Speech #980191248

On May 6. I joined with others in New York to mark Solidarity Sunday. It is with a sense of sadness that I recognize that the situation of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union remains difficult and that they. are not permitted to emigrate. There are many possible ways in which we might improve the lot of Soviet Jews. I am convinced that their situation will improve and that emigration will increase when the United States works to improve its relationship with the Soviet Union. In a very real sense. Soviet Jews are partially hostage to the hostility which this country displays. Does this mean that we must somehow bow to the Soviet Union in order to help Soviet Jews? I do not think so. I believe that serious attempts to negotiate on arms issues and reduction in the excessive rhetoric aimed at the Soviet Union will begin the process of restoring relations which make it possible to discuss more reasonable emigration levels. In a more civil climate the possibility of aiding individuals and groups exists. In the heat of excessive rhetoric. individuals get lost. Even as we stand in solidarity with Soviet Jews. let us commit ourselves to reasonable foreign policies which recognize the rights of all nations and which relieve the plight of all people trapped in the crossfire of the cold war. It is also important that we reaffirm the principle of the freedom to emigrate. No nation should hold its citizens as hostages. The desire of large numbers of Soviet Jews to emigrate is profound testimony to the failure of the Soviet leadership to respond with appropriate sensitivity to the ethnic and religious needs of a significant body of its own citizens. As is wellknown. the closed circle of decisionmaking which prevails in the Soviet Union is often incapable of correcting its blunders even when they are obvious. Every person who applies to emigrate is passing judgment on this system. Instead of heeding the message and seeking to correct its hostility and insensitivity. the Soviet Union seeks to hold the victims hostage. The freedom to emigrate must be supported. When governments fail they must be willing to let the aggrieved and violated people go.e