Israel: Not Just a Travel Agent

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Since January, more than 4,700 Jews have left the Soviet Union carrying Israeli visas. But only 18.7% of them have actually ended up in the Jewish state. Israeli officials, eager to promote the Zionist ideal and increase their stagnating Jewish population, have been agonizing over this "dropout" problem for years, and last week they took drastic action to resolve it. The Israeli Cabinet voted 16 to 2 to force Jewish emigres to leave the Soviet Union by way of Bucharest, where officials have agreed to compel them to proceed directly to Israel and nowhere else. Soviet Jews currently emigrate by way of Vienna, where they have the option of changing their destination. More than three-quarters proceed to America.

The U.S. raised immediate objections to the new policy. "People should not be forced to go to a country they don't want to live in," said an American diplomat in Moscow. Retorted World Zionist Organization Head Simcha Dinitz: "Israel is not a travel agent."