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Article: Israel acts to stop flow of Soviet Jews to America
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 19, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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It's hard to believe that an Israeli prime minister would ask an
American president to stop granting refugee status to Jews who leave
the Soviet Union.
But that's what Yitzhak Shamir requested of Ronald Reagan when
they met at the White House Wednesday. Otherwise, the United States
rather than Israel would benefit from the outgoing tide of Soviet
Jews that might flow from General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's
current bid to liberalize the Kremlin's policy on human rights,
possibly including emigration.
Shamir was reluctant to take up this problem with the president,
but a prospective increase in the percentage of Soviet Jews who, on
arrival in Vienna, prefer the United States to Israel ...