The 83-year-old Holocaust survivors Arnold and Ella Betkin were rescued from the bombed-out Kharkiv in Ukraine, and were on their way to immigrate to Israel.
The masses of Israelis who read in the media about their rescue, could not help but be moved by the fact that the couple had to become refugees for the second time in their lives.
However, in contrast to the world reality during the childhood of Arnold and Ella - today the Jewish people are so strong that there are Ukrainians who called the emergency line of the Jewish Agency and tried their luck - even though they have nothing to do with Judaism.
After staying at a facility of the Jewish Agency in a hotel in Warsaw, Arnold and Ella immigrated to Israel.
It is not obvious that there was someone who would rescue them from hell: there was no one who would fight for them during the Holocaust, because then there was no sovereign and democratic Jewish state with enough power and connections around the world to help every Jew who was in trouble.
The Jewish Agency, together with the State of Israel, led Israel's largest rescue and immigration operation since the 1990s, in full cooperation with the government and the national institutions.
In 2022, so far, almost 55,000 people entitled to the Law of Return have immigrated to Israel from all over the world.
For comparison, in 2019, 33,247 immigrants immigrated to Israel.
It is understood that geopolitical crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war are the driving factor for those Jews, but the role of the State of Israel is to assist them in times of need and absorb them in the best possible way.
We are a country that excels in encouraging immigration, but we received an "inadequate" grade in the absorption of those immigrants.
A diligent and smart politician could double the number of immigrants to Israel to 100 thousand a year.
Unfortunately, many of the Jews of Russia and Ukraine decided to immigrate to other countries in Europe, instead of immigrating to Israel.
I'm not ready to accept the attitude that says "those who want to come, let them come, and those who don't - don't".
We must be attractive and provide those Jewish refugees, and every immigrant, living and livelihood conditions that will allow them to live in Israel with dignity.
Unfortunately, about 10,000 Jews from Ukraine decided in the past year to immigrate to Germany and join the Jewish communities in the country, according to the "Jerusalem Post".
Less than 15 thousand immigrated to Israel from Ukraine since the outbreak of the war in the country.
Does it make sense that a country with which we have such a complex history, like Germany, is more attractive to Ukrainian Jews than Israel?
Please, Knesset members and party leaders, demand in the coalition negotiations the immigration and absorption portfolio, and even increased budgets to reform the absorption world.
You have a historic opportunity to bring an extraordinary number of immigrants to Israel, and to fulfill what Zeev Jabotinsky wrote: "I love my people and the Land of Israel: this is my 'I believe', this is my life's work, and I have no need for anything else in the world."
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