I'm not familiar with any background outside of this article, (and I'm sure there are complex and morally dubious political machinations behind such a melodramatic action like a huge airlift) so in the absolute best case scenario, this reads to me like

• Israelis were sold on this airlift because it felt like heroic charity to bring back downtrodden fellow jews
• Ethiopians went because they could go to an economic powerhouse with fellow jews and escape a christian-majority country
• Airlift happens
• oh shit! These two cultures have a lot more to them than simply being jewish!
• Change is hard. Interfacing between two cultures is hard. Nobody is happy.
• Israelis realize these Ethiopians aren't going to magically adopt all of their cultural values by crossing the border
• When you are comfortably in power, you don't need to listen to anyone else, much less do difficult work for their benefit.
• Israelis decide this is too hard, and tell the new guys to just be glad they are here at all and suck it up.
• skin color becomes code for cultural outsiders who are being a nuisance by not adopting all the host nation's values and submitting. Oh and lazy, stupid, underachievers and criminals who are dragging the rest of society down.

At 2% of the population (and certainly much less than 2% of wealth or income), it is hard to be a political force. With no power to affect your own circumstances, it is hard to stay engaged in investments like education and community building. Also, having no political power means it is easy to become a scapegoat. So things don't look good for Ethiopian jews :(

And that is the most charitable interpretation I can come up with.