Israeli v. Palestinian demography

Check this out:
(http://yoramettinger.newsnet.co.il),

For a long time it was said that Israel could be either a democracy or an authoritarian state. It would have Israeli voting power only if it was authoritarian. If it was democratic the Palestinians would have have voting power because of differential demography:

The Palestinian TFR (the average number of children per women born during the course of fertile years) was way up high. The Israeli TFR was falling.

A funny thing happened on the way to demographic disaster:

Palestinian Total Fertility Rates have fallen dramatically, and there has been a substantial out-migration. (They too watch television at night.)

Meanwhile, Israeli TFRs have also fallen, but not nearly as dramatically.

High irony: Secular Israelis have the highest TFRs of any modern nation in the world. How so?
Many Israelis have a third child (an "insurance baby ") because of fear of Arab terror or new wars. I'd guess at least ten Israeli babies are born for every Israeli killed in by war or terror. (Crass perhaps. But true.)

Moreover, there has been a large number of immgrants coming to Israel.

David Ben Gurion thought such an immigration would come from the U.S.

Instead it came from the Soviet Union. They vote. For a while Natan Sharansky was their hero in a special party.

Some of the original research and promotion of these ideas came from AEI. From demographer Nick Eberstadt and me,

Ben