"should" this; "should" that - go to hell.

Would the author deny immigration to Jews seeking refuge? That was why Herzl founded Zionism: as a response to French anti-Semitism, the insecurity of Europe and the need for a refuge. The very last Israel needs is more loony ideologues of the kind who've almost ruined it. More pragmatists please!

This is rubbish. Were the early waves of immigrants to Israel (pre 1948) not after programs in Europe? Were those first Zionists infused with enough ideology to pass your scale? Reminding the Jews that Israel is always there to welcome them is only decent and humane.

Israel is bending to demands by religious fanatics. Zionism was established to give a "national home to the Jews." Religious fanatics don't belong in my home, so I cannot be a Zionist in Israel as long as religion is imposed upon me. Get them out of my backyard and then we'll talk.

Stop splitting hairs and fine-parsing. \herzl's Zionism was based in part on the need to escape European antisemitism: the Dreyfus Affair was his tipping point. Zionism doesn't need to be ALL about antisemitism, or even MOSTLY, but persuing a postmodern, post-Zionist, and antirealist dismissal of European antisemitism could be fatal.

Don't think the history is right here .Ultraorthodox depend on The Almighty to Redeem The Jews to the Messianic era and Return to Israel Messianically .Pikuach Nefesh though is accepted as a Reason to go to Israel .Secular Zionism Examining its Most Charismatic Developer Theodore Herzyl was reacting actually to viscious antiJudaism In France the mobs at the Dreyfus trial screaming 'Death to The Jews .' Herzl wanted a middle class and working class utopia with almost equal relations with the Arabic People at least at First .Others dreamed of a Socialist Paradise including liberating the Arabic peoples to Humanistic Socialist and Internationalist Islam and by Peace and Purchases but Bribes for the more Realistic Hardened Types .The Rise of Nazism but Most of all the Shoah convinced Jews to have a Security State in Ancient Israel and much of the NonIslamic World as well .Even the USA and the USSR the Two Post War Superpowers Supported a Jewish State.

Prohibit any Jewish immigration from France because it might be motivated by fear of being murdered rather than Zionism. I wonder how many of the 6 million would agree with Hendel

Ideally, people would make aliyah for Zionist reasons, but for most this isn't the case. Most of the Russian immigrants who came to Israel were not Zionists, but they have made great contributions to the state & now call Israel their home. Sometimes people need an extra reason to make aliyah, whether its economic troubles or anti-Semitism, but when they come, they make Israel stronger.

The Zionists have finally realized that their secular education of the last 70 years was empty and meaningless and most of them are b"H going back to the education established in Israel for hundreds of years before the Zionists arrived.

Does that mean that the author thinks that Jews who are in danger where they live have no recourse to emigration to Israel? Does Hendel mean to suggest that Israel is not a safe haven for Jews, irrespective of political stripe and breed? Shame on you, Mr. Hendel. I expected far, far better from you.

I came to make Israel my home 10 years ago. I'm not even Jewish Unfortunately the state would care more about if French Jews are able to come and live here than looking at people like me. I have left my family, my work and my friends to live here and I don't regret it.

Quite a few Americans where killed in Israel this year as a result of terrorist actions. Imagine if Obama told all Americans to leave Israel because of there safety? Imagine if the US threatened to revoke US citizenship for all American lone soldiers serving in the IDF to prevent them from being paid slave wages by the State of Israel. Bibi has extremely weak diplomatic skills and the French should be appalled at his timing. Look at Bibi's reaction when the US told it's airlines to avoid Israeli air space during a war for 24 hours. The French will not forget his treacherous behavior trying to entice it's citizens to leave there homeland.

Kudos to you. I do not know what else to say except that you are a gibor Israel. A hero of Israel. Thank you. We need to work on the citizenship aspect, for which -- please do contact me. If that is what you want, I will make it happen.

So a million Israelis (more if you count the traditional ones) need to bend to the will of one Michael presently in California. Now that's what I call "demos - cratis" ("rule of the people"). Makes one wonder who indeed is the real fanatic.

Israel did well with the aliyah from the former USSR in the 90s. It transformed the country. Israel could do well if the country were to attract jews from EU or US. Zionism alone is not doing to do it. Anti-semitism won't do it either. Living standards need to be improved. It can be done, and it could transform the country.

Everyone has their own interpretation. Doing Aliyah to Israel - that is more complete. The word Zionism today has a exclusion now a days. GOD created Israel - Orthodox Jews call it Zionism because of anti-semitism. Israel is much more accurate. It includes all people.

that the State invests so much effort in bringing foreign Jews over, while there are a few hundred thousand Israeli-born Israelis who have moved abroad? Just wondering what those French Jews who are being so assiduously courted and encouraged to move here have to say about it.

every jew, every half jew, every quarter jew, has the right, both moral and legal, to make aliya. the reasons for making aliya are private. the jewish state is the refuge for all jews who need a refuge and the home of all those who seek the zionist dream.

Many masortiim are supporting separation of religion also. Your million is helpless without us, the hiloniim, and you know it. Your comment is an aggression by a cat who is cornered and hopeless. The majority of olim are not from your camp. And the majority of Israelis who emigrated, like me, will not be coming home until fanaticism goes away.

I've no idea what you are talking about. Religion affects marriage and death in this country and infuses the country with a Jewish character which is what most Israelis including the secular want. Other than that nobody tells me how to run my life, what food I eat, if I go in my car in Shabbat, etc etc. The religious may support settlements which I don't but that is a political issue and democracy will dertermine the issue. No idea what you are winging about. You'd think Israel was a theocracy like Iran. It isn't. But is does have valuse other than consumerism and extreme liberalism unlike the US, or is that just a stupid generaliasation also?

You never spare any opportunity to make some nasty, underhanded comment or some cheap slanderous accusation against Mr. Netanyahu, do you? Treachorous behavior? What exactly did he say? He merely reiterated Israel's open-ended invitation to Jews everywhere, including in France, to make Aliyah to Israel. Apart from that, he came to France to pay his respects to the French, both Jew and Gentile, in their struggle against murderous Islamic terror, which recently took so many innocent French lives. I will tell you what the French WON'T forge though. They WON'T forget that the Obama Administration, the "leader of the Free World", did not send a single U.S. representative to attend the French march against terror.

The large scale displacement of French Jews cannot be termed as aliyah. Aliyah should not done out of fear but to redeem Jerusalem and the land. Scriptures cannot be broken.