Safeguarding Israel’s Jewish majority must be a national priority, Ehud Olmert said. “We must ensure that the State of Israel has a definite Jewish majority, or otherwise the notion of a Jewish state will become void,” the prime minister said Monday during a Knesset address in memory of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl. Olmert, like his predecessor Ariel Sharon, has justified his plan to quit parts of the West Bank by invoking the demographic threat posed by growing number of Arabs. Many on the Israeli right, however, believe further unilateral withdrawals will spur Palestinian terrorism. Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in his own remarks to the Knesset, said Herzl’s legacy should prompt Israel to fight threats to its existence.
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