INSIGHT
T
he wave of Soviet Jew-
ish immigrants cur-
rently sweeping into
Israel means different
things to different people.
To intellectuals, they are
the living embodiment of the
Zionist dream, a confirma-
tion that the founding
fathers were correct in their
assessment of the need for a
Jewish state. To harried
government officials, charg-
ed with the care and feeding
of hundreds of thousands of
newcomers, they pose a mas-
sive, perhaps insoluble prob-
lem. The business commun-
ity sees them as customers,
and the newspapers here are
now full of ads in Russian for
everything from dinette sets
to banking services.
And for Israeli politicians,_
desperately engaged in an
effort to break the national
stalemate, the Soviets are,
first and foremost, voters.
Under the current elec-
toral system, roughly 18,000
votes are necessary to chose
a Member of Knesset. At the
present pace of immigration,
as many as 200,000 Soviet
Jews could well be added to
the voter roles by the next
election. That would give
them sufficient power to
elect eight to ten represent-
atives in the 120-seat
Knesset.
Of course, the Soviet Jews
will not vote in a bloc. But
experts here believe that
most of them will lean to the
right, largely because of
their instinctive distaste for
socialism. This tendency is
causing great concern
among left-wing politicians,
who are looking for ways to
offset it. Several months ago,
in a closed-door meeting of
Labor Party activists, Sim-
cha Dinitz, head of the Jew-
ish Agency, described the
danger, and recommended
that his party use patronage
to win over the newcomers.
"Whoever takes care of them
[the immigrants] will get
them," he told his col-
leagues.
Battling For Hearts
And Votes
Of Soviet Jews
Israeli politicians, aware of the political clout
of the newcomers, are trying to make them happy.
ZE'EV CHAFETS
Israel Correspondent
Dinitz is not the only poli-
tician to understand the key
importance of taking care of
the newcomers. For months,
skirmishes have been taking
place between the various
political parties over who
will control the aid provided
to the immigrants. The re-
ception hall of Ben Gurion
Airport, where the Soviets
are first processed, is a key
battleground. There, Soviet
Jews are provided with two
alternatives — direct ab-
sorption, under the control of
the Absorption Ministry; or
placement in an absorption
center, run by the Jewish
Agency.
At the moment, some 80
percent of the immigrants
opt for the first method, and
Absorption Minister Yit-
zhak Peretz, an Orthodox
politician close to the Likud,
wants to keep it that way.
Both Labor and
Likud are looking
hard for promising
Soviet Jewish
politicians.
Rabbi Peretz has put the re-
ception hall off limits to all
but symbolic delegations
from the country's youth
movements, who greet the
exhausted arrivals with
flowers, and to his own Min-
istry officials, many of whom
are, not surprisingly, also
political cronies.
This policy has been de-
nounced by Soviet activists,
such as Natan Sharansky,
who want the hall opened to
volunteer workers. Recently,
Sharansky threatened to
take the issue to the
Supreme Court. The Labor-
controlled Jewish Agency is
also furious about being de-
nied access, and has
retaliated by holding up
funds earmarked for the Ab-
sorption Ministry.
The two major parties are
also engaged in a battle for
overall control of the absorp-
tion process. Labor activist
Uri Gordon, who heads the
Jewish Agency's Immigra-
tion Department, has public-
ly called for a super-body,
presumably led by him, that
would oversee all immigrant
settlement. That role is cur-
rently held by Rabbi Peretz,
who is resisting the effort.
Labor, which until March
controlled the Ministry of
Finance, retaliated by at-
tempting to cut the work
force of Rabbi Peretz's Ab-
sorption Ministry's staff by
ten percent.
Nor are all such battles
between the parties. A few
months ago, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir made a
similar suggestion, propos-
ing that he himself head an
inter-ministerial absorption
committee. That proposal
was defeated by Rabbi
Peretz and Shamir's party
rival David Levy, who refus-
ed to surrender the au-
thority of his Housing Min-
istry over the key housing
issue.
Housing is important not
only as a way of winning
immigrant loyalty, but also
as a source of patronage for
more veteran Israelis. In an
agreement between Levy
and Peres, it was decided
that the Ministry of Housing
would maintain sole au-
thority over the contractors
hired to build tens of
thousands of apartments.
Such a deal guarantees
enormous clout to the Min-
ister of Housing, which ex-
plains the apparent willing-
ness of the Likud's Ariel
Sharon to take up the post in
the next government.
The parties are also
casting about for per-
sonalities who can attract
Soviet voters. In 1988,
Ephraim Gur became the
first Soviet immigrant elect-
ed to the Knesset on the
Labor ticket. Gur, who
comes from Soviet Georgia,
was supposed to prove a
magnet to fellow olim
(emigrants to Israel), but the
strategy backfired. Not only
did he fail to deliver voters,
but he is now threatening to
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
37