As Palestinians are massacred for staying, Israelis are desperate to flee

Defence affairs - joseph massad (opinion)

Even after 20 months of siege, displacement, and mass killing, Palestinians in Gaza continue to assert their will to remain - as Israel escalates its genocidal campaign by attacking aid distribution sites and massacring starving civilians who refuse to leave.

Meanwhile, Iranian retaliation against Israel's recent aggression has triggered yet another exodus of Israeli Jews from the settler colony. 

Israeli citizens, dual citizens, and tourists have been desperate to flee the country on so-called "escape flotillas" and "rescue flights", as conditions have become even more unlivable in the last two years than they had been before 7 October 2023.

With "large numbers of Israeli citizens" desperate to escape, the Israeli government has issued a decision effectively barring them from leaving. 

Despite the return of those who were stranded abroad during the latest war, the current flight of Israeli Jews continues a broader trend in recent years to leave the country. 

Already in December 2022, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on a new movement aimed at facilitating the emigration of Israeli Jews to the United States following the last Israeli elections, which participants feared had altered the Zionist state's relationship to religion. 

The group, called "Leaving the Country - Together", spoke of relocating 10,000 Israeli Jews in the first stage of its plan. Leaders of the group include anti-Netanyahu activist Yaniv Gorelik and Israeli-American businessman Mordechai Kahana. 

Kahana stated in an interview: "I saw people in a WhatsApp group talking about immigration of Israelis to Romania or Greece, but I personally think that it will be a lot easier for them to immigrate to the US," he said. 

"I have a huge farm in New Jersey, and I offered Israelis to join in order to turn my farm into a kibbutz... With such a government in Israel, the American government should let every Israeli who owns a company or has a sought-after profession in the US, such as doctors and pilots, immigrate to the US.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. 

For years, a growing number of Israeli Jews have sought to abandon the settler colony, driven by political disillusionment, fears over the loss of Jewish-majority rule, and the long-term unsustainability of the Zionist project.