That "demographic bomb" threatening Israel is now closer to a firecracker

Remember the articles from the 1990s and early 2000s that predicted a demographic bomb that would destroy Israel?

This front page article in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times from September 21, 2003 was typical:

Note the pull quote - the entire reason this woman wants lots of children is because she wants to ethnically cleanse Jews.

In that article, Israeli demographer Arnon soffer confidently predicted that by 2020, there were be 8.5 million Arabs in territories Israel controls, compared to 6.5 million Jews. 

His predictions of the Arab population was only off by 1.5 million.

The Arab population growth has been steadily slowing over the years, and their birthrate has plummeted. While the Palestinian Arab and Israeli Arab birthrates per thousand used to be more than double that of Jews in Israel in 2001, they are now much closer to parity.

Also, in 2018, the fertility rate of Jewish women in Israel surpassed that of Arab Israeli women.

Not to say there isn't still an issue, but that argument that Israel must panic and give Palestinians a state because of the demographic threat has lost much of its urgency - especially since Israel washed its hands of Gaza and has no interest in controlling that sector with its 2.1 million Arabs. 

Interestingly, most feminists don't seem to have a problem with the reasons for a higher Arab birthrate - a patriarchal culture, women discouraged from getting jobs, illegal abortions, and polygamy. 

(h/t Noah)

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