Eretz Nehederet is Israel’s most sharply incisive television program. You could watch hours of loud and messy debates on the network news programs and glean more knowledge about the state of affairs in the country and the Jewish world by watching one of Nehederet’s satirical skits.
A case in point was the clip that went viral late last week, featuring a segment in which Eli and Jennifer (played by American influencer Emily Austin) meet by chance at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Eli’s an Israeli fleeing what he feels is a failing country (“the most dangerous place on earth for Jews”); she’s making aliyah from New York following the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of the city she calls no longer safe for Jews.
“You wake up and you realize it’s not the same country you grew up in,” both say simultaneously, referring to their respective countries. Neither can comprehend the other’s position and leave each other with a perfunctory “Am Yisrael Chai” followed by grumbled insults on the other’s perplexing decisions.
The segment hits a bullseye on the issue of how Israel is perceived by Israelis and by Jews in the Diaspora. Has it lost the ideals of its founding fathers, as Eli claims, and do Jews around the world see it as an escape route for the antisemitic tsunami that has overtaken much of the Western world, as Jennifer opines?
According to Knesset research, more people are leaving the country than arriving
According to the Knesset’s Research and Information Center, from January 2022 to August 2024, roughly 125,000 more people left the country than arrived, spurred by the October 7 massacre and subsequent multi-pronged war.
The Central Bureau of Statistics reports that 82,000 Israelis emigrated in 2023, with similar figures expected this year, the highest since 2010. Among those leaving are thousands of highly skilled professionals, including more than 8,000 from the hi-tech industry between October 2023 and mid-2024 alone.
Those who left are some of the best and brightest that Israel has produced, and their loss is devastating.
Immigration-wise, some 70,000 people from 95 countries made aliyah in 2022, dipping to 47,000 in 2023. Since October 7, until early 2025, over 60,000 have decided to make Israel their home, despite the ongoing conflicts.
At the end of the week, the Finance Ministry announced that the government is considering a 2026 tax policy that would exempt new immigrants and returning residents from taxation for their first two years of residency in the country.
After the first two years of residency, taxation for new immigrants and returning residents will rise by 10% each year, reaching up to 30% by 2030. The reform applies to annual incomes of up to NIS 1 million.
Existing benefits for new immigrants and returning residents, such as a 10-year exemption on foreign income and tax credit points, will remain in place.
“I call on Jews in the Diaspora and Israelis abroad: come home,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The proposal misses the major point of why so many people like Eretz Nehederet’s Eli have left the country. They may be no less patriotic than any of us who have stayed, but even if you take the seven-pronged war and the hostage tragedy in Gaza out of the equation, living in Israel is a challenge.
Ask the Israelis who left why they gave up on Israel either temporarily or permanently, and the answers might include: the Left-Right chasm that dominated the public arena for the year before the war and the inclusion of far-right parties in the government; the issue of haredim (ultra-Orthodox) in society and the sense that only some are pulling the weight for others; and the untenable cost of housing and the general cost of living.
There’s so much good about Israel, but it’s these issues and more that will prompt some olim to go pack it in after a few years, and it will prevent those Israelis abroad from deciding to come home.
Systemic changes, not just tax breaks, are required to create the environment that makes Israel an attractive and desirable place to live.
It may never be the same country that Eli grew up in, but it can still be a beacon, not because there’s no other place else to go for Jews, but because it’s the best place to be for Jews.