EFFECTIVENESS OF INTIFADA PROVED BY VICTORY OVER ZIONAZI EFFORTS TO RECRUIT NEW COLONIZERS

New bid to tempt former CIS Jews to relocate from West to Israel

By Yair Sheleg

The immigrant liaison unit Nativ which in the past was responsible for Israeli operations to encourage immigration from the former Soviet Union will soon begin focusing its activities on encouraging former Soviet Jews who have settled in Germany and the United States to move to Israel.

However, earlier plans to initiate Nativ activities in Argentina will be scrapped, the Prime Minister's Office has decided.

Nativ activities in Germany and the United States will focus on Jewish education and encouraging aliyah. It was decided to focus on these communities due to the sharp drop in immigration since the start of the latest intifada a year-and-a-half ago in the number of Jews immigrating to Israel from the former Soviet Union, compared to the number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have been flooding into the United States and Germany.

Nativ was set up when Israel had to operate semi-clandestinely behind the Iron Curtain in helping Soviet Jews immigrate to Israel.

Nativ's critics, foremost among them the Jewish Agency, say that today there is no need for such a body and it should be shut down. Nativ has been searching for a new focus of activity to justify its continued existence.

The idea of focusing Nativ activities on Argentina was nipped in the bud because of complaints - including from the Jewish community in Argentina - that Nativ brought no special skills to the recruiting efforts and its employees could not even speak Spanish.

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