NEW YORK - Special arrangements for the conscription of children of Israelis living in the United States to the army could lead to doubling the number of emigrants who return to Israel, Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim believes. Boim is on a visit to large cities in the U.S. in an effort to persuade Israelis to return home.

Boim told Haaretz yesterday that he had already spoken with senior Israel Defense Forces officers about changing the regulations for conscripting the sons and daughters of returning Israelis. "The entire IDF policy with regard to sons and daughters of returning Israelis is superfluous," he said.

He said he planned to raise the question so on at a cabinet meeting and propose that the possibility be considered that these youngsters would not be drafted at all.

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Some 6,000 Israelis returned home during 2005. "Forty percent did not need the Absorption Ministry's assistance at all and did not ask for special benefits," Boim said. "It would easily be possible to double the number of returning residents to 12,000 a year if the government decides to make things easier for them with regard to the draft and other matters."

Boim said another improvement would be abolishing taxes on assets acquired abroad and changing the laws about health insurance and national insurance. He added that a highly successful employment fair had been held a few days ago in New York and that some 250 Israelis had attended. "I spoke personally with many of those who participated and explained that the time had come to return and that conditions were now ripe," he said. Similar fairs are due to be held in the coming days in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Toronto, Canada. Several leading Israeli firms are for the first time participating in these fairs. They include Teva, Intel and Manpower.

"This is the largest campaign ever to get Israelis living in the U.S. to return home," said a senior Israeli consular official in New York.

The Absorption Ministry estimates that some 650,000 Israelis currently live abroad, some 450,000 of them in North America.