Mr. Speaker. it Is my hope that in the coming days Congress may finally be able to consider the question of whether to support Israels request for loan guarantees to assist that nation with the absorption of refugees from Eastern Europe. the former Soviet Union. and Ethiopia. The rescue of an oppressed and endangered people from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. which the United States has demanded and orchestrated for two decades. cannot be delayed. and I sincerely hope that my colleagues here in Congress will approve the loan guarantee assistance expeditiously. Over the past 2 years. Israel has absorbed more than 400.000 immigrants. Clearly. that nation alone cannot shoulder the costs of such a massive population influx. The loan guarantees would impose no cost to the United States taxpayer since our Government is not actually lending money. but merely acting as a guarantor of commercial loans that the Government of Israel would contract on the commercial market. The Government of Israel intends to cover the nominal bookkeeping costs involved. Through the loan guarantee program. Israel is not seeking direct United States aid. but rather. a costeffective way to meet the immense challenge of providing for the refugees. Some have sought. unwisely and maliciously. to link the Israeli request for this humanitarian aid with the issue of settlements and the Middle East peace talks. This is an extremely dangerous position to take. because those who subscribe to this view risk subjecting tens of thousands of Jewish refugees to further persecution and hardship. We in Congress and the administration must honor the promise of freedom we have held out to Jews across the world who. for decades. have lived behind a religious and cultural Iron Curtain. In 1991. the entire Albanian Jewish community was airlifted to Israel.
Keywords matched
immigrants refugees