Evening star., 1950-10-01

SAAAino bCSOlIC 81 desperate
ready talking of starvation in the
by continuing to work on the
black market, allowed immigrant
housing schemes to be jeopardized.
Certain anti-government news
papers have answered, not with
out reason. that it is precisely the
task of the Ministry of Labor to
prevent this preventable evil and
not to issue improbable threats.
Perhaps all that Mrs. Myerson was
really doing was expressing her
desperation at. the situation re-
sulting from Israel's semi Socialist,
semi-private enterprise economy. |
immigration Problems |
Government and trade union
enterprises do not, and apparently |
cannot. pay as high wages as
private capitalists can and do
pay. Skilled labor would, in any
case, be in short supply here, but,
at present, even the little that
does arrive is quickly tempted into
productive activities which are by
no means of the highest priority.
One may reasonably be sure that
skilled Italian labor will not be
imported, and that eventually the
government will have to become
less liberal in its labor policy,
which is based at present on a
determination to preserve q COM
paratively free labor market.
Ever since the formation of the
strong and very natural desire to
avoid RECOMMENDATION. of the new
immigrants. This has been partly
owing to the fear of making
Israel an unattractive proposition
to potential immigrants abroad.
The truth is. and it is very gen.
orally admitted. that Israel is not
an attractive proposition in any
ordinary sense of the word. Many
and bitter letters have been sent
by newly arrived immigrants, rec
ommending their friends not to
come if there is any real alterna-
tive.
1t has been found, however. |
that these letters have no effect
at all on the steady stream of ap-
plicants for immigration. They
come now, not to a promised land,
certainly not to land which they
have imagined to be flowing with
milk and honey-they come be-
cause they cannot endure to stay
where they are. Though at the
moment there may not be any
virulent persecution of the Jews
| OF the dispersion, there are still
many compelling reasons, psyche
logical, political and economic,
which persuade them that life In
the Jewish state would be better
than life outside it.
But these negative motives do
not, OF course. produce particu-
larly anenable or enthusiastic
type of immigrant. Even with /
enthusiasm and amenability the I
problem of absorption would be
difficult enough. Faced with the
recalcitrance and "choosiness" !
which they so often meet with,
the Israeli authorities have an ap-
palling task before them. |
Many Internal Disputes
1t is unnecessary to emphasize
the successful efforts which are
being made to reclaim desert |
areas, start up new industries.
provide homes and work for the
immigrants-and all this while
preserving an equitable system
of distributing available goods.
No one can foresee what the
eventual population of Israel will
or can be, though a figure of more
than 100000 within the next
five years Is certainly anticipated.
With so much industriousness AMI
ingenuity, it is not unreasonable
to suppose that Israel will event.
ually be able to exist in a state
of relative economic independence.
There remain the many in
ternal disputes. The most i'm
portant of these between the
Mapai Labor Party which doml-
mates the government and Mapala,
can only be aggravated by the
one financial measure which
would save the country from in
f1ation and bankruptcy. But
Mapam is not simply an ire
sponsible left-wing party, slavisl-
| ly following instructions from
Moscow. 1t is hard to believe that
the Mapam leaders would take
action which might strongly
threaten the existence of that
State which Mapam has itself
done SO much to create. Zionism
is not spent force, and Israel Is
one of the most fanatically pa
triotic countries in the world. At
the moment. even in the present
dangerous situation, party and
group differences are still clam
orous. But just as the war against
the Arabs united Israel before,
and would at once unite here
again, so the economic peril must
in the end do so. too.
Copyright, London Observer Foreign
News service) !