yankel > Huge Masses of Sephardi Jews lost their heritage ,courtesy of our State…
> Without political Zionism, the Arabs and the British could/ would have been more accommodating to Jewish immigration
We now have a benefit of hindsight. Let’s use it (but not think that we are smarter than people who were making decision at the time, of course).
We now see how Arab countries developed over decades. Some of that was tied into Israel, but most went independent of that – oil monopolies; kings and mild dictators at best; otherwise – socialists; tribal warfare; Islamic fundamentalists; terrorists. Without Israel, Sephardi Jews would live in those countries, and Jews in Palestine would be under a similar regime. Maybe some would have escaped to Americas, Europe and Africa. Think of Aleppo Jews being prosecuted by ISIS like Yazidis were – or by Assad senior or juinior… Under Khomeini … Qaddafi …
Non-religious Ashkenazi Jews who went to kibbutzim might by now have grandchildren in yeshivos and tzahal. Their cousins who went to Americas are pretty likely to have grandchildren at pro-Hamas demonstrations…
All Ashkenazi Jews who did not make it to Palestine before WW2, and those who would be stuck in DP camps and in Soviet Gulag. Many Ukrainians and Russian in Western DP camps after Nazi camps were deported back to USSR where they went straight to Soviet camps (for being traitors and not fighting till death). If not Israel, many eastern europian Jews would have gone from the DP camps in the same direction. Many Polish Jews who did not take Soviet citizenship when in Soviet captivity returned to Poland and then were able to go to Israel, or left USSR with Polish Anders Army (like Menachem Begin). We are talking large number of people here. (True, some of the saved Polish children from religious families were forced to go to anti-religious kibbutzim – not so much because kibbutzim wanted to re-educate them, but every community taking children was paid a stipend, so all communities competed for having more of them).
I think these numbers add up to a positive, if we look at them without prejudice.