Word: sephardim
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...outcome will be influenced by a significant demographic trend: the growing political strength of the Sephardim. Unlike the Ashkenazim, who came from Germany, Poland, Russia and other areas of Eastern Europe, the Sephardim migrated to Israel from such diverse places as Morocco, Greece, Yemen and Iraq. Initially a minority (17% in 1948), the Sephardim now make up 55% of the population and about half the electorate. It is the Sephardic votes that in 1977 swept Begin to power. In the past seven years, the Sephardim, says Author Oz, "have risen from the emotional position of second-class citizens into...
...longer a minority, the Sephardim gain political clout...
There is also a long-standing split between the Eastern "European Ashkanazi and the oriental Sephardic immigrant Jews, a split which greatly affects Israeli political life. The Ashkanazim came to Israel first, early in this century, and hold most of the professional and prestigious positions. The Sephardim came later and are generally of the lower-class. Menachem Begin and the Likud party appealed to the Sephardim, who felt ignored and snubbed by the Labor party. While a tenuous generalization, it has been largely (but far from wholly) the Sephardim who have supported Likud's expansionist policies...
...have built a working democracy from scratch in a region that has no others. Israelis must treasure that democracy, protect it with all their will. For if they don't, the growing pains that are Lebanon, Shatila and Sabra, the repression of Arabs and the feud between Ashkenazim and Sephardim could turn into a plague...
...debate about the war continue, let the investigation of the massacre run its course. And give Arabs in Israel the chance to express themselves, permit the Sephardim to voice their discontent. Stifling discord, ignoring the problems that any democratic society inevitably encounters will only prove counter-productive and make the Israeli fruit rotten. That is the danger from within...