Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 12:55:37 EDT
From: andy <2893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Israel and the diaspora
 <92313.1453122893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
 <1992Nov9.161835.7315@cbnewsl.cb.att.com>

In article <1992Nov9.161835.7315@cbnewsl.cb.att.com>, sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com
(seth.r.rosenthal) says:
>> >In <92312.0400382893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> andy
>> ><2893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> writes:
(...)
>> >>For example until a few years ago
>> >>about 90% of Russian Jewish emigres emigrated to nations other than
>Israel.
>> >>Israel, feeling that the inherent right of these people to travel should
>only
>> >>be extended as far as Israel tried to make it impossible for them to go
>> >>elsewhere by arranging direct flights to Jerusalem and getting the U.S. to
>> >>impose quotas on the number of Russian Jews entering the country.
>> >
>> >Hardly.  I think you'll find that the vast majority of the lobbyists
>> >were Americans, not Israelis, who were working under a (misguided) sense
>> >of Zionism.
>>
>> Then why did Natan Sharansky criticise Israel and North american Jews for
>> doing just what I claim, this was covered in CJN about two or three years
>> ago. That's right, my source is the Canadian Jewish News
>>
>
>This agrees with what all the Soviet immigrants I have worked with
>in the last few years say.  In fact many of them are saving up
>money now to get their relatives in Israel out to the US also.
>Some Jews who can't get refugee status are coming on tourist
>visas, and staying illegally getting cash jobs, and putting a drain
>on the local Jewish Family Services resources for handling them,
>since money is only allocated for those with refugee status.
>General services open to the community at large are still available,
>but no housing allowances for instance.
>
>Cutting down the options has also caused considerable numbers
>of Russian Jews who can't get to the US to go to Germany instead.
>Better economics is the only reason.  Given what is happening
>there, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging Jews to
>emigrate to Germany.
>                Seth Rosenthal

I received the following from one reader:

Noam Chomsky also reported on this in an article in Z magazine, December
1991.  He wrote:

  There is no fundamental disagreement about the denial of Palestinian
  rights or US support for measures to extend Israeli control over the
  territories, just as both governments agree that Soviet Jews
  should be denied freedom of choice and directed to Israel, with
  the US paying the bill on humanitarian pretexts.  Not an eyebrow
  is raised when the Jewish Agency meets in Jerusalem to demand
  that Jewish organizations "unite to sabotage" any efforts to open
  US doors to Soviet Jews, while in the Israeli press, Minister of
  Immigration and Absorption Michael Kleiner explains how he will
  induce Germany to reverse its decision to admit Soviet Jews but
  no other refugees: "Germany has already fulfilled its quota for
  discrimination concerning Jews in this century," Kleiner will
  inform these German criminals, "and the time has come for it to
  treat Jews just like other people" -- denying entry to Jewish
  refugees, so that they can be forced to Israel. {note: Yotam
  Navin,_Yediot Ahronot_, Oct. 1, 1991; see my article in _Z_
  magazine, October 1991.} The cynicism of the enterprise will
  surprise only those unfamiliar with the vastly more shameful
  practices of the 1940s, well into the post-Holocaust years when
  the miserable remnants of the extermination camps were treated in
  much the same way.