Speech #910085922

Each successful selfsupporting Palestinian represented one less relief check and the end to an easy flow of hard Western currency. Nearly $425 million in relief has flowed into the region. and with the demands of modernization. Arab regimes have. in effect. decided to sacrifice the refugees to the exigencies of development. Finally. the refugees. subsisting on United Nations checks. can afford to work for far lower wages than the already lowpaid Arab worker. Fear of a flood of cheap labor has led to legal restrictions on employment very similar to American immigration policy on the Mexican border. While all of these reasons are in some way understandable. they do not add up to an impressive or humanitarian record. and they certainly undercut the often outrageous moral selfrighteousness of Arab spokesmen crying about the fate of refugees. The United States. itself. is not entirely free from blame. Since 1948. we have blindly. though of good will. financed the U.N. refugee camps. supporting nearly 70 percent of the cost. The Soviets. meanwhile. despite their claims of undying friendship for the Arab peoples. have refused all along to contribute that first penny for refugee relief. With suchpolicies. much like our welfare programs. we have made it economically profitable for both the host country and the refugee to remain unsettled. The entire program is a huge disincentive to solutions. Clearly a more humane and ultimately successful approach would provide incentives in the form of foreign credits for U.S. goods and materials. Tied to a settlement program. the credits could be limited to agricultural or industrial development programs that employ and settle the residents of the refugee camps. Naturally. some provision would have to be made for the old. sick. or disabled among the refugees. but surely that is not an insurmountable barrier. There is a precedent for refugee settlement. Following the 1948 war. nearly 100.000 Arab refugees remained in Israel. Over a several year period. the Israelis managed to assimilate all but the "hard core"-the disabled. the sick. the old. the very young. The program produced the high Arab per capita wage in the Middle East.