Speech #1010236255

All those are contributing to political instability in the region which affects the State of Israel. I want to talk about a third aspect which goes to the internal economics of Israel. In 1984. there were slightly over 800 Soviet Jews allowed to immigrate to Israel. Two years later. slightly over 900 were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union and immigrate to the State of Israel. Last month. September of 1990. there were over 17.000 Soviet Jews who immigrated to the State of Israel. It is estimated that that number will continue to grow as a result of internal changes of policy within the Soviet Union. including. hopefully. the adoption of a regularIzed immigration law by the Soviet Union. a commitment that the Soviets have stated they will fulfill before the end of this calendar year as well as the facilitating of transportation. Recently Israel and the Soviet Union have entered into an agreement which will allow regular direct flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow. with the principal purpose of accelerating and facilitating the flow of emigration from the state of the Soviet Union to the State of Israel. We as Americans should take great pride in this because for many years we have had as one of our goals in United StatesSoviet policy to change the Soviet attitude toward emigration of its Jewish population. We passed before either the Presiding Officer or myself were Members of this body the JacksonVanik provision which essentially linked any United States economic normalization with the Soviet Union to the Soviet Unions satisfactory compliance with some basic international standards of human Justice as it relates to the right of people to leave their home country. Mr. President. that great victory of United States policy and the tenacity of commitment to that policy is not without cost. particularly not without cost to the Israel. The figures I am going to cite are by no means to indicate the State of Israel is not enthusiastically welcoming the population of Soviet Jews who are now becoming citizens of Israel. It has been a long dream of the State of Israel to be able to have that free flow of immigration. It will provide the State of Israel tens of thousands of very talented. committed people who will assist the country in achieving its national objectives. Having said that. it is not a goal which is without cost. It is estimated that next year there will be 125.000 Soviet Jews immigrating to the State of Israel and that the resettlement costs. including housing. health services. linguistic services. vocational services. all of the things that are necessary to adapt a new population to a new home. to take this population with great potential and covert it into a population with great. actual productivity. that all of that is going to cost the State of Israel approximately $2.2 billion for those 125.000 Soviet Jews who will be immigrating to the State of Israel. All of that is occurring at exactly the time of security and political instability in the region. In a way.