It's hard, but it's doable. If Jews managed to resurrect Hebrew which was dead for centuries, what would be the reason for Scott not to revive Gaelic if they really wanted to?
- Israel is composed of people from different parts of the world with different languages so as a matter of practical policy they had to standardize on some uniform language for the country. Scotland doesn't have this problem: English is already the uniform standardized language.
- Israel exists in a more "existential" position than Scotland - there is more of a sense that their country and culture could be lost. Thus there is a bigger motivation to preserve what makes them different. I think you see this play out in Ireland, actually: there seems to be more of an interest in the Irish language in Northern Ireland, where the Irish identify is seen as more under threat, than in the Republic, where it is safe.
Well, give it a decade or two, and you'll have the equivalent situation, with no dominant language group and many Pashtu, Hindi, Arab, Polish, Bengali, Farsi, Urdu, and other speakers.
> I think you see this play out in Ireland, actually: there seems to be more of an interest in the Irish language in Northern Ireland, where the Irish identify is seen as more under threat, than in the Republic, where it is safe.
You have this backwards. Ireland, both Ireland and Northern Ireland, have pockets of interest in the language and culture, but it really is true that the country, culture, and language that was Ireland pre-famine no longer exists. It was successfully and deliberately eradicated.
One thing they had going for them is that the people who moved (and move) to Israel come from a number of different language backgrounds, so it wasn't the case of make everyone who speaks language A now instead speak language B (as would the the case with Gaelic in Scotland, and was with Irish in Ireland) so much as choose a language all the speakers of A, B, an C can agree to learn and use so that can all talk to each other.
- Israel is composed of people from different parts of the world with different languages so as a matter of practical policy they had to standardize on some uniform language for the country. Scotland doesn't have this problem: English is already the uniform standardized language.
- Israel exists in a more "existential" position than Scotland - there is more of a sense that their country and culture could be lost. Thus there is a bigger motivation to preserve what makes them different. I think you see this play out in Ireland, actually: there seems to be more of an interest in the Irish language in Northern Ireland, where the Irish identify is seen as more under threat, than in the Republic, where it is safe.