Amid all the euphoria about President Obama’s visit to Israel, modified by the realization that Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish prime minister Erdogan under pressure from Obama (and truth be told under pressure also from Israeli industry, which has seen its once-robust sales to Turkey plummet) was a serious and humiliating mistake, insufficient attention has been paid to a very positive fact.
Obama referred to Israel as “the Jewish state” and said it would always remain so. He was the first U.S. President to affirm this in such unequivocal terms.
Even more important are the conclusions of recent demographic studies, (such as those of David Goldman) that have shown that Israel is among a handful of advanced countries in which the birthrate substantially exceeds replacement level, so that its population is growing naturally, and not only because of immigration.