Israel spends six percent of its annual gross national product on the immigration and absorption of Jews from abroad, an expenditure that has no equivalent in the budget of any other nation, according to Shimon Peres, Minister of Immigrant Absorption. Mr. Peres told a press luncheon that this burden along with the 20 percent of the GNP spent on defense, weighs heavily on the nation’s economy. That is why, he said, “the bonds between the 12 million Jews living in the diaspora and the two-and-a-half million Jews in Israel will determine the future of the state no less than the confrontation between the 100 million Arabs and almost three million Israelis.” Mr. Peres thought that the process of absorbing newcomers should start in every Israeli home. “The ideal would be that every immigrant should have at least one Israeli family whom he could visit and phone and who would help him along his individual path to absorption,” he said.
A former deputy defense minister. Mr. Peres was named a minister-without-portfolio in the new national coalition government. He was made care-taker Minister of Immigrant Absorption pending a decision by the Mapam faction for which that cabinet post was ear-marked. Mr. Peres was also assigned responsibility for economic matters in the occupied Arab territories. Questioned on that subject, he said efforts had to be made to raise the living standards of Arabs in the occupied zones. Whatever political settlement is eventually made, they will continue to be in contact with Israel and the worse their economic plight, the more susceptible they will be to incitement, Mr. Peres said,
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