations Relief and Works Association - or something similar).
It is just not true. Just as my eyes have seen it, so can yours. And it is
really a beautiful sight to see - pioneers, going out and building the land.
It should sound quite familiar to the American ear - the spirit of hard working
pioneers is what built this great country in which we live today (the USA).

(4) Concerning those empty, barren hills, on which cities are rising :
The Talmud makes mention of a Jewish king who had established on each of 60
hills, 60 cities - an enormous population. (I think that it may be found in
Gittin, among the discussions of the destruction of the Temple.) When my father
viewed these barren hills for the first time in his life last summer, he
commented - now I can begin to understand how that king had such a great
population living in these hills. The topography is such that you can build all
the way up the hill, and all around, too. Picture a city with many apartment
buildings (e.g., New York - I'm familiar with it). Picture these apartment
buildings rising on a hill, on all sides of the hill. You can fit many more
units on a hill than you can on a flat piece of land.

I think that I have said enough. Not only would it not be impossible for all
the Jews to fit into our homeland of Israel, there would be plenty of space
left over for many more people.

Asher Meth ....... meth@nyu-csd2.arpa ....... allegra!cmcl2!csd2!meth