PC/WI: Israel encourages Arab Christians to emigrate to their country.

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
What if Israel encouraged Arab Christians throughout the Middle East to emigrate to their country and thus boost the country's population?

Although Israel wants a more or less Jewish homeland could they let the newcomers continue their faith but their children get taught the Jewish faith in schools until they leave where by they can either choose to remain Christian or take up Judaism.

Would this work?

Regards filers
 
I'm far from an Israel expert.

But my limited observations of human nature tell me the parents are going to object to their Christian children being "indoctrinated" into Judaism.
 
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BigBlueBox

Banned
With the exception of the Maronites in Lebanon, Arab Christians hate Israel just as much as their Islamic countrymen. You know that some of the Palestinians are Christians right?
 
What if Israel encouraged Arab Christians throughout the Middle East to emigrate to their country and thus boost the country's population?

Although Israel wants a more or less Jewish homeland could they let the newcomers continue their faith but their children get taught the Jewish faith in schools until they leave where by they can either choose to remain Christian or take up Judaism.

Would this work?

Regards filers

DOA.

Israel considers Christian Arabs to be "better" than Muslims, but trust me when I say that they don't want more of them.

Plus, this sort of "indoctrination" program goes against both Jewish tradition (which discourages proselytization) and Israeli policy (which permits Arabs in the country to manage their own education, which is mostly in Arabic and skips the Jewish religious texts taught in Jewish schools*)

Israel has, if anything, often been concerned that its population - and especially its Arab population - is too high.

Now - Israel providing strong but covert support (including financial and security) to Lebanon trying to do the same thing? Big yes. But we get into the problem now that Lebanon's Christians are dominated by the Maronites, whereas most of the Christian Arabs are not, and OTL shows us that the Maronites aren't thrilled about sharing power with their notional coreligionists.

* In religious Jewish schools (which are public; yeah, I know...) Mishnah and Talmud are taught, more-or-less as truth. In secular Jewish schools, the actual Jewish Bible is taught, but is presented as cultural and literary heritage
 
With the exception of the Maronites in Lebanon, Arab Christians hate Israel just as much as their Islamic countrymen. You know that some of the Palestinians are Christians right?
Maronites don't actually like Israel, they were only allies out of convenience. There was a poll on approval rating of international politicians among sunnis, shias, and Christians and the only thing they agreed on was hating Netanyahu.
 
Maronites don't actually like Israel, they were only allies out of convenience. There was a poll on approval rating of international politicians among sunnis, shias, and Christians and the only thing they agreed on was hating Netanyahu.

Sure, today.

But in the 70s and 80s?

EDIT: And for that matter,

With the exception of the Maronites in Lebanon, Arab Christians hate Israel just as much as their Islamic countrymen. You know that some of the Palestinians are Christians right?

This is less straightforward than you present it as. Christians have always been a small minority of Palestinians, and getting smaller every day; a little under 6% of Palestinians are Christian, and they have lower birth rates than Muslims so this is going down. But even going back to the earliest available census (1922), only about 11% of inhabitants of the Mandate of Palestine were Christian (the census records only religion, and so some of those were Christians* who did not consider themselves Palestinian - though it's unlikely that many were). And, frankly, they do get along better with Israel. As an imperfect proxy, we see that among Jerusalem Palestinians (who are eligible for Israeli citizenship but often do not take it), Christians are disproportionately more likely to accept Israeli citizenship than Muslims.

Among Arabs in Israel, some of who identify as Palestinian, Christians are less likely to identify as Palestinian than Muslims, as well as more likely to identify as Israeli (the polls usually ask the questions separately, so that an individual could be both, either, or neither). Christian Arabs in Israel are wealthier and widely reckoned to be better assimilated.

Israel is said to covertly support Christian communities in Arab countries (and, for example, the Iraqi pilot who defected to Israel with a MiG 21 was a Christian) - though obviously that's much harder to show conclusively one way or the other.

Now, I'm not saying that all Christian Arabs love Israel, or even like it, or even don't hate it. I'm just saying that it's not really as simple as "[they] hate Israel just as much as their Islamic countrymen."

* Like the Templers
 
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oberdada

Gone Fishin'
I'm far from an Israel expert.

But my limited observations of human nature tell me the parents are going to object to their Christian children being "indoctrinated" into Judaism.


WHY indoctrinated? Israel has local school systems, not a national one. So nothing of the sort is happening in Arab villages in OTL. Why should this change, with some Christian Arabs moving to Israel?
 
WHY indoctrinated? Israel has local school systems, not a national one. So nothing of the sort is happening in Arab villages in OTL. Why should this change, with some Christian Arabs moving to Israel?

Because that what the OP proposed?

Although Israel wants a more or less Jewish homeland could they let the newcomers continue their faith but their children get taught the Jewish faith in schools until they leave where by they can either choose to remain Christian or take up Judaism.
 
Judaism discourages strongly prosyletizing unlike the other 2 Abrahamic Religions and in addition its much harder to become Jewish, some ultra-orthodox branches dont even recognize converts as Jews, so for Jewish Prosyletizing to be encouraged, you need to alter Judaism somehow and what being a Jew is, massively
 

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
With the exception of the Maronites in Lebanon, Arab Christians hate Israel just as much as their Islamic countrymen. You know that some of the Palestinians are Christians right?

Yes. I am aware of this thanks.

Worked with a good fellow who was a Christian Palestinian in the '90s

Very well educated and I learned a lot from him about theology regarding Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
 
What if Israel encouraged Arab Christians throughout the Middle East to emigrate to their country and thus boost the country's population?

Although Israel wants a more or less Jewish homeland could they let the newcomers continue their faith but their children get taught the Jewish faith in schools until they leave where by they can either choose to remain Christian or take up Judaism.

Would this work?

Regards filers

No.

Arab Christians were the leading figures of Arab nationalism. There is no chance for Israel to accept Arab Christian migration to Israel. And expecting Arab Christians to choose Judaism is silly as they are more religious than Polish Catholics or Bosnian Muslims.
 
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