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bmoney collected by Israel’s Arabs for child benefits to be stag- bgered by the drain on the state’s coffers. bAt a time when both inflation and recession shake the eco- bnomic structure of Israel; when young couples cannot purchase bor rent a decent apartment; when the defense budget along with bthe budgets of all other departments must be cut; when sub- bsidies for basic foodstuffs are slashed; when economic collapse bsends the Israeli Black Panthers into the street to threaten social band communal clashes; when thousands of young Israelis leave band many more think of leaving for other countries—who can bafford the enormous economic burden of the Arabs? bEconomy, demography, geography, democracy—all com- bbine to push Israel closer and closer to the abyss. What is the bsolution? bThere are those who understand the danger of Arab growth band who call for more Jewish babies. Indeed, there should be bmore, but the Jews do not want them. There are those who urge bus to teach Arab women to have fewer babies. Indeed, we should bdo that, but the Arabs see their babies as a national weapon bagainst the Jews, which they are. There are those who call for bmass aliya, immigration, to Israel. Indeed, is there anyone bamong us who will object to the Jews of the United States, Cana- bda, Britain, France, Australia, or anywhere else leaving all that bthey have and coming to Israel? But they do not come; the only bmeaningful aliya in the last fifteen years has been from the Soviet bUnion, and today those Jews prefer the West to the Jewish state. bBy all means let us attempt to have more Jewish babies, fewer bArab ones, and more Jewish immigration. But those are all faint bhopes, and we will be doing well if we can succeed in not having bthe balance of population increase in favor of the enemy in the byears to come. bThe Arabs of Israel grow in numbers, in education, in ha- btred of the Jewish state, and in confidence that time is on their bside. Time is running out for a state whose spokesmen follow in ba long tradition of Zionist leaders who either could not or would bnot understand that a Jewish state is an impossibility with a blarge and exploding Arab population. All the “peace” in the bworld on the part of Egypt or Syria will not save Israel from the bcancer raging within. It is not Arab armies from without that bare the problem, but the quietly—and soon loudly—ticking b
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