–Israel can prosper and “stand on its own feet” only if the present political and economic system is fundamentally changed. This is, in essence, the message of the newly founded Azma’ut (Independence) movement in Israel.
Dr. Ezra Sohar, the founder and leader of the movement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview here that “We believe the prevailing economic system in Israel, a system that gives the government total control of all resources and, therefore, is stifling free enterprise, is detrimental to the economy and to the country’s image.”
Sohar, 58, a well known professor of medicine who began to be politically active following the Yom Kippur War, said that Israel’s social ills will not be cured as long as the government budget exceeds the gross national product. He also charged that “the massive foreign aid and philanthropy Israel receives do not strengthen the country. On the contrary. It has weakened Israel by providing the power base upon which the political establishment and its innumerable bureaucrats thrive and perpetuate the distorted Israeli system of government.”
The Azma’ut movement, with a few hundred members so far and a couple of thousand sympathizers, according to Sohar, advocates a free enterprise system in Israel. “Only then will Israeli be able to achieve what Jews have achieved in all Western countries, that is, economic success,” Sohar observed. He claimed that “a free economy in Israel is the only way to attract Jews from developed countries to come and settle in Israel.”
MESSAGE OF OPTIMISM
Sohar, who was active with Ariel Sharon in the Shlom Zion movement several years ago but left it before the 1977 national elections, said that in his current visit to the United States he wants to bring American Jewry a “message of optimism.”
“We believe that Israel can be self-supporting, that it has the human resources to create and develop a sophisticated technological economy based on the toil of its citizens and can assure, in return, a high standard of living,” Sohar said. “The failure in Israel is not a failure of people but a failure of a system, and this is what I want to convey to American Jews.”
He said that American Jews can do a great deal for Israel, but by investing rather than by giving “charity.” He claimed that “by giving charity, American Jews only strengthen the bureaucracy in Israel, which is one of the major ills of the country.”
Asked to define the Azma’ut movement in the traditional political terminology of either left, center or right, Sohar declined. He said, however, that his movement supports Jewish settlements on the West Bank established by private citizens with no governmental support. He expressed the belief that his movement will become better known to the Israeli public in the months ahead and, as a result, Azma’ut will have some representatives in the next Knesset.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
