Sunday, June 26, 2005

Closing off opportunities for Russian immigrants, II

YNet is reporting that, following a 2-year campaign by the Jewish Agency, Germany is going to decrease the benefits package awarded to Jewish immigrants from the FSU in order to limit the competition for immigrants with Israel. (German benefits are much higher than Israeli ones, and incidentally, attract a high proportion of very poor immigrants.)
Not sure how exactly this is different to what was reported on this several months ago, but my comments still stand: Jews have the right to live wherever they want and Israel has no right to try and dictate or limit their options. If it can't attract Jewish immigrants under 'free market' conditions, because they freely choose to go there, it should work on making itself more attractive rather than trying to make other options less attractive. This interference is frankly a chutzpah.

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