The Political Agenda and Policy-Making: The Case of Emigration from Israel

Abstract

The article examines the process of introducing the complicated phenomenon of emigration from Israel on the Israeli political agenda, the place of this phenomenon on the agenda, its effect on public policy making in this sphere, and its being delegated from an important item to a pseudo item. Based on one of the models of Cobb and Ross — the Outside Initiative Model — an analysis is being made of the trends of development and stages of the raising of the topic of emigration on the political agenda and the strategies, procedures and frameworks that have led to its inclusion on the agenda. The article discusses whether the mere existence of the topic of emigration on the political agenda is likely to guarantee the determination of a systematic and comprehensive governmental policy and for the adoption of practical measures in this sphere. The article surveys the stresses and changes which have led to the alteration of the place of emigration from a major topic on the Israeli political agenda to a pseudo-item. An examination and analysis is being made of attitudes which have recently been arguing an explicit negation of the existence of the topic.

It seems that this phenomenon is accumulating a normative momentum that finds expression in an increased understanding of the phenomenon as such, in refraining from its disapproval, and in the increase of the number of those who regard themselves as potential emigrants. There is also an increase in the Israeli communities abroad and infrastructure is being created for the absorption of additional Israelis seeking their fortune abroad. The continuing existence of this situation is likely not only to prevent a reversal of the tendency, but to keep the phenomenon of emigration permanently as a pseudo-item on the Israeli political agenda and perhaps even totally to remove it from this agenda.

Although the presumptive processes and factors that have been raised might explain the alteration of the place of the phenomenon of emigration on the Israeli political agenda, it seems that they are also capable of explaining the conversion of other topics from real ones to pseudo ones.

Keywords:

• immigration
• emigration
• Israel
• Zionism
• diaspora

Notes

1. See Bachi, (1986). The democratic crisis of the Jewish nation (in Hebrew). Ha'aretz June 1. Bachi's report and its implications were discussed at a cabinet session on November 11, 1986.

2. See, for example, Kass, D., & Lipset, S. M. (1979). Issues in exile. Commentary 68.

4. See Government yearbook for 1981 (in Hebrew) Jerusalem: The Ministry of Culture and Education. State of Israel, p. 7.

5. This subject has been treated at length by: Fein, A. (1978). The process of migration: Israeli emigration to the United States, Ph.D. dissertation. School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western University, pp. 3–5; Plaut, S. E. (1982). The out movements of Israelis. Discussion Paper, 316, Haifa: Technion. Lamdany, R. Emigration from Israel. Discussion Paper, 82.08. Jerusalem: The Falk Institute. Friedberg, A. Yerida: The pull and the push. Forum 61, 23–31.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

13. Ibid, 112.

14. Ibid, 69.

15. Ibid, 188, 190, 193.

18. Cobb et al., op. cit.

19. Friedberg, op. cit.

21. Cobb et al., op. cit.

22. Cobb et al., op. cit.

23. Cobb et al., op. cit.

24. We would like to expect that (a) the greater the significance of the issue, and (b) the more isolated the initiating group, and (c) the more protected the period during which the issue remains on the public agenda and (d) the lower the probability that the government will tackle the problem on its own — the more likely will the choice strategies be violence or the threat of violence and institutional sanctions, rather than working through agents and attempting to obtain direct access to the government; Cobb et al., op. cit.

26. Cohen, E. (1959). Research on the causes of emigration from Israel: A summarizing report (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, Department of Sociology: Chapter from this study was also published in Lissak, M., Ed. (1969). Immigrants in Israel: A reader (in Hebrew); Jerusalem: Akademon pp. 787–808.

30. For example Elizur, D, & Elizur, M. (1975). To remain or to emigrate? The characteristics of potential emigration among immigrants from the Soviet Union (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Institute for Applied Social Research. Central Bureau of Statistics. (1973). A survey of the absorption of immigrants: Emigration from among new immigrants with two years of their arrival (immigrants and potential immigrants arriving during the period of September 1969 – August 1970) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Ministry of Immigrant Absorption: Spiegelman, A. (1977). Trends in the emigration of immigrants from Israel in 1975/76 (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Ministry of Immigrant Absorption:

34. For example, Fein, op. cit. Kass, D. & Lipset, S. op. cit.

35. For example, Toren, N. (1970). Israeli returnees (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: The Hebrew University. Elizur, D, & Elizur, M. (1974). Long is the way back (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Institute of Applied Social Research. Fein, A. (1980). Returnees on the thirtieth anniversary of the state of Israel (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Ministry for Immigrant Absorption and the Hebrew University.

37. Ibid.

38. Letter of resignation (in Hebrew) submitted on February 4, 1981 to Dulzin, Arie L., Chairman of the Zionist Executive.

39. See Lutrin, op. cit., 6–9.

40. See ELI. (1984). Ezrachim limni'at Yeridah (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: ELI Association. pp. 26–27. Included are photocopies of cables, dating July 21 and August 16, 1981, sent by the association's chairman listing the association's demands; also the photocopy of the cable of reply by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who states that he had authorized Deputy Minister Shilansky, Dov to handle “an effort of major importance in combating emigration for the Land of Israel.”

41. Ibid, 34–39.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid, 40, 42, 47.

44. Compare Friedberg, op. cit., 7, 21, 25, 28, 29.

45. Advertisements on ELI's behalf of ELI association on this matter were e.g., appeared in the Jerusalem Post of May 11 and May 19, 1981, and in Ha'aretz of May 23, 1981.

46. Compare ELI. Report of Income and Expenditure for March 4, 1982. Also the association's financial report for the period April 1, 1982 – March 31, 1985, and for the period April 1, 1985 – March 31, 1986.

47. Among the association's founders were a former legal advisor to the Government, the President of the Chamber of Advocates, a poet, the Director General of the Jewish Agency, the Director General of the Comptroller's Office of the Zionist Organization, and a professor of medicine.

48. see, for example, inter alia, summary of the debates of the Immigration and Absorption Committee of the Knesset on the subject of Emigration from Israel of March 10, 1981; minutes of the Knesset debates for the sessions of November 23, 1981; November 26–30, 1981; December 29–30, 1981 (in Hebrew). These take up a total of approximately 150 pages.

49. Compare March 18, 1982, letter from the head of activities for the prevention of emigration to the Deputy Minister, and the March 23, 1982, reply of the Deputy Minister.

51. Compare Summary Report on Activities Carried Out to the Sphere of the Prevention of Emigration from Israel. Jerusalem: Prime Minister's Office, (in Hebrew). September 1984.

53. Compare, for example, Par. 9 of the Demobilized Soldiers Law. Sefer Hachukkim 1121 (in Hebrew): July 11, 1984.

54. Government Resolution 478/3 of March 4, 1984 (in Hebrew).

55. Document of the Ministry of Immigration to the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee (in Hebrew), May 20, 1983.

56. Conclusions of the Committee of Directors General for the Prevention of Emigration (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, September 1981.

57. Ibid, 1

58. Ibid, 4

59. Ibid, 3.

60. Ibid, 5.

61. Ibid, 5.

62. See section entitled “Pseudo-Items on the Political Agenda” in the present article.

63. See sections entitled “Emigration on the Political Agenda and Governmental Policy” and “The Changing Status of the Issue of Emigration on the Political Agenda.” in the present article.

64. This is a representative sample of the Jewish population in Israel.

65. All the data of the survey carried out from March 1984 through December 1985 were published in Ha'aretz. January 1, 1987.

66. The Hebrew patriarch Abraham was the first immigrant as well as the first emigrant. Very few members of the Second Aliyah remained in the country; the majority left.

67. Compare Sharkansky, I. Avoiding the irresistible: Should the Israeli Government combat jewish emigration? The Jerusalem Quarterly 1987, 41, 95–111; on this matter see also Herman, F., & Lafontaine, D. (1983). In our Footsteps: Israeli migration to the U.S. and Los Angeles. M.A. thesis. Jerusalem: Israel. Hebrew Union College in Cooperation with the University of Southern California.

68. A good example of a subject which failed to elicit public debate was the issue of the production of the Israeli designed fighter aircraft, the Lavi.

69. A number of arguments were discussed at length by Sharknasky, Ibid.

70. For examples of vague and noncommittal consensus formulations in this regard: see Resolutions of the 30^th Zionist Congress, December 1982. (1983). (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Organization Department World Zionist Organization. (Sections 5–74).

71. These movements include for example the Immigration Movement of Northern America; dozens of Zionist youth movements of all political and ideological associations; the “Tehillah” Religious Immigration Movement; the “Telem” Movement for Zionist Fulfillment, most of whose members are Jewish students. The Ayala Organization of Returning Immigrants and “Reshit Geulah,” the Immigrant organization founded by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat. All of the members of these movements committed themselves to make “Aliyah” (to settle in Israel).

73. So, for example, see the appeal of the Chairman of the Zionist Executive at the meeting of the Zionist Executive Committee on July 2, 1987, and the address of the Chairman of the Younger General of the Zionist Movement in the same session.

74. In this connection see Resolutions of the 30^th Zionist Congress, Ibid. Sections 54 and 55.

75. See the sections on population in the annual reports of the Bank of Israel for 1981 and 1985 (in Hebrew). In 1986 there was also a negative balance of migration.

77. See Bachi, R. The democratic crisis of the Jewish nation (in Hebrew). Ha'aretz June 1, 1986, p. 4. Bachi's account served as the basis for a government debate on the country's demographic problems.

78. See Lutrin, C. E. The politics of agenda setting: The case of Israeli emigration policy. Papers presented to the Western Political Science Association Meetings, Jerusalem: Israel. March 20, 1986, p. 1.

79. See Herman & Lafontaine, op. cit., who point out that the children of the majority of Israeli emigrants are not enrolled in Jewish schools and do not speak Hebrew. Except for a small minority of religious emigrants, who have retained their Jewish identity, most have become estranged from Judaism.