We know their names and their stories and we did not hesitate to help them. Yet today. we risk turning our backs on the hundreds of thousands of other Soviet Jews who may not be a wellknown to us but whose stories are no less compelling. Having made free emigration a high priority. the United States cannot now turn aside or walk away. These innocent victims of years of persecution should not be held hostage to a policy dispute between Washington and Jerusalem. We need to separate the debate over the settlements from the issue of assisting the hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to Israel. the vast majority of whom are not settling in any of the disputed lands. Since the Berlin Wall fell at the end of 1989. 350.000 Soviet and Ethiopian Jews have arrived in Israel. They have been absorbed into a country of 4 million people. and that process has not been easy. Up to 1 million more are expected over the next 35 years. Absorbing that many immigrants in Israel would be equivalent to the United States absorbing the entire population of France--5 million people. Clearly. because of our history and our heritage. we have a responsibility to help these Soviet emigrants establish their new lives in Israel and meet the basic necessities of life. In fact. the delay is much longer than 4 months. Israel had originally planned to make this request early this year.
Keywords matched
emigration immigrants emigrants