Daniel Pites is an historian, a writer and commentator, a long-standing expert on politics in the Middle East.

His many books include in the Path of God, the Rushty

Affair, and now Israel Victory, how the Zionists win acceptance and Palestinians get liberated.

That is our topic today. Welcome, Mr. Pipes. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. You note right at the

beginning of the book a startling statistical fact. That is that among prosperous nations in the

world, Israel is the only one whose birth rate exceeds replacement level.

What is your reading of that trend?

What do you think it implies?

It was very dramatic.

At a time when Europe and even the United States are trending towards one and a half child per woman.

And when countries like South Korea and Singapore are well under one child for woman,

Israel's population is over three.

And it's not just the Arabic-speaking population.

It's not just the Heardine, the so-called ultra-Orthodox, the black hats.

It's the general population.

So it's astonishing.

Nothing comparable.

No other rich country over two children for a woman.

And here is Israel with three.

I think it has something to do with the Jewish heritage, the Holocaust, wanting to make up for the destruction of six

million. But more profoundly, I think it has to do with the sense that life is good, children should be part of it, a healthy

country should have lots of children. And it's growing. The birth rate is growing. Well,

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