I NSIGHT
ZE'EV CHAFETZ
Israel Correspondent
O
n Monday, the Israeli
tabloid Chadashot
ran a terse, red-
banner headline: "Soon, A
Tax To Pay For Aliyah."
According to the news-
paper's account, the Min-
istry of Finance is planning
a 10 percent hike in Israeli
income taxes — already
among the highest in the
world — to underwrite the
cost of settling Soviet im-
migrants.
Finance officials denied
that such a decision has been
made. An alternative plan,
calling for severe budget
cuts and the reduction of
public services, is also being
studied.
But it is clear that absorb-
ing Soviet emigres, now ar-
riving at the rate of 10,000 a
month, will cost billions of
dollars over the next few
years. And in recent days
that realization has led to a
crisis atmosphere.
Last week, Minister of
Finance Shimon Peres and
Housing Minister David
Levy agreed to issue
emergency orders that will
allow them to construct
20,000 apartments for
emigres this year. Levy then
flew to the United States to
try to interest investors in
building the emergency
housing. Yisrael Kessar,
head of the Histadrut Labor
federation, called on the
government to declare a na-
tional state of emergency
and impose new taxes. And
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir floated the idea of
leading an emergency com-
mittee that would supervise
the absorption process.
Shamir's idea was shot
down by Rabbi Yitzhak
Peretz, the minister of im-
migrant absorption. Rabbi
Peretz said he considered
such a committee to be an in-
fringement on his turf.
For the time being, Peretz
and the Jewish Agency re-
main in control of the im-
migration and absorption
process. But they have been
put on notice that they can
no longer operate on a busi-
ness-as-usual basis.
"Israelis are a different
people during times of
Happiness despite economic woes of resettlement: four generations of the Shtern family reunited in Jerusalem.
esettlement Fundin
Is Worrying Israel
As Soviet Jews pour in, concern triggers
crisis atmosphere.
crisis," Kessar said. "During
wars or other kinds of na-
tional emergency, we rise to
the occasion."
The emergency message
was brought this week to the
United States as well, where
a delegation of 15 Israeli of-
ficials of the Jewish Agency
are meeting with leaders of
the United Jewish Appeal.
The Israelis intend to ask
the Americans for $500
million in aid over the next
three years or, alternatively,
$1 billion within five years.
Before setting off for the
United States, several
Jewish Agency officials ex-
pressed skepticism about the
willingness of American
Jewry to assume such a
burden. But some politicians
here believe that they are
asking for too little.
"I understand that they
[the heads of the Jewish
Agency] don't want to de-
mand unrealistic amounts,"
said Michael Kleiner,
chairman of the Knesset's
Aliyah Committee. "But the
Most of them are
oblivious to the
"state of
emergency" and its
political
implications.
sum that [Jewish Agency
Director Simcha] Dinitz is
asking for is a small fraction
of what will be half a billion
over the next [three] years."
Kleiner said Jewish Agen-
cy leaders must ask world
Jewry to assume 50 percent
of the cost of immigrant ab-
sorption, estimated at bet-
ween $6 billion and $10
billion over the next few
years.
The flood of immigration
has also become a political
issue. Dovish politicians are
privately expressing concern
that the Russians are
predominantly hawks who
will tip the balance of power
to the conservative Likud
party.
In a weekend interview
with the Israeli newspaper
Yediot Aharonot, this suspi-
cion was confirmed by no
less an authority than
Natan Sharansky, the well-
known former Soviet
refusenik.
"Immigrants from the
Soviet Union do not believe
that it's possible to achieve
peace settlements with
totalitarian states like Syria
or Iraq, and certainly not
with the PLO," he said.
"That feeling comes from
long experience under a
totalitarian regime."
Sharansky added that
although he is a hard-liner
in the Israeli political con-
text, other "Russian im-
migrants see me as prac-
tically a left-winger."
Likud politicians hope to
settle as many immigrants
as possible in the disputed
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"For a large aliyah, we need
a large Land of Israel,"
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir told an audience this
week in Tel Aviv.
Left-wingers, on the other
hand, are pushing to locate
newcomers in the under-
populated Negev and in the
Galilee, where Arabs out-
number Jews.
The question of employ-
ment of the immigrants also
has taken on political over-
tones.
Uriel Lynn, a Likud
member of the Knesset, sug-
gested recently that Soviet
immigrants replace up to
two-thirds of the 90,000
Palestinian Arabs now
working in Israel. More con-
cretely, Meir Nitzan, the
mayor of Rishon Le'Zion,
near Tel Aviv, proposed fir-
ing the thousand or so
Palestinian Arabs who work
in his town and filling their
jobs with Soviet emigres.
Such moves would
presumably cause
unemployment among
Palestinians and perhaps
encourage emmigration
from the West Bank and
Gaza to neighboring Arab
states.
While the bureaucrats
draw up blueprints and the
politicians squabble over
money and ideology, hun-
dreds of Soviet immigrants
are arriving each night at
Ben Gurion airport in Tel
Aviv. Most of them are
oblivious to the "state of
emergency" and its political
implications. And many
seem surprisingly
uninterested in the
"solutions" that Israeli offi-
cials are debating.
Leonid, Sara and their
three children immigrated
to Israel from Leningrad
three years ago. They live in
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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