One of the less talked-about aspects of Ehud Olmert’s envelopes-filled-with-dollars affair is the unsavory picture it presents of Israel-Diaspora relations. Here is the sycophantic Diaspora shnorer sucking up to his Israeli hero, buying a piece of Zionist glory by slipping him money. And here is the Israeli politician, turning with a mixture of disdain and envy to wealthy American Jews for the support that, perversely, validates his Israeli identity.
Olmert and Morris Talansky hardly invented this paradigm of Israeli-Diaspora relations; The Diaspora was sending money to the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. But the sordid affair has served as yet another reminder that Israelis, for all their Zionist ethos, have been unable to detach themselves from the Diaspora.
One need only look at the growing trade in another — and perhaps even more valuable — currency to grasp how deep the ties run.
A recent survey by the Jerusalem-based Menachem Begin Heritage Center found that 59% of Israelis had approached or intended to approach a foreign embassy to ask for citizenship and a passport. (Interestingly, though, only 22% acknowledged actually considering leaving the country for even a limited period of time.) The 41% of Israelis not lining up for a second passport presumably either cannot prove sufficient parental roots in a new Eastern European member state of the European Union like Romania or Hungary, or find this to be an unpatriotic or tainted act, somehow akin to Olmert’s taking first-class flight tickets and hotel suites from Talansky.
Why can’t we just rely on ourselves? Why do Israelis want second passports?
The most obvious reason is that, like the shnorr, you can’t easily get the Diaspora out of the Jews.
Two or three generations in Israel are apparently not always enough to implant roots where few existed for two millennia. In this regard Israel, like New Zealand or the United States or any other immigrant-based country, inevitably produces a certain percentage of “re-immigration” — a return of immigrants or their descendants to their country of origin. Israelis used to disdainfully call emigration yerida, or “descent,” but it is an altogether natural phenomenon, which is why a wealthier and more self-confident Israeli public no longer uses the term.
Then, too, immigrants to Israel in recent decades from places like Russia and America have been allowed by their countries of origin to maintain dual-citizenship and hold two passports. More veteran Israelis may just be interested in catching up.
Most countries no longer zealously insist on the exclusivity of their citizenship. In the E.U., in particular, European identity here and there appears to be as important for some in the younger generation as national identity.
This points to another explanation: globalization. Insofar as Israel is very much a part of the global economy, it is no longer unusual for Israelis to commute to work in Europe and even the United States. A European or American passport renders the commute that much easier.
A second-generation Israeli of Polish extraction might want a Polish passport so she can study and work freely throughout the E.U. for a few years. And an Israeli doing business in the Arab world would definitely need a second passport.
And then there’s this: Despite the aspirations of Zionism to create a safe haven for the world’s Jews, Israel is hardly the safest place in the world. Can we blame Israeli parents for wanting their children to have another option, an insurance policy, just in case Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes good on his threats?
Even though it represents the most human of motives, this is the only really troubling aspect to those lines outside the Bulgarian and Romanian consulates in Tel Aviv. Come to think of it, no place in the world is particularly safe anymore. In this age of existential dangers and growing restrictions on immigration, people everywhere might want a second passport.
Not all countries that allow multiple citizenship have the same attitude toward their passports. Israel, with its global Jewish links, has always been liberal. Forty-five years ago, when I immigrated to Israel from America and joined the Israeli military, I automatically lost my American passport. A few years later, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling eliminated separate classifications for American citizens, obliging the American embassy in Tel Aviv to give me a new passport, which I have to use to enter the United States.
The British, on the other hand, still have different classes of passport holders; I have met Yemenite Jews in Israel, born in Aden when it was under British rule, who hold British passports that are good for everywhere in the world except the United Kingdom.
I also have an acquaintance or two who are trying to collect third and even fourth nationalities, based on their parents’ origins and children’s places of birth — just for the sport of it. Does all this rush for passports diminish our identity as Israelis? Is there something sleazy about it, like Talansky slipping Olmert an envelope holding $5,000 in greenbacks?
I doubt it. On the contrary, one could probably just call it another national characteristic.
Yossi Alpher, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, is co-editor of the bitterlemons family of online publications.
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Yossi Alpher has taken the scab off the fraudulence of "Zionism" as it is today. It used to be clear, wanting to be "a light onto the nations"; it used to be legitimate, even to those forward looking Arabs who understood that Israel was not holding fort until the Brits could afford to re-colonize it, to come back as master. But now after firing lots of guns at helpless people in retribution for a handful of terrorist actions; after starting up 7000 new housing units while previous units are 74% empty (there are no olims to fill any of these built-at-US taxpayers'-expense units, it's just "creating facts on the ground" with empty buildings); and after 60 years of living off the guilt of American Jews and their Congressional puppets, swimming in billions of dollars a year for a population smaller than San Francisco's...now it is realized that "Israeli" means noting to a lot of multi-passports holding "Zionists." Gee, all these American Kosher geriatrics who come back to Florida in disgust after Israeli taxes ate-up all their pensions and all those Israelis who get tuition-free high-power quality degrees in Israel only to work in the West, it is becoming clear that Israel is expanding over the bodies of the Palestinians it is crushing, but it is in negative growth....And still, for political advantage, some politicians in the Israeli Gov say Israel has to attack Iran-->oil prices suddenly rise-->stockmarket takes a dive-->US unemployment rises. How do you say "recession" in Hebrew? Ah well, if all the "Zionazis" should loose their crooked Kenneset posts they can always come back to America and run for Congress or something, afterall, they're multi-pasperters! But keep linking American economic catastrophe to your irresponsible political mouths and all your passports will go on fire. Really, I don't give a damn about these multis. But by God, I remember young friends I knew in Tel Aviv who used to tell me how lucky they are that they don't have to be, as I had been before stopping in Israel on my way home, in Vietnam. ALL-- yes ALL-- of them, these then young friends, became fallen heroes for God alone knows what in Israeli politics....The young die for the idiocy of the old, as everywhere else so in Israel! Multi-passport Israelis, meet multi-passport American neocons. Perhaps you will meet on your way to and fro in reciprocal paths of corruption....But will you old farts ever remember the clean clear stout hearted sabras who fought for their homeland, not for your money laundering hole where you kill Palestinians with illigal American cluster bombs? What do you do that justifies all those sabras who died so young? As I write this I cry for the only Israeli who understood the flaw of Samon, and payed for it so dearly. Please accept by tears and condolesnce.
Domnu Romanescu, sarmale? Mititei? Go back to your Codreanu roots.
Apart from the 59% of Israeli Jews who may be thinking of getting an insurance passport for a Diaspora land, don't forget the similar percentage of Jews worldwide who aren't going to make aliyah. Jews may be safer in Teheran than Ashkelon these days-- at least, until Israel or the USA starts bombing Iran. Thanks, Zionists. You did a great job. Herzl would be proud of you.
If one has an Israeli passport in addition to a passport from another country that simply equates to disloyalty to Israel. If you are truly an Israeli then you will commit to the state of Israel and you will not waffle on your commitment by having a secondary loyalty to another country. No matter how you look at it, supporting Israel with an American or any other foreign passport means that you put America or that other foreign country first and Israel second. If you identify with Israel and want to support its cause then you must do so honestly and state your primary allegiance in addition to your support of Israel. If you are ashamed to state your primary allegiance than you are not to be trusted anyway as you are not an honest partner and your true loyalty will not be measurable or counted on if the need arises. It is better for Israel to distinguish between its Family (Israeli Citizens), its supporters (Diaspora), and its Wafflers (dual passport holders) and Enemies (too many to count). Apologists for the dual passport holders are abundant in the media, who also have dual passports so they can board the first flight, ship, or vehicle out of Israel at the first hint of danger. Israeli's are no longer fooled by their rhetoric and eventually will put an end to this silly practice aimed at the "International Community" (what a lark) that prides themselves on being globally minded, but too high falutin to accept Israel as their homeland. In their minds and actions Israel is seen as a place to exile themselves to when they feel threatened by their country of residence (how ironic).
With a Romanian passport you can work all over the EU, in most countries you don't have to pay taxes if you only work there for six months. An IT professional can make 500 Euros or more per day contracting whereas in Israel you'd have to work for a long time to make that much money, plus it's taxed in outrageous ways.
Reply to Yitzhak: Yitzhak, you are a harsh judge. In the first place, Israel has shaken a lot of people's confidence by her deliberately expelling Jews from 'Aza, deliberately losing a winnable war in Lebanon, and refusing to properly defend herself - so of course it's natural to look for a way out. Secondly, many people, specifically European or American olim, are unable to make it financially in Israel and are literally starving - so again, it's natural they would look for a way out. None of this is disloyalty in any shape or form, only attempts at basic survival.
Yossi, when the Palestinians kick you out, dont emigrate here. We have no shortage of unskilled labor, unless perhaps David Nilsson needs a janitor. That itself is contingent of Mr Nilsson holding a job
Wally, I understand that what I said regarding the motivation of the dual passport holder is unpleasant to those who would prefer not to expose their indifference to Israel. The idea that you would leave because Israeli policies or military campaigns let you down doesn't hold much water to an Israeli citizen who will persevere. Your reference to the economy and hard times that have befallen those who have made aliyah as justification for leaving does not support the principles of return and further elucidates the differences that exist between Citizens, Supporters, and Wafflers. Imagine that you have no choice, but to defend your nation and its economy, further imagine that jobs are scarce and people are hungry and that a ticket to another land will make the daily grind much easier for you on the backs of others who will stay and fight on. Finally, imagine that when you leave the country for greener pastures it is finally weakened to the point of capitulation and you can no longer return. What does that leave you with?
Yossi...You can come and live with me, FREE!...I have read everything you ever wrote and so I can think of no better way for us to sunset that debating how to integrate Israel into the Arab World so it can truly become "a light onto the [Arab] nations." I beleive that BEFORE we both die the Arabs will thank Allah that Israel is there to integrate with theim economically and technically....But I am much more interested in the cardiovascualr effects of diabetes. I hope you also have some molecular biology background and some interest in medicine. By the way, I am a refugee and know how this passport issue must feel. Rather than multipassports, I want to see us all with PASSE-PARTOUT papers. I hope I didn't insult you. If I did I am sorry...and the same for all these right wing Zionists that I may have disparaged. But sorry, never a word for the neocon scum...They are war profiteers who think they will be considered "mensch" if they scream for someone else to go fight "World War IV." So Yossi, all my respect to you as a fighter for Israel and as a great brain-- even if we disagree on a lot. You are welcome to my house for dinner with your passports anytime. Shalom.
All it shows is that the Jewish Israelis themselves do not believe in Israel as either the ultimate safe haven for Jews nor as the best opportunity for them economically. Even if they live in Israel, they want options, and some sort of exit insurance. How can they expect the rest of the Jews to sign on if they themselves want to be certain that they could sign out?
Itzhak, I disagree. There is nothing wrong in securing more options, be they financial, social or indeed survival, in our case. Moreover we live in a more Global world. Jews are Jews and it is not that important what passport we have. What is important that we take the responsibility to secure the best possible options for ourselves and our kids. I am very happy with my Blue, Red and Green passports. Nor is this a Jewish/Israeli phenomenon. Look at all those goyim South Africans (amongst a whole host of nations)who are in Europe (UK) getting Red ones. I even know a RSA couple who immigrated to Australia after becoming British because they sort a similiar lifestyle in Saffa without the hot politics. Clever - their kids are RSA/UK and soon to be Aus. Kol a Kavod!