I Admit: It's All Unnatural

Sivan 10, 5769, 6/2/2009
From the Hills of Efraim
Yisrael Medad (also blog My Right Word)

For anyone reading the reports in the media, in blogs and elsewhere on the issue of natural growth, the amount of material and its complexity is overwhelming. Well, it certainly is for me. It is also, sometimes, frustrating. Take this New York Times graphic presentation, for example.



It appears quite impressive but what it is actually doing is imparting a sense of Jewish dominance, of something slithering along. First of all, besides four Arab cities, where are the hundreds of Arab villages. Second, if Arab population growth were placed on the same map, it would overrun the outlines and become a blob.

I am sure that if I had a real head for mathematics I could explain issues such as demographics, density, birth rates, etc.

I don't so just let me say: I admit it. There really is no "natural growth". It's all unnatural.

Jews have returned home. They are revenants, coming back to their ancestral homes after centuries.

Despite difficulties, terror, opposition from within, pressure from without and many other obstacles, our growth is almost miraculous.

Maybe we do have God on our side.