Resolution Adopted by the CCARLoan Guarantees
Adpoted by the 103rd Annual Convention of
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
San Antonio, Texas, April, 1992
The unprecedented numbers of olim
in these last months have cast an economic burden on Israel which cannot be funded
in traditional ways. Israel has asked the United States Government to guarantee loans
that Israel must take to provide funds for housing, jobs and other elements of the
economic expansion now needed. In previous resolutions, the Central Conference of American
Rabbis has called upon the United States government "to authorize loan guarantees
as needed by Israel to mobilize foreign capital to finance housing and the creation
of jobs for immigrants from the U.S.S.R. and Ethiopia" (1991 Resolution on Strengthening
Israel's Economy). Mindful of our domestic recession, we have pointed out that Israel
is requesting "guarantees for loans, not loans; that Israel has never defaulted on
a loan; and that these loan guarantees will make a critical difference in strengthening
America's solid democratic ally in the Middle East" (ibid).
The Central Conference of American Rabbis deplores the United States Administration's
insistence on making the offer of loan guarantees contingent on a freeze on construction
in the territories. While the Conference has itself cautioned the present Government of Israel about the advisability of its settlements policy, we strongly deplore
the United States' insistence on this linkage. The Conference also vigorously protests
the administration's lobbying other governments to dissuade them from offering loan
guarantees to Israel. Such conditioning not only compromises the neutrality of the
United States as convener of the peace conference, undercutting the principle of
direct face-to-face talks between Israelis and Arabs; it also prepares the ground
for further demands by the United States government for"good behavior" on Israel's part as the
condition for other forms of United States aid in the future. The CCAR calls upon
the United States government, which supported the appeal of Soviet Jews to "let my
people go," and President Bush, who as Vice-President, played a key role in the success
of the 1984 aliya
of Ethiopian Jews, to unlink the loan guarantees from the uncertainties of the peace
process and the volatility of Middle East politics, thus enabling Israel to get on
with the logical next steps of rescue-resettlement in the homeland. While persuasive
economic and security-based arguments can also be marshaled to buttress the case for
loan guarantees, the Conference asserts that the case for approval on humanitarian
grounds is sufficiently compelling on its own. At the same time, and with the same
humanitarian motive, we call upon Prime Minister Shamir to divert the funds presently used
for housing in the territories to the provision of shelter and employment for the
hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian and Russian olim.
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