Yitzhak Rabin, who hopes to lead the Labor Party to victory in the Knesset elections next month, laid down his position on the sensitive settlements issue to Jewish fund-raisers from New York who were visiting here.
Settlements are important to security in selected areas, but not at the expense of absorption, Rabin told 500 members of a “mega-mission” sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York.
“Israel must shift its focus away from the settlements and toward the creation of jobs if aliyah is to continue,” Rabin said in his address last Monday.
He avoided criticizing the rival Likud party directly, possibly because of Israel’s campaign laws, which bar electioneering at non-political functions. But he made clear his rejection of its philosophy of unlimited settlements, to which it is allocating much of the nation’s resources.
“We must rethink our national priorities,” Rabin asserted. “Instead of spending between 2 billion and 4 billion shekels on political settlements, this taxpayer money should be directed toward the creation of jobs.”
Noting that the country’s overall unemployment rate has reached 12 percent, and that 30 to 40 percent of new immigrants are out of work, Rabin warned that “unemployment is the most dangerous social disease we have. It has created tensions within the delicate fabric of our society, and it is getting worse.”
He laid down the election gauntlet when he said, “Ask the Israeli people which they prefer: to spend money on settlements or on reducing unemployment.”
NO ALIYAH WITHOUT JOBS
The Labor Party leader charged that immigration figures will remain low until Israel solves its financial woes. “No one is going on aliyah knowing he won’t have a job when he gets here,” he said.
He said increased immigration is important from both ideological and demographic perspectives.
“There is nothing more Zionistic than aliyah. Furthermore, I believe that when the Jewish population in Israel reaches 6 to 8 million people, most of our problems will be solved,” Rabin said.
Though critical of the government’s unequivocal stand on the issue of settlements, Rabin agreed that “settlements on the confrontation lines, such as the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights, serve the security needs of Israel.”
He also said he was “not arguing about Jerusalem. I was born here 70 years ago. I participated in the wars that decided the modern fate of Jerusalem. No one will teach me the meaning of Jerusalem.”
With respect to the June 23 elections, Rabin said pointedly, “Nobody but Israelis can make up our minds. Israel is at a crossroads. We will decide which way to go, and we hope you will be with us, whichever way we choose.”
After a week visiting absorption centers, youth villages, ulpan classes and museums, “our members know a lot more about Israel than they did before they came,” said Alan Jaffe, the mission co-chairman. “The more they know, the more they want to help,” he said.
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