The Israeli emigration myth

For months now, certain news outlets have reported that Israeli citizens are increasingly evacuating their country.

One frightening headline announced, "Over one in four Israelis considering leaving the country, poll finds." Another article shrieked, "‘We’ve given up on Israel’: Disillusioned with Netanyahu and the war in Gaza, Israelis are fleeing." A news account in The Washington Post proclaimed that "Israelis are moving abroad in record numbers due to fear and discontent." Addressing the ominous portrayal, a columnist judged that "Israelis are losing faith in their nation’s future, and they don’t believe they can get it back."

At first glance, you might think that Zionism is doomed, and Israel is becoming a ghost town. But the dire warning is a false alarm.

The emigration worrywarts cite two sources of information. One is a survey of Israeli public opinion by the officially nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), and the other document is a Knesset Immigration Committee report based on Israeli migration statistics.

"These dramatic improvements in Israel’s national security probably convinced many would-be Israeli emigrants to stay home."

The IDI survey, conducted in April but not published until Dec. 3, found that about "a quarter of Jews and around a third of Arabs are considering leaving Israel and moving to live in another country, either temporarily or permanently." Of course, a “temporary” relocation would not change long-term demographics.

A follow-up IDI survey conducted in May (with some follow-up “validation” interviews in November) and published on Dec. 22 acknowledged a “significant improvement” in the public’s assessment of “Israel’s overall situation” but did not report a reduced desire for emigration. It merely said that more than 70% of Israelis “would prefer to remain in Israel.”

The implication of continuing large-scale emigration should be discounted because the IDI surveys of April and May took place before certain transformative events. During a brief war in June, Israel and the United States degraded Iran’s nuclear facilities, crippled its air defenses, battered its missile program and eliminated several leaders. In October, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement brought relative calm to the Gaza Strip. Subsequently, the Yemen-based Houthi terror group stopped firing missiles at Israel.

Throughout 2025, a new Israeli policy of proactive military campaigns curbed Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria (more commonly known as “the West Bank”). These dramatic improvements in Israel’s national security probably convinced many would-be Israeli emigrants to stay home.

"The crowd that relocated to Israel included not only returning expats but many new immigrants who became naturalized Israeli citizens."

Along with the de-escalation of hostilities on Israel’s military fronts came good news on the economic front. Despite two years of war, Israel’s economy showed impressive resilience as measured by its rising exports, GDP growth and stock-market performance. On Nov. 6, Muslim-majority Kazakhstan joined Israel and other Muslim states in the pro-trade coalition known as the Abraham Accords. A business climate like that would make any country a magnet of citizen retention and recruitment.

The Knesset Immigration Committee’s migration report was published on Oct. 16. The period of study, however, covered only from 2022 to 2024, before the above-noted military achievements and much of the economic success. A future committee study will probably confirm that the number of Israeli departures in 2025 is lower than the outflow figures of prior years.

Also problematic is the way the Knesset report is quoted. The report calculated that between early 2022 and 2024, a growing number of Israeli citizens left Israel while a shrinking number of Israeli expatriates returned to Israel, leaving the net headcount reduced by 125,200. However, some observers quoted that fact out of context. The crowd that relocated to Israel included not only returning expats but many new immigrants who became naturalized Israeli citizens.

In particular, the report stated that Israel absorbed more than 74,000 new citizens in 2022, 46,000 in 2023 and about 24,000 in the first eight months of 2024. The inflow was most likely motivated by the rise of antisemitism in foreign countries and a countervailing resurgence of Zionist pride. Adding the 144,000 new citizens to the inbound side of the migratory equation reveals that Israel did not lose 125,200 citizens. It gained 18,800 citizens.

"All told, the temporary heat of Israeli emigration has apparently cooled, and in any event, the outflow has been fully offset by traffic in the opposite direction."

Aside from the IDI polls and Knesset migration study, Israelis still feel a healthy bond to their much-maligned state. A survey by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics found that despite the country’s political infighting, “more than nine in 10 Israelis were satisfied with their lives” in 2024. That sentiment may be even stronger today, considering the recent military and economic progress.

More recently, a September 2025 Gallup poll found that Israelis’ sense of “well-being” has returned to pre-war levels. Even more encouraging, the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 “happiness” rating ranks Israel as the eighth-happiest country in the world. By comparison, America ranks at No. 24. These facts hardly augur a trend of Israeli disillusionment or depopulation.

All told, the temporary heat of Israeli emigration has apparently cooled, and in any event, the outflow has been fully offset by traffic in the opposite direction.

The Jewish state was founded as a safe haven for Jews. That protection is especially important in times like these, when a tsunami of antisemitism engulfs Jews from Washington, D.C., to Manchester, England, to Bondi Beach, Australia.

Israel is weathering the storm. Don’t let the defeatists say otherwise.

© JNS