Former Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin warned last night that if the Jewish people fail to meet “the challenge of aliya to Israel,” it might have an impact on the future of the Jewish State.
Addressing an Aliya Assembly at Congregation Kehilith Jeshurun here, sponsored by the North America Aliya Movement in conjuction with the Israel Aliya Center, Rabin, presently a member of the Knesset and a leader of the opposition Labor Party, said that the issue of aliya is the “most important” issue facing Israel today.
“I believe that the question of how many Jews will live in Israel is, in the long run, more important than the issue of Lebanon, or the PLO,” Rabin declared. He said that “everything would have been different” as far as Israel’s standing in the world community and its relations with the Arab countries is concerned, if there were in Israel today six or seven million Jews instead of only 3.5 million.
ISRAEL IS SEARCHING FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
“For 2,000 years the Jewish people were searching for the Land of Israel,” Rabin said. “Today, the Land of Israel is searching for the Jewish people.”
Rabin said that although the number of olim from the United States to Israel is small, “it is important to keep the stream of aliya” and strengthen the bond between American Jewish communities and Israel. “Even if we have a small number of olim, it keeps the partnership and commitment between American Jews and Israel,” Rabin said. Rabin, who was in New York on his way to Miami to address a gathering of the Israel Bond Organization, said, in response to a question, that the Israelis who left Israel (yordim) and settled abroad, mainly in the United States, are “deserters.”
“Anyone who leaves Israel is a deserter from the Jewish people’s struggle to build its country. They (the Yordim) are weak people who could not endure the hardship of living in Israel, ” Rabin told the some 150 people at the meeting, some of whom plan to go on aliya shortly.
But the former Premier said that he is against any restrictions to prevent those Israelis who want to leave Israel from doing do. “We are a free, democratic country,” he said, adding that Israel cannot restrict emigration while demanding that the Soviet Union permits its Jewish citizen to emigrate.
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.
