Speech #1010122073

The headline reads "Moscow Rejects U.S. Pleas to Allow Flights to Israel." Apparently. despite appeals from President Bush and the entire U.S. Senate to permit direct flights of emigrants. yet another door has been closed on the Soviet Jews. This latest announcement throws cold water on what had been improvements in Soviet emigration policies. It also points up deficiencies in our own refugee policies. and the flawed premises on which they were based. As I am pained to recall. this country put a limit on the number of Soviet refugees to be admitted in fiscal year 1990. We based this action on the premise that Soviet society was a safer place in which to live. As we heard our State Department say at the time that limit was put on: "Jews could always stay in the Soviet Union or go to Israel." Most of us never bought the line that staying in the Soviet Union was a real option. Now that the Soviets have said a very loud "No" to direct flights to Israel. this may become a nonoption. Further. we took away the presumptive refugee status for Jews and other religious minorities based on only tentative changes in Soviet society. Well. today we know that antiSemitism is growing. Threats of pogroms are circulating throughout the Soviet Union. Who among us really believes that deeprooted religious persecution has gone away with "glasnost?" In another major policy change. under the leadership of our State Department. we closed the ViennaRome pipeline for refugee processing. This shift was based on the false premise that processing would be more efficient in Moscow and that more Jews should go to Israel as opposed to the United States. Now. unfortunatelybut predictablylines in Moscow for applications are longer than ever. backlogs for interviews are deeper than ever. and denial rates are higher than ever. Then. even if an applicant is lucky enough to get refugee status. he will wait months before he is able to leave the Soviet Union. As an advocate for freedom of choice. I may have differences with some of the advocacy groups that believe Soviet Jews should be resettled in Israel.