98 Friday; September 12, 1980 As in many other coun- tries, cinema attendance has dropped considerably in Israel as the result of the development of television. In 1978, the country's 230 commercial movie theaters drew a total attendance of 22 million, less than half of what it was in 1968. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Jewish National Fund's Race Against Time By BEN G. FRANK (Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.) Dr. Samuel Cohen, execu- tive vice president of the Jewish National Fund, stood in amazement as he heard the words of the Ministry of Agricultural MACK PACKING CO. Wishes all their Customers & Friends A Happy New Year Jim Maisano Sandy Zawierucha and families Samuel & Manny Laski and Families S & M HEATING SALES CO. Wishes Everyone A Happy NEW YEAR Greetings and Best Wishes SPICK CLEANER & FURRIERS Specializing in All Alterations—Ladies', Men's, Children's Clothing 557-1141 24813 Greenfield Holiday Greetings STUDIO FLOWERS Vic Zuckerman 13516 Second Ave at Davison 868-8442 Detroit, Michigan 48203 NEW YEAR BEST WISHES SUN OIL CO. ■ ••••=111 ■ 1, Best•ishes to the Community on the Vele Year ESTO KRAFT Makers of "Perfect Sleeper" SMOOTH-TOP AND QUILTED TOP VFERESSES you sleep ON it . . . not IN it! HAPPY NEW YEAR From MICHIGAN INN BARBER SALON CONTEMPORARY Haircutting—Styling---Perms etc. A Complete Service Salon 'Mon.-Sat. 8-6 appointment preferred 559-5930 settlement representative. Menahem Perlmutter re- peated the words slowly: "More than 1,500 Israelis are on a waiting list to leave the big cities and go to the settlements and towns of the Negev and Galilee." "Standing in line to live in the Negev," thought Co- hen, was surely a change of pace. But today the queue is long for what is perceived by many as a "better life," in a rural setting. And space is no prob- lem for Israel. Perlmut- ter, who has the technical title of manager, Engineering Division, Southern District, pointed out that while more than 50 percent of the land area of Israel is in the Negev, it contains only one percent of the nation's population. True, romantics have been known to be drawn to the desert area, Cohen pointed out. "But to be at- tracted to the scrub and wasteland of parts of the Galilee where the Arab population, in parts, out- numbers the Jews 85 to 15, well, that, too, is true pioneering." Why are these young Is- raeli settlers beckoned to the forbidding south and the rugged north instead of city comforts? First, with a high infla- tion gnawing away at the starting salaries of young couples, they have difficul- ties making ends meet. Enormous down payments for apartments in met- ropolitan areas are often prohibitive for them. In rural areas, on the contrary, housing even though mod- est, is one luxury provided. Second, in the country, they avoid urban pollu- tion and crowds. The environment is whole- some. There is freedom of. wide open spaces, as well as a relaxed way of life. There are still young families who want to lead simple lives unrestrained by the conventions of urban society and who find, incidentally, that the education of their children is often on a higher level in the settle- ments than in the cities. Third, even in the wilder- ness of the Negev or the rocky hills of Galilee, life in this technological and corn- puter age is not as cumber- some or restrictive as seven or eight.decades ago. Fourth, the Negev no longer brings as deep a sense of isolation socially as in earlier days. In some sec- tions of the Negev, a settler can finish work, drive to Tel Aviv, see a show and return that night; let alone spend frequent weekends or vaca- tions with friends or rela- tives in the city. Fifth, armed with tax in- centives, many Israelis feel they can manage much bet- ter economically than in the populated areas. Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that chalutziut (pioneering) is alive and well in Israel; that dynamic spirit which built the Jewish state is bringing a fresh breeze to a land troubled by hostile neighbors and hostile nations. There are young Israelis who want to be farmers and work- ers and who believe in the ideology that their role is to be the modern "people of the fields." The Jewish National Fund's task is to get those people now on the waiting list to the Negev and Galilee which can become the veg- etable garden and granary of the Middle East. It must prepare the earth for set- tlement. It must set up the infrastructures and land re- clamation, and do it in re- cord time. In a year or so, with the Camp David process mov- ing at a steady pace, the Is- raeli army will have relo- cated from the Sinai to the Negev where early warning stations, airfields and mili- tary bases must be ab- sorbed. The JNF must prepare the sites for the new settle- ments, towns and develop- ment areas. This will be the largest land reclamation project of the JNF in the 32-year history of the state of Israel. "Make the desert bloom," is not just an ideological motto. The Negev is the bridge be- tween East and West. It is Israel's gateway to Africa and Asia through Eilat. If Israel is not just to be- come a densely popu- lated strip on the Eastern Mediterranean, the Negev must be settled. Moreover, with the new highways paved by the JNF, Israel's desert will be even more accessible to veh- icular traffic, thus boosting the countryside with an economic boon and a mush- rooming manufacturing and industrial develop- ment. Likewise, the Galilee is crucial for Israel. The popu- lation of the area between Acre and Safed is about 220,000 and of this, 65 per- cent are Arabs. Because of the high Arab birthrate and migrations, which in some areas means that the Arabs even have a numerical majority of as much as eight to one, Jewish settlers are needed in the Galilee. The JNF is preparing the sites for 29 observation out- posts which put Israeli se- curity into place and which begin to farm and develop the land. Thus, two of Israel's keys to the future, ac- cording to Cohen, are the Negev and the Galilee. And he was sure that as in the past, American and world Jewry would help the Jewish National Fund create those new centers of Jewish life by raising the additional funds to meet the chal- lenge which includes, in- cidentally, making the land ready for an Israeli population of five million by 1990. 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