Whose uterus is it anyway?
Is the growth in childbirth good for security and the economy or a problem for society? And perhaps demographics and politicians should let the uterus be? The debate on the mitzvah of "pru urvu" is surrounded by enemies
| Yoram Ettinger |  | Iris Mizrachi | | | | |
The argument that minimizing the Jewish birth rate in Israel (an average of 2.7.children per woman) is vital for economic upgrade is nothing but an economic version of the "Dan Halutz Syndrome" that collapsed during the second Lebanon War. Halutz's idea of a small and sophisticated army that relies on the Air Force and smart bombs, and minimizes the role of ground forces with their excess manpower, is doomed to failure. This argument is symptomatic of a short term economic perception that threatens long term growth.
Western and Eastern European countries understand this, as seen in the high rate of GNP per capita due to their low birthrates (an average of 1.7 children per woman.) Yet they surmised that continuation of this policy would quickly turn them into an elderly society that would not be able to provide young manpower to strengthen the economy, and who would inevitably become dependent on foreign labor that would threaten their culture. They have come to realize that continued economic growth necessitates local manpower resources, a natural outcome of increasing their national birthrate.
They are, therefore, encouraging childbirth in a bid to escape the trap of low birthrate that is likely to transform them into a luxury "Rolls Royce" that is reaching the end of the road because petrol is running out and there's no gas station in sight.
Manpower is the driving force of a modern society with a tradition of values and a technological-scientific-educational infrastructure. Foreign investors, who are aware of this, view Israel as a hotspot for long term investment (second only to the US.) They know that the Jewish birthrate in Israel is the highest in the industrialized world, and that since 1995 has witnessed an impressive growth of 35 percent in the number of annual Jewish births. Jewish demographic momentum guarantees the continuation of economic growth and a gradual transition from being a "Mitsubishi" state to a "Rolls Royce" state.
Utilizing religious community's potential
Manpower is the most important growth resource – both in quantity and quality – at the disposal of a government, if it has the wisdom to realize its potential.
Stable and long-term growth calls for the expansion of the internal consumer base (not only export that is dependent on outside factors,) alongside massive expansion of the number of small businesses and strengthening of traditional industries (not just high-tech.)
Upgrading Israel from being a "mini Silicon Valley" to a "maxi Silicon Valley" – which is 10 times larger than the scope of Israel's current high-tech industry – also requires expansion of manpower resources. And what about the resources required for the military in the conflict-ridden Mideast? And what about education, welfare and internal security? What would have been the State's demographic, security, technological, economic, and medical fate without one million Russian immigrants?
Even the particularly high birthrate among the religious community constitutes an important growth resource, and is gradually being integrated into the high-tech civilian and security industries as well as into the economy - as is the case in the US, albeit more impressively.
The religious community's potential contribution to the economy can be evaluated by the performance of the giant IDT communications company that employs thousands of ultra-Orthodox and outsources work to the settlements of Kiryat Sefer and Beitar Elit, successfully competing against India.
And this is just the beginning. A large percentage of high-tech employees and Jewish Nobel prize laureates are the descendents of religious families and present living testimony to the economic potential embodied in this sector's moral and educational heritage – if only the cabinet would have the wisdom to harness this sector to its overall effort.
The Aliyah from the former USSR gave a jump start to Israel's high-tech industry; the next jump start will come from the religious sector. The mitzvah of "pru urvu," has economic rationality, not only moral rationality.
The writer is a demographics researcher and an expert on the Middle East and the US. The article presented here was written with the participation of researchers Bennet Zimmerman, Dr Mike Weiss and Dr Roberta Seid.
For thousands of years the topic of uteruses and their role has been debated, and women's lives were determined according to the needs at hand and to fantasies. In Israel it began with Ben Gurion, who encouraged childbirth in order to strengthen the Jewish State.
He distributed gifts to women who bore eight, nine or 10 children; he would even occasionally honor them with a visit, while each birth would increase the honor and praise lavished on the woman giving birth. We were a small country surrounded by enemies and childbearing was considered part of our defense mechanism.
Since Ben Gurion, every few years society rises up on us women and "enlists" us. Once it's in favor of childbirth, because we are a small country full of Arabs and we have to create a balance because if not …we'll be doomed; then it's against childbirth, because too many poor children are detrimental to economic growth, and worse than that - they will be the cause of the economy's collapse - see Benjamin Netanyahu and his war against the poor and single parents.
Netanyahu even hinted that we should stop bearing children and living off government allowances (everyone remembers how he cut back allowances just so uteruses would cease to produce children.)
Spare my uterus your fancy ideas
Now, all of a sudden and without prior warning, secular mothers are once again being encouraged to bring more children into the world in order to prevent the emergence of a religious state and to counterbalance religious community birthrates – where women are not only encouraged to give birth, but where childbirth is also regarded as an obligatory mitzvah. "Be fertile and increase, pru urvu, and fill the world."
Of course there is also that woman who puts her uterus at the service of ideology, as is cleverly portrayed by a settler in the popular TV satire "Eretz Nehederet" ("Wonderful Country") - she is always pregnant, but it's not any old pregnancy because she loves children, but rather, an ideological pregnancy that would bring the messiah and save the State.
Now we are being spoken to in economic terms, and about the importance of manpower for economic growth, prompting women to go make kids again – because we have suddenly realized that's it's good for the country, and it doesn't matter what children you'll bear this time around – religious, Arab, secular or immigrants – today everything goes. So come on, start producing.
And thus the uterus is incessantly a topic for public discourse, and it doesn't matter how liberated we think we are – there will always be someone who will try to enlist us to advance personal aims.
So my learned friends, who may have missed the point, listen up: Spare my uterus all your fancy ideas and let me decide whether to bear one child or seven. Let me decide whether I wish to travel in a Rolls Royce or a cheap car. Get out of my uterus, you have no right to accuse or defend it, or to encourage childbirth or prevent it. You have one commitment: To build a law-abiding, enlightened, and democratic society for the child I choose to have. Please, don't treat unborn children as positive factors for economic growth" or "as human defenses against terror and the axis of evil."
Every woman is a world in her own right. Each should make her own decisions - this is the true meaning of feminism – the right to chose for ourselves without having our uterus enlisted for public gain.
The writer is a feminist journalist
