What Counts is the Counting: Statistical Manipulation as a Solution to Israel's "Demographic Problem"

Seven years ago, heightened anxieties in Israel about an Arab threat to Israel's Jewish majority triggered an influential campaign to change perceptions of who is winning the demographic battle. Proposals to annex 60% or more of the West Bank are based in part on its success in persuading many Israelis and others of the nonexistence of 1 to 1.5 million "missing" Palestinians. This campaign's estimates of Arab and Jewish population for 2004 and beyond are subjected to close scrutiny, revealing complex but systematic manipulation of data and exposing the political objectives and drastic distortions of the campaign.