A radio interview by Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai revealed a dangerous trend, which has gained momentum in left-wing circles and has now found a foothold in the Lapid-Bennett government.
"Immigration to Israel is not part of my ministry's goals," the minister declared, and as if this scandalous statement was not enough, some listeners listened to another diagnosis from the creator of distorted post-Zionism: "Abroad is not exile."
There is a considerable temptation to regard the first statement as another example of a narrow and short-sighted understanding of the role of the government, a kind of parallel to the poor excuse provided by Deputy Prime Minister Lapid for his absence from the corona cabinet discussions. Lapid, it will be recalled, tried to explain his escape from dealing with the epidemic by saying that Corona's affairs deviate from his role as foreign minister, and perhaps Shai also believes that if there is another government ministry responsible for immigration, immigration should not interest him. This, of course, is a flawed approach, leading to a losing situation where offices operate uncoordinated and stumble over each other, but if the roots of Shay’s statements had been planted in her and her alone, it would have been half-narrow.
But the statements of the Minister of the Diaspora are more serious, because they sincerely reflect the ideological deterioration that has prevailed in his camp in recent years.
This camp has stopped seeing immigration as the goal of the State of Israel, and not just of a particular government ministry.
Remember how Shai's party overcame the barricades, in an attempt not to allow the enactment of a Basic Law that defines Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people?
After all, there is no more tangible expression of the essence of our state as the state of the Jewish people, than the immigration of Diaspora Jews to it.
Not for nothing, aliyah is so annoying to those who dream of making it a state of all its citizens: those who do not want a Jewish state - do not want aliyah.
On the contrary: those who do not want immigration do not want a Jewish state.
Jewish immigration to Israel was and still is one of the overarching goals of Zionism, both for practical and principled reasons. Herein lies the enormous difference between the Jewish and Zionist conceptions of the Diaspora and the attitude towards national Diasporas in other countries. For Armenia, for example, Armenian communities outside its borders - in France or the US - are a resource that can help Armenia in times of distress, and there is no aspiration that its members or descendants will ever return to their historical homeland.
In contrast to Shai, the Zionist idea is clear and decisive in determining the ideal: as we have exiled from our country, we will return to it from all corners of the globe and from all the exiles, since the normal situation for the existence of the people is to live in its homeland. When a minister in the Israeli government casually mutters that "abroad is not exile," he inflicts double damage: dulls the historical truth (Jewish communities around the world did not just pop up for them, but were formed as a result of the people's exile from Israel), and omits the ground under justice For if abroad is not exile, the Land of Israel is not a homeland. All haters of Israel will be happy to sign this statement. They certainly did not expect a minister in the Israeli government to provide it for them.