TJDF - Proudly Israeli, Even With a Second Passport

From my archive of press clippings:

The Jewish Daily

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Proudly Israeli, Even With a Second Passport

The Strategic Interest

By Yossi Alpher

Thu. Jun 05, 2008

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.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"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.) "

&

"(I)mmigrants 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.

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."