The committee has arrived at its two figures after considerable deliberation. Let me urge the House to consider these two authorizations not as a bloc. but as separate authorizations to separate sections of the bill. and for different purposes. So far as the Arab refugees are concerned. the one authorization would be inadequate if we were to cut it to what it was last year for the simple reason that between last year and today. the United Nations has at last brought forth a plan of rescue and ultimate integration. resettlement. and rehabilitation. for these 850.000 Arab refugees into the Arab communities in the Middle East. Last year we were appropriating for relief. and this year we are appropriating for an integration and resettlement program which will be a 3year program. The second part of this amendment. and I regret that this amendment was put in as a single package. is to cut the $76.000.000 authorized for resettlement of Israel refugees to $50.000.000. again on the theory that what we did last year was adequate. It is not adequate because a year has gone by and the circumstances have changed. As you will read in the committee report. the economy of Israel today is a very precarious one. Although the immigration has tapered off. there are still some 396.000 refugees unassimilated in Israel today. and more are coming in every day. If we cut this appropriation today. we are saying in effect to Israel. "Your problem has not changed. and our interest in your welfare has not changed." Mr. Chairman. we cannot afford to say that. because Israel is the outpost of democracy. in the most delicate and most dangerous hot spot in the Middle East. in the world today. Israels democracy will succeed only if we encourage her economy and her agriculture to get on a stable basis so that the refugees who have gone to this little country will be selfsupporting. selfrespecting. Just one thought for a moment: Many of these 700.000 refugees who have gone into Israel in the last 4 years and who have been welcomed into this little community are people whom we were taking care of in the DP camps of Western Europe. and if they had not gone to Israel this Congress would still be appropriating for their care in the DP camps of Western Europe. We must be grateful to the people of Israel for having received them and taken them off our necks. It is to our interest that both these special problems be solved in the next 3 or 4 years in accordance with the United Nations program of integrating the Arabs into the Arab countries. a plan which has been accepted and is supported by the Arab League. a plan which will end the relief that we have had to carry on for the last 4 years. and that the other program making Israel the great example to that whole part of the world what free human beings can do for themselves in a democracy.
Keywords matched
immigration refugees