Shamir: Curing Israel’s Economy is the Government’s Chief Task

Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir told an audience of Canadian Jews here that curing Israel’s economy is the “most important task on the agenda” of the national unity government in Jerusalem and that if diaspora Jews cannot help Israel by aliya, they should help it by trade and investment.

Shamir, who is also Israel’s Deputy Premier, spoke to some 1,500 persons at a community rally sponsored by seven major Canadian Jewish organizations at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. It was one of the major events of his six-day official visit to Canada.

Shamir stressed that Israel cannot be secure unless its economy is healthy. The trade deficit, he said, is especially dangerous, even more than galloping inflation. “We are asking our people to make sacrifices in their salaries and are cutting subsidies on many commodities but it is not yet enough. It is imperative that we increase our exports,” Shamir said.

In that connection he urged all Jewish businessmen to do business with Israel wherever possible. “Today the most important mission of every Jewish businessman is to participate in this effort to increase Israeli exports to all international markets,” Shamir said.

He also said that unemployment in Israel, which now stands at seven percent, is at “an intolerable level” by the standards of the Jewish State. “We cannot tolerate unemployment if we want to remain a country that can absorb immigrants.”

Shamir observed that Israel is “still in the process of building a unified nation. There cannot be weaker and stronger categories of people” in Israeli society, he said. He emphasized the need for more immigrants, especially Jews from the Free World.