December 1989, Page 44

Jews and Israel

By Andrea Barron

Peres Seeks Public and Private US Help to Settle Soviet Jews in Israel

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres has asked American Jews to raise $600 million to help Israel absorb 100,000 Soviet Jews expected to immigrate there over the next three years. Peres, who came to the United States last month to make his appeal, said the entire absorption program would cost about $3 billion. He requested a $400 million loan guarantee from the US and said Israel would use $2 billion of its own money to make up the balance.

Jewish leaders welcomed the idea of a campaign to settle Soviet Jews in Israel instead of the United States. But some expressed concern about the fact that $500 million of the $600 million Peres was requesting was budgeted for improvements in Israel's economic infrastructure and not for new immigrants. Morton Kornreich, executive director of the UJA-Federation of Greater New York, said Peres told him Israel wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to develop the whole country, calling the program something like the "Great Horizons." "I just hope it won't turn into the 'Lost Horizons'" Kornreich told the Washington Jewish Week.

Other Jewish leaders said they thought Israel might be overestimating the number of Soviet Jews who will immigrate. An increase is certainly likely to occur because of the restrictions the US has placed on refugee admmissions. But some Jews might decide to remain in the Soviet Union if they cannot go to the United States.

Israeli officials counter that, with the help of world Jewry, they can convince Soviet Jews to settle in the Jewish state. It's a necessity, insisted Simcha Dinitz, Israel's former ambassador to the United States and now chairman of the Jewish Agency. "It could be our last chance ever to absorb a major diaspora."

One of Israel's main tasks will be to convince Soviet Jews that the Israeli bureaucracy is not as horrific as they seem to believe. According to a survey conducted by the Soviet Jewry Zionist Forum in Israel, headed by former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, the bureaucracy and not the intifada is the major reason Soviet Jews are reluctant to move to Israel. Second comes their fear of army service, third their fear of religious coercion and a final fourth is fear for their security because of the uprising.

Conservative Jewish Groups Reject Bishops' Support for Palestinian Sovereignty

Conservative Jewish organizations strongly criticized a draft statement issued by the National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) which calls the Palestinian uprising "a cry for justice" and supports the Palestinians' right to "territorial and political sovereignty." The statement, entitled "Toward Peace in the Middle East: Problems and Principles," also called on the US government to address "human rights violations. . . in light of US policy and legislation on human rights."

Kenneth Jacobson, director of international affairs for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, said the statement appeared to endorse the idea of a Palestinian state without specifically using the term. He argued that the bishops were stating their preference for how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be resolved before negotiations had even started.

The right-wing Zionist Organization of America also objected to the statement, claiming that the draft contradicted itself by supporting both Palestinian sovereignty and security for Israel. But Eugene Fisher, who handles Catholic-Jewish relations for the NCCB, said no contradiction existed. He implied that the Palestinian state could be demilitarized by pointing out that two sovereign states-West Germany and Austria-were prevented from maintaining military forces after World War II.

Not all mainline American Jewish organizations found fault with the NCCB statement. The liberal American Jewish Congress said the draft was better than previous statements issued by the Bishop and Rabbi Alexander Schindler of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents Reform Jewry, called the statement "constructive in tone and positive in spirit."

Besides asserting that the Palestinians have a right to sovereignty, the bishops also noted that "Israel represents for the Jewish community the hope of a place of security and safety in a world which has often not provided either for the Jewish people." And the bishops called US support for Israel "a sound, justified policy [which is] in the interests of both nations" and said it should continue.

Andrea Barron, a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at the American University in Washington, DC, is a member of the Jewish Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.