ISRAEL - One Million to Come

Israel has the capacity to absorb one million new immigrants, Jewish Agency chairman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog said at a conference in Jerusalem, as senior government officials called for greater national preparations amid rising antisemitism and uncertainty facing Jewish communities abroad.

Almog also warned that Jewish communities worldwide needed to prepare for worsening security conditions, calling for emergency assistance networks and early-warning systems to protect communities facing potential threats.

The goal of bringing one million Jews to Israel has been raised by Almog previously. In November 2023, he predicted that rising antisemitism could lead to one million immigrants arriving over the following years.

Slightly more than 20,000 immigrants arrived in Israel during the Jewish year 5786, from over 100 countries. Russia, France, and the United States were the leading countries of origin.

-www.jpost.com, 12 October 2026

Commentary: What started in 1882 was the first major wave of organized Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine.

This “First Aliyah” took place about 144 years ago, but the stream of Jews returning to the land of their fathers continues uninterrupted. Why? There are multiple reasons, one being the frightfully increasing specter of antisemitism globally.

Yet, there is an overarching reason, and that is found in Ezekiel 36:24: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.” Notice the last three words, “your own land.” That, however, is greatly disputed by the nations of the world.

Neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt have learned their lesson not to tangle with Israel’s powerful military. Yet in reality, all the neighboring Arab countries strongly insist on the establishment of an Arab Palestinian state in the midst of Israel. That, as we have just read, contradicts God’s statement, “your own land.”

Here again, the problem in this part of the Middle East is not because of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, but the reverse: Arab-occupied Israeli territory.

That’s not all, because the whole world is involved, as Joel 3:2 proclaims: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”

Again, the last three words are significant: “parted my land.” That is the reason for the much debated and continuously in the news issues in the Middle East.

(See The Case for Zionism, Item #2327, $14.99.)