High birth rate, Teribus? Maybe Israel's adherence to "Western Culture" includes an adherence to the western fashion for having tiny families of 1, maybe 2 kids.

While cultures derided as 'traditional' continue to have high birthrates, we in the West on the other hand have slowly been breeding ourselves downwards. Priority of career over family, late start in having families, high rates of abortion and contraception have all resulted in almost zero percent birthrates in many European countries (by which I mean the number of births that exceed / replace the number of mortalities every year). The same pattern can be found in the US despite some modest growth in population there (population growth should be a lot higher).

Dunno, but it might explain some of it.