Stop 'absorbing' Israeli immigrants. Instead, just get out of their way.
Why Israel’s immigration policy needs to treat new arrivals as assets to accelerate, not problems to absorb.
Whoever translated “The Ministry of Aliya and Absorption,” please give me a call. There’s something deeply depressing about the word absorption. It evokes spongey passivity, like a damp rag on a dirty floor, or worse, a bureaucratic version of that scene from SpongeBob where Squidward slowly, pathetically melts into the wallpaper. Is that really the metaphor we want for the most ambitious, capable people uprooting their lives to come here? That they will be absorbed? Like a spill? Straight into the wallpaper?
Israel’s Aliya system has long been framed as a kind of humanitarian reception desk: here’s your land, paperwork, housing grant, Hebrew class, goodbye and good luck. This is a policy relic from the mid-20th century, when waves of traumatized refugees arrived with nothing, and the state’s goal was simply to prevent starvation and assimilation. That model assumed people needed charity, shelter, and time. It did not assume they arrived with skills, capital, or ambition.
Today’s immigrants are different. They are investors, startup founders, AI engineers, corporate executives. They do not need to be absorbed; they need to be accelerated. They arrive ready to build, to hire, to scale, to create jobs and drive GDP. They don’t want a monthly allowance. They want a fast track to open a business, scale a team, raise capital, and contribute. They don’t need to be taught how to fill out a bank form; they need the banks to stop treating them like criminal suspects.
Acceleration means recognizing that human capital is the state’s most valuable import, and removing every friction point like taxes, permits, regulations, and bureaucracy that slows down economic integration. We will all need to shift the conversation from charity to opportunity, from social work to national strategy. It’s time to think like a startup: minimize ramp time, maximize output.
Countries that understand this, like Singapore, Ireland, the UAE, compete fiercely for people and capital. They don’t offer absorption. They offer acceleration. Tax breaks, streamlined visas, fast incorporation, R&D incentives. They don’t see immigration as a welfare burden but as the growth strategy it is. Israel should too, unless we want to keep hemorrhaging talent to places that treat high-potential people like assets, not liabilities.
The idea of Economic Zionism must lead us from absorption to acceleration of those who choose to make their lives and careers in Israel. Aliya, when executed the right way, will become a national competitive advantage. A future-proofing strategy for Israel itself.