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In 2004, 20% of the Israeli population consists of people who immigrated from the former Soviet Union. 1.3 million Russian Jews live in Israel today. Of these, 800,000 have come to Israel over the last 10 years, after the fall of the Berlin Wall & the breakdown of communism. For a number of Russian Jews, meeting the realities in their new society in "the promised land" has become a harsh experience. Many Russian Jews feel that they have been left on the sidelines, notably by orthodox Israeli Jews who do not recognize them as "proper" Jews. Simultaneously, quite a few of the Russian Jews are critical to what they perceive as a Labour party softness on the Palestinians. All in all, these experiences have led to a concentration of Russian-born Jews on the Israeli political, but nonclerical, Right. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article compares the Norwegian & the German political debate on changes to the respective countries' citizenship laws. The Norwegian law will come into force in September 2006, while the German law was introduced in 2000. In citizenship laws we can find a contrast between an ethnic & cultural understanding of political community & a rights-based understanding. This contrast was hardly touched upon in the Norwegian debate. Among the Norwegian political parties there was broad agreement to carry on with the principle of ethnic decent. Moreover, all parties, with an exception of the Socialist Left Party (SV), wanted to introduce more restrictions on the established Norwegian practice to accept dual citizenship. The German debate dealt with the contrasting principles, & the conflict followed the left/right cleavages. The main difference found between the two countries refers to the left parties. Both with regard to the principle of ethnic decent/territorial principle & the acceptance of dual citizenship, the Social Democrats in Norway & Germany presented opposite standpoints. References. Adapted from the source document.