Why wouldn't Jews emigrate to another country instead of the fighting?

Answer 1

There are four major reasons why Jews do not "just emigrate" and they are the below reasons.

1) I live here!: This is a very simple, but important reason. The notion the Jews should vacate Israel is very offensive to native Israelis. Nobody tells the Australians to go back to the United Kingdom even though they stole vast amounts of land from the Aborigines. Nobody tells the Africans in Brazil to go back to Africa. The Jews who live in Israel are part of the fabric of that country and that society and should not be asked or requested to give up their homes, dreams and lives for the possibility that it may end violence.

2) Been there, tried that: Jews have lived in numerous countries all across the world and have never lived in a country that unequivocally accepted them as equals at all points in their history. Even the United States, which has certainly been the most tolerant country for Jews in history did not truly open up to Jews until the 1960s. There were quotas on Jewish admission to University, slander of them in the public square, and it was an unspoken rule that Jews were not allowed political office. In less tolerant countries, Jews were massacred and annihilated, treated like second-class citizens, had their religion repressed, had their job opportunities minimized, lacked consistent basic rights, and were charged additional taxes and fees for the privilege of not being killed. Jews are not interested in leaving their future to others any longer.

3) Necessity of the Jewish State: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.

4) Jewish Historical Connection: Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).