For I dipt into the future,
Far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world,
And all the wonder that would be
– Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson
Actually, if you bother to read the entire poem it is quite remarkable how clearly the famous poet saw the world developing and it happened just as he predicted.
That was nearly 200 years ago!
Even more remarkable that a conservative British Lord could see past the opening night at the opera and munching cucumber sandwiches during the interval.
Our world of today is no longer predictable.
For those of us who conscientiously follow the news we appear to be fascinated with artificial intelligence, robots, computers installed in the brain and smart phones sewn into your skin.
If we dip into the future we could be transported to another planet while robots govern the earth.
But we should be looking at the real world, the one in which we live even though we ought to think about tomorrow.
So Much for Fantasy
Right now Israel is floating in troubled waters.
Far too many internal problems are handicapping future growth and development, but even the present should not cloud the future.
According to the Israel Bureau of Statistics, the population of Israel could grow anywhere from 15 to 18 million by 2050.
Although this is only a hypothetical number, circumstances could well alter the projection. Unless serious consideration is given to absorbing a few more million, where would they live?
To think that the major cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv could absorb more millions is unthinkable.
It’s time to stretch our minds and look at more achievable options. They’ll be plenty of suggestions.
Annexing Judea and Samaria and Gaza for starters, but that means absorbing all the palestinian Arabs as well.
That becomes a political solution, well outside the scope of this post.
Expand the population of the Galilee and the Negev is another suggestion.
It’s well worth exploring, but the cost would be enormous to cultivate deserts in the Negev and hills in the Galilee to absorb a few million more people.
Certainly, there is scope for more development in the existing locations, but we should only think of thousands, not millions.
By expanding the existing 270 odd kibbutzim where about 120,000 people live is an achievable alternative where the foundations are already in place to develop towns, possibly even cities.
Once again, we’re only talking thousands, not millions.
What Do We See
If we just dismiss this projection about the growth of population in Israel as a visit to fairyland, we are guilty of not understanding what Israel is determined to accomplish to save the Jewish world.
Just imagine a Jewish world of more than 20 million souls at the end of the next generation.
That’s precisely what Israel is aiming to achieve, to rebuild Jewish life after nearly being decimated during WW2.
How we achieve this goal may well be a worthwhile project for the hi-tech world in Israel to tackle.
Our ultimate survival rests not only solving the differences of opinions governing us now – certainly they’ve got to be resolved – but objectivity rather than subjectivity should be our guiding light.
Ingenuity is our greatest asset.
Down to the last few days. Every dollar counts.
