In March, a local Jewish newspaper reported on the World Zionist Congress (WZC) election and the remarks of the national secretary of the organization, who was one of the 55 members of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) that had been just elected. The ARZA had, by far, the greatest number of elected American delegates - more than 38%. This is a great tribute to the reform rabbis, who spoke repeatedly to their congregants of the importance of voting in the WZC elections. The emphasis was always how important it was to establish a greater Reform foothold in Israel and to diminish the Orthodox mandate over religious, and many civic, activities in Israel. According to the then-elected delegate, "The Reform victory is for those of us who want to help shape Israel's agenda and see an Israel where such things as non-Orthodox marriages are recognized, non-Orthodox conversions are legitimate and that non-Orthodox rabbis can perform these ceremonies. These are the things we will be fighting for in June." And there is little doubt that, with the 55 members elected, along with the 32 representatives of Mercaz USA (of the Conservative movement) also elected, they will succeed in passing whatever anti-Orthodox resolution they choose. But what real effect will that have on the Israeli political scene? Resolutions must be transformed into legislation and then passed into law by the Israeli Knesset. The chances of resolutions of that sort becoming law are very small indeed. The last anti-Orthodox, and in fact, anti-religious, party, Shinui, had nine members before the current election. It disintegrated even before the election and has now disappeared completely from the Israeli political scene. Israel remains a parliamentary form of democracy wherein each party in the Knesset is awarded a number of members commensurate with how many votes it obtains in Israeli national elections and, ipso facto, how well the party platform represents the thinking of the Israeli public. How many members of the Knesset (MKs) did the Reform and Conservative movements obtain in the just-held Israel elections? Zero. Is that fair? Well, let's see. How many Americans, let alone Reform or Conservative Jews, have immigrated to Israel since the founding of the State in 1948? The numbers are, in fact, embarrassing. The Jewish Agency for Israel reports that since the founding of the State in 1948 until April 2004, there have been 2,955,853 immigrants to Israel from all over the world. During that period, Americans constituted 115,000 of these immigrants, or 0.039%. In the passage of time, these Americans have joined together with other men and women from Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa - some 100,000 English-speaking people altogether - and are popularly known as the "Anglo-Saxons". Their total number is now only two percent of Israel's population. But that is not the whole story. What is the religious background of these immigrants? Deputy Minister Yuli Edelstein, in December 2002, stated, "Most of the immigrants from the US are professionals and the majority are Modern Orthodox; and we are talking about people who are moved by ideology, and who want to show their solidarity with Israel in a very practical [way]... in the ultimate sense of the word." There is another historical fact long neglected, especially by the Aharon Barak Supreme Court of the State of Israel. As Rabbi Menachem Porush, former MK, reminds us in the Jewish Press of March 3, 2006: "In a letter dated June 19, 1947 to Agudath Israel (a world-wide organization of Torah- loyal Jews established in 1912) and signed by David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Agency, it was promised that Shabbos would be the official day of rest, only kosher food would be prepared in all government kitchens, marriages and divorces would be according to Halacha and education would be according to everyone's wish." What has been the actual result of this agreement? Israel's Jewish population (4.9 million in 1999) can be divided religiously among traditionally observant Jews (30 percent); secularists, who nonetheless fast on Yom Kippur, attend the Passover Seder , and light Hanukkah lights (45 percent); and the completely nonobservant (25 percent). Two-thirds of the traditionally observant are ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim . The remaining third are the so-called Modern Orthodox. They see little conflict between Judaism and modern Israeli society, and participate fully in, for example, the army and higher education. (From Religion in the News , Fall 1999, by Yael Cohen) If the Reform and Conservative truly want to challenge the religious social order, their recourse is quite straightforward. Instead of the less than 0.04% immigration rate that Americans constitute (most of whom, as we noted, are in fact modern Orthodox Jews), let them encourage massive Aliyah of their congregants to Israel. They could form a political party, elect their own members of the Knesset and become a genuine part of the political fabric. In that way, loyalty to the Jewish State would not be undermined, there would be an ingathering of the Jews and perhaps the miracle of the Messiah might indeed ensue.