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[igotthisguitar]

Israel Aims To Lure Expats Back
IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer
Sun Dec 9, 11:11 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel is trying to persuade hundreds of thousands of its citizens living overseas to return home in a project to coincide with the state's 60th anniversary next year, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry said Sunday.

The project, dubbed "Coming Home," will try to lure Israelis living abroad to come back with tax breaks, employment and small business loans.

About 650,000 Israelis live abroad, 450,000 of them in North America, the ministry said. The ministry began contacting them last month with direct phone calls, an Internet site and a "hot line" phone connection.

"What surprised us most is the amount of positive feedback we received from countries where the standard of living is very high," said Erez Halfon, director of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry. "We received 285 calls from Israelis living in Switzerland, and of them, 15 families have committed to coming home."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed support for the project at a Cabinet meeting Sunday.

"Every Israeli, even if they live abroad, is Israeli at heart and knows that their home is here. I call on all Israelis to return home," Olmert said.

The project aims to bring 10,000 expatriates back to Israel in the first year and double that number over the next few years. Between 18,000 and 21,000 Israelis emigrate each year, Halfon told reporters.

The estimated cost of the campaign is $36 million a year, an amount the ministry believes will be paid back by the returning Israelis themselves.
"Within half a year of their being reintroduced into society as consumers, the government will get all their money back," Halfon said.

Halfon said the project aims to remove the social stigma faced by those who leave Israel, so they will have a softer landing upon their return.

Traditionally, Israelis who left the Jewish state were widely looked down on by Israeli society and viewed as letting the country down or selling out. Linguistically, immigration to Israel is called "aliya," the Hebrew word for ascent, while emigrating is dubbed "yerida," or descent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_immigration;_ylt=AhYDEhCLqxbyEIb8eMXYMKMDW7oF

[mithridates]

That sounds like a good idea. I wonder if you can get a special visa if you learn Hebrew.

[Kuros]

$36 million is a drop in the bucket if they can re-introduce even 3,600 people into their country. $1,000/person will be repaid in taxes and economic benefit in no time.

The battle against Palestinian demographic supremacy continues.

[mcgeezer]

more evidence of the Nile to the Euphrates takeover by the Israeli's in the middle-east!

where exactly do they plan to put all these people i wonder?
ahhh right, probably in the illegally occupied territories

[igotthisguitar]

Popular TV Show Seeks To "Humanize" Arab-Israelis
By Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Dec 13, 2:31 PM ET

JERUSALEM � Amjad is a neurotic Arab-Israeli journalist who desperately wants to fit in.

He teaches his daughter Passover songs and wears a yarmulke when he takes his family to a Jewish Seder. He trades in his beat-up old Subaru for a more expensive "non-Arab" car so that he won't get stopped at Israeli checkpoints.

But nothing Amjad does seems to exorcise his feelings of alienation as the central character in "Arab Work," a groundbreaking new Israeli prime-time television sitcom that features an Arab-Israeli family struggling to assimilate in the Jewish nation.

For a half-hour every week, "Arab Work" uses irreverent and self-deprecating humor to challenge the Israeli media's predominant image of Arabs as dangerous adversaries.

The show, which debuted in late November, is an early hit. The first two episodes ranked in the top 10 and were viewed by 22 percent of Israeli households in a country of 7.2 million people. Channel 2, the Israeli network that airs the show, already has agreed to buy a second season.

But "Arab Work" is more than a wacky sitcom about life for the Arab minority in Israel . It's a risky attempt to use slapstick humor to lampoon both sides in this deadly, divisive arena

CONT'D ...

http://real-us.news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20071213/wl_mcclatchy/2783895
;_ylt=Ah8MY7UHvV2ou3vt.ru27TSve8UF