In France of the Ancien Regime,
the population was divided into three Estates: Nobles, Clergy and Commoners. In the Nineteenth Century,
the historian Thomas Babington Macauley was the first to dub those who report
the news as "The Fourth Estate". Since Lord Macauley's time, the power of
the press has been vastly expanded, and enhanced with the power of the radio
and television broadcasting.
HonestReporting.com bestowed its Dishonest Reporting Awar for 2001. Against
stiff competition, first prize went to the BBC ) British Broadcasting Corporation)
for its May 2001 fabricated film clip concocted to show Israeli brutality.
When Israelis struck a Palestinian terror base in Gaza the targets were empty
buildings. There were no Arab victims and thus no useful pictures. So the
BBC illustrated the story with film of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror
arriving at an Israeli hospital, to suggest that these were victims of Israeli
attack. The newsreader in London, herself a former BBC correspondent in Israel,
ended the segment with "These are the pictures from Gaza".
Among the runners-up: Chris Hedges, for his article "Gaza Diary: Scenes from
the Palestinian Uprising," Harper's, October 2001. Hedges avers "I
have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap
and murder them for sport." He cites no evidence for the charge. He admits
that he did not see any killings, and therefore assumes that they took place
out of sight behind sand dunes. He admits that he did not hear any shooting,
and therefore assumes that the soldiers put silencers on their weapons.
* * * * * * *
"There is much to be said in favor
of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps
us in touch with the ignorance of the community"
-- Oscar Wilde
Broadcasters, reporters and editors who want to pass their own distaste
for Israel along to their viewers and readers have various techniques to
create the preferred impressions as distinct from the realities. These techniques
do not require any knowledge or understanding of the facts, the background
or the issues.
1] Depict the Arabs as the weaker
party, who therefore must merit sympathy
regardless of their conduct:
This requires counting only the Arabs west of the Jordan River,
to blur the reality of five million Jews as the target of the entire vast
and populous Arab world and most of the non-Arab Muslim world.
From "Interludes", by Jay Nordlinger,
NationlReviewOnline, 15 January 2002:
I saw something a few days ago
that amused me greatly. There was an AP article — on the Internet — about
the Israeli seizure of that Palestinian/Iranian ship, loaded with 50 tons
of matériel with which to kill Israelis. Accompanying the article was a photo
of . . . well, I’ll let the caption say it all: “Palestinian
Haroon Al-Rabaa, right, and his son Ander bake bread in a makeshift oven
in their house, where cooking gas is not available due to the Israeli army
closure of the West Bank village of Salem, near Nablus.
Ahh. Those damn Israelis. This is the great victory the Palestinians
have achieved in the propaganda field. A friend of mine said the following
recently: “You know the most amazing change that has taken place over the
last quarter of a century or so? The reversal, in propaganda terms, of the
David-and-Goliath situation in the Middle East. It used to be that everyone
recognized who the real David was, Israel: It was a tiny nation, a tiny sliver,
against which 22 Arabs nations were arrayed, a whole world, vowing to destroy
that tiny nation, struggling for its life, after the European Holocaust.
And then, the Arab propagandists, with heaps of help from the West,
made it the Palestinian wretches against the Israeli brutes, changing the
equation. And they’ve been cackling ever since — not that any of the 22 Arab
nations will ever offer the Palestinian wretches any real aid.
2] Use tendentious terminology:
The BBC shuns the term "terrorist" for PLO personnel who blow up
Israeli restaurants or shoot down Israeli children at bus stops. Rather, they
are "activists" or "militants". In contrast, members of the IRA who commit
acts of violence are terrorists.
Reuters international news agency, eschews "terrorist" altogether,
even for the mass murderers of the World Trade Center. Its director explains:
"As we all know, one man's terrorist is
another man's freedom fighter". There was some lapse
in this non-judgmental doctrine when Reuters recently reported:
"[State Department Spokesman] Boucher said the United States, which
gives Israel about $2 billion a year in weaponry to kill Palestinians, objects
to the $100 million shipment to the Palestinians on the grounds that it contributed
to the escalation of violence."
Events are reported in the passive tense: "shooting broke out" or
"violence erupted" or "an explosion occurred". This can obscure the fact that
PLO terrorists started the shooting or the violence or set off the explosion.
A period of "calm" or "quiet" means Israeli security intercepted
terrorists before they could execute their missions, "Relative" calm or quiet
means only one or two Jews were murdered that day.
3] On any issues in dispute, such as
history, territory, occupation, aggression, oppression, human rights, and
so forth, accept the Arab view without question. [On some of these subjects,
see Issues 2, 6. 8. 9] Adopt and repeat it as though it
were the only view:
Areas that the Oslo Accords placed under conditional PLO administration
are called "Palestinian Territory", which they are not and never were.
Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria beyond the Green Line (that
is, 1949 ceasefire line) are "settlements" and the inhabitants "settlers".
Arabs, no matter how recently arrived in the same regions, are always aborigines.
Some reporters and broadcasters automatically say "illegal settlements". Highly
qualified authorities on international law have concluded that they are not
illegal, but these mediapersons cling to their own juridical ruling on the
subject.
The terms of the Oslo Accords, that endowed Yassir Arafat with his
domain, allot him the title "Chairman", but in contradiction to these terms,
he promoted himself to "President". Therefore, to CNN among others he is
always "President".
When a Jew living in or even visiting a "settlement" is murdered
by an Arab terrorist, the victim should be called "a settler". This makes
it understandable or even justifiable homicide. Occasionally, when a murder
takes place inside the Green Line, a reporter not too skilled at reading
a map identifies the site as a "settlement".
Shalhevet Pass was born in the ancient Jewish community of biblical
Hebron. When she was ten months old, an Arab sniper on a nearby hill took
precise aim at her and killed her with a bullet in her head. Deborah Sontag,
then local correspondent for The New York
Times complained that in Israeli newspapers "headlines referred to the killing of an Israeli
baby and not a settler baby".
4] Cooperate with or even abet the staging of news
events that occur for the specific purpose of being reported:
At one "spontaneous outburst" of Arab street rage, a local PLO-Fatah
leader who was caught on an Israeli army microphone saying: "Don't start the stoning yet. I have just been told
that CNN crew is stuck in traffic near Ramallah."
5] Be tough or even nasty with anyone
speaking for Israel. Be indulgent or even fawning with anyone speaking for
the PLO:
The media watch organization CAMERA has kept count that interviewers
on CNN are more than twice as likely to question or challenge a statement
by an Israeli as a statement by an Arab.
6] When giving a television report
from Israel, choose your background selectively:
In Jerusalem, adjust your position and the camera angle to take
in the gilded Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount. This will remind viewers around
the world that you are in a Muslim city. The BBC places its Jerusalem correspondents
inside a studio against a painted backdrop of the Dome.
The reports of local correspondents are directed at the anchor-newscasters
in their network headquarters studios on another continent. When the report
is of horrendous terrorist mayhem and carnage against Israelis, the distant
anchor-newscaster may inquire earnestly: "How will this affect the Peace
Process?"
7] Mind your languages:
Many local place names go back to biblical Hebrew, and are known
worldwide by those names. It is reasonable that English-language media use
the English versions. At times the familiar English names are supplemented
with alternative Arabic ones, while the Hebrew ones are never used. This creates
an impression that both English and Arabic are noteworthy, but Hebrew – the
language of the land both ancient and modern – is insignificant.
The biblical Temple Mount [Hebrew: Har Ha-Bayit], holiest of all ancient
Jewish historical and holy sites, is presented as "Harem el-Sharif [Arabic for Noble Sanctuary]"
with the reminder that it is "the third
holiest site in Islam".
In January 2001, as many as 400,000 Jews gathered in Jerusalem [Hebrew:
Yerushalayim]
to pledge fidelity to their capital [see Issue I-1]. To CNN, the focal site
of the gathering at Jaffa Gate [Hebrew: Sha'ar Yafo], had to be defined by an
obscure Arab reference to "Bab al-Khalil".
The Jerusalem residential neighborhood of Gilo [Hebrew: Gilo] comes under repeated
gunfire and mortar attack from the nearby PLO-ruled town of Beit Jala. One
network reporter stated that "Gilo is the
Hebrew pronunciation of Jala" – a remark made in
defiance or ignorance of the fact that Gilo was already a residential suburb of Jerusalem in the time of
King David [Hebrew: Daavid HaMelekh] (II Samuel 15 and 23).
8] Find extenuating circumstances
for terrorists:
An Arab bus driver from Gaza deliberately slammed his vehicle into
a group of people waiting at a bus stop near Tel-Aviv, murdering seven and
injuring many more. The driver himself stated that he did it purposely and
with intent to kill. But Suzanne Goldenberg, of the British newspaper The Guardian, rejected
his confession and insisted that he was "no terrorist" but merely had an accident
caused by taking medication that made him drowsy.
Two Israeli men inadvertently took a wrong turn into PLO-ruled Ramallah,
where they were beaten to death by a mob. An arch-perpetrator posed at a
window proudly displaying their blood splattered upon him. Lee Hockstadter,
then local correspondent for The Washington
Post took care to explain that this murderer had
a sickly childhood and stuttered and that made him shy.
When a suicide bomber outside a shopping mall brought death and
injury to a number of passersby. Peter Jennings and the staff of ABC reported
that the murderer was "a young Palestinian
carpenter [….[ identified by his family as a 21-year-old member of the Islamic
militant group Hamas, one of many young Palestinians who’ve been radicalized
by the last eight months of violence". The victims
of the bombing did not rate as subjects of human interest.
9] Do not correct a mistake if the wrong version
is more useful than the right one:
Incidents that can be blamed on Israel are given worldwide coverage.
If the blame proves to be misplaced, corrections and retractions are rare.
The death of a 12-year-old Arab boy during a PLO attack on an Israeli
post was an international cause celebre as long as it could be implied that he was killed by Israeli fire.
When technical studies proved that he was killed by PLO gunfire at close range,
the story was not revised.
When Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made
a tour of the trouble zone, Israel was accused of firing on her car. When
ballistics tests done in Europe proved that the firing was from PLO weapons,
the story was not revised.
* * * * * * *
A reader may note only a newspaper headline or picture caption and
skip the story, especially if does not seem of any particular interest to
that reader. Therefore, a misleading headline or caption, even if factually
correct, can both create a false impression and deter perusal of the story,
The AP (Associated Press), international source for many newspaper stories
and pictures, is particularly adept at the art of the crooked signpost:
1] Photo caption:
"Israeli policeman
beats Palestinian"
Picture: An American Jewish
student in Jerusalem, attacked and badly beaten by a gang of Arabs, is rescued
by an Israeli policeman. [See Issue 3]
2] Headline:
"Jewish toddler
dies in West Bank"
Story: Shalhavet Pass, ten
months old – not even yet a toddler – "died" from being deliberately shot
in the head by an Arab sniper.
3] Headline:
"Explosion
kills bomber in Tel Aviv"
Story: He was killed while
setting off the explosion at the entrance to a disco, thereby murdering 21
young people and gravely injuring many more.
4] Headline: "Israeli Troops
Kill 2 Palestinians"
Story: The "Palestinians" were Hamas terrorists engaged in planting a
bomb on a road. They were killed in a fight with the Israeli soldiers who
spotted them at it. The AP does not omit that kind of detail when reporting
on any other country.
* * * * * * *
When PLO terrorists from Gaza entered Israel and attacked an Israeli
guardpost and killed four soldiers. These soldiers were Beduin Arab Israelis,
serving in the nation's defense forces, so the Jerusalem correspondent for
British Sky News made the clueless insinuation that Israel might not seriously
respond because the soldiers were not Jews.
The men had been killed by terrorists from Rafiah, at the southern
end of the Gaza Strip. Israel promptly destroyed buildings where nobody lived,
used only as nests for terrorists and terminals for tunnels used to smuggle
weapons under the nearby Egyptian border.
The PLO hiked the number of buildings leveled and made the bogus
lamentation that the loss of these [uninhabited] buildings had left 700 refugees
homeless in winter weather. The International Red Cross dutifully rushed in
with tents, and the news media dutifully ran the stock film of Mourning Among
the Ruins.
* * * * * * *
"You declare, my friend, that
you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ]anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the
truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys
of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this
is God's own truth....Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has
been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement.
So know also this: anti-Zionism is inherently Anti-Semitic, and ever will
be so."
--Martin
Luther King, Jr.
The anti-Israel obsession of the news
media in Great Britain and Europe is covered at length in "New Prejudices
for Old -- The Euro press and the Intifada", by Tom Gross, NationalReviewOnline,
1 November 2001. Some of his reports on the British media are covered in these
excerpts and summaries:
On the editor of The Guardian, a newspaper particularly influential among British intellectuals:
Last May, I escorted the editor of London's Guardian newspaper,
Alan Rusbridger and features editor Ian Katz around West Jerusalem and into
Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem. It was Rusbridger's first trip to Israel.
His paper had been singled out by critics of press coverage of Israel as one
of the most unfair.
[We] crossed by car into Bethlehem. . . . . Two Israeli soldiers,
aged about 18, were standing guard on the Israeli
side of the border. When we showed our press cards and asked if we could
cross, one of them said in English, 'But of course, if you are journalists,
you must come in.' Then he added with a wry smile, 'You are the bodyguard
of democracy, after all.' Rusbridger jotted down the soldier's observation
in his notebook.
[….] Rusbridger and Katz saw that the Israeli soldiers were courteous
and polite to Palestinians. They saw that Palestinians were allowed to cross
the checkpoint, both by car and on foot, in a matter of seconds. And they
saw by contrast how the same soldiers were refusing religious Jews — who wished
to go and pray at the nearby holy site of Rachel's Tomb — entry to Bethlehem.
On our drive down one of Bethlehem's main streets, we passed Palestinian-owned
cars of a similar standard to those we had just seen being driven by Israelis
in Jerusalem. Rusbridger and Katz also had a chance
to observe that the local Arab shops were well stocked. And when we drove
back out from Bethlehem into Israel, they could see that Palestinians were
allowed to pass quickly — in about the same time it takes an average Israeli
to enter a Tel Aviv shopping mall or movie theatre, as his bags are searched
for explosive devices. The religious Jews we had seen before were on the other
side of the road, still pleading with the soldiers to be allowed entry to
Bethlehem.
Two weeks later, Rusbridger wrote about his trip in a cover story
for The Spectator in London. [….] Rusbridger began
his Spectator article as follows: 'In the last, dying days of apartheid
I visited South Africa… A couple of weeks ago I made my first trip to another
much written about country, Israel. As with my earlier journey I found a
lot that was shocking, but this time I was genuinely surprised. Nothing had
prepared me for finding quite so many echoes of the worst days of South
Africa in modern Israel.' . . . . He wrote of the 'endless humiliating queues
waiting to pass through Israeli army checkpoints.' There was no mention
of our very different experience . . . .
Rusbridger proceeded to write in The Guardian:
We are forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about how the dream of a sanctuary for the Jewish people in the very land in which their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped has come to be poisoned. The establishment of this sanctuary has been bought at a very high cost in human rights and human lives. It must be apparent that the international community cannot support this cost indefinitely."
[Comment: Who injected the poison and inflicted the costs?]
On The Guardian's Middle East correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg, Gross notes:
[Her] report of Saturday, June 3, 2000 was headlined, 'Palestinians
feel the heat as police enforce beach apartheid: With peace looming, Israel
is keen to establish areas for Jews only.' The article itself began: 'In these
early days of a sweltering summer, the long palm-dotted beaches of Tel Aviv
are a natural escape. But if you are a Palestinian, a family day out can
mean a night in jail. As Israeli Jews lolled on the sand yesterday, the Tel
Aviv police were out in force in a zealous enforcement of beach apartheid . . [an] operation to create Jewish-only beaches. Palestinians
were arrested near the dolphinarium before they could even set foot on the
sand."
As someone who lives in Tel Aviv, and goes to the beach most days,
I have never seen anything of the kind. Jews and Arabs mix freely on the beach,
and did so when the article was written in June 2000, as any resident of
Tel Aviv will confirm. This includes the area around the dolphinarium, site
of a deadly Palestinian suicide bomb at a beachfront teenage disco exactly
a year after Goldenberg wrote her piece.
[The London Press Club gave Goldenberg an award for "courageous and objective journalism". At another award ceremony, Goldenberg was lauded: "This journalist has been subjected to a campaign
of vilification."]
Among other samples, Gross notes a poem in The Sunday Observer which "accuses the 'Zionist SS' of deliberately gunning
down Palestinian children" and an article called
"Jews in Jackboots". in an obscure small town paper with little foreign news. In January
2001, The Guardian progressed to an opinion piece entitled: "Israel Simply Has No Right To Exist".
Gross also makes these observations:
It would be easy to go on and on, with similar examples from across Europe. Mixed in with the general Jew-hatred — and
compulsive attempts to draw parallels with the Holocaust —
is a specifically Christian-based anti-Semitism. Though the overwhelming
majority of Palestinians are Muslim, many of the cartoons. headlines, and
news reports use Christian imagery. Phrases such as "the Palestinians' Via
Dolorosa" and "the cross the Palestinians have to bear" are common in countries
like France and Italy.
[. . . .] the BBC's chief Jerusalem correspondent, Hillary Anderson,
began a recent report on the deaths of Palestinian children thus: "Deep underground
in Bethlehem are the remnants of an atrocity so vile, so far back in history,
King Herod's slaughter of the innocents . . . ." (The camera meanwhile showed
a pile of skulls.) Then she moved on to the deaths of Palestinian children,
evoking Herod's massacre of the innocents, to remind the viewer that Jews,
who tried to kill the infant Christ, are busy killing innocent children once
again.
After a survey of even worse samples from the Continent, Gross interprets
the implications and consequences:
Does the bias, in the end, matter? In my view, it does, and not just because the truth is always important. For one
thing, it is clear that inaccurate reporting is influencing international
diplomatic efforts. A distorted picture of events is helping to produce correspondingly
distorted policies, particularly in Europe.
In addition, as Jewish organizations in Europe and beyond can confirm,
there is a clear link between inflammatory reporting about Israel and physical
attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in the countries where those reports
are published or broadcast. Correspondents may not realize it, but their unfair
reporting plays into preexisting anti-Semitism. . .
. . The systematic building up of a false picture of Israel as aggressor, and deliberate killer of babies and children,
is helping to slowly chip away at Israel's legitimacy. How can ordinary people
elsewhere not end up hating such a country? . . . .
* * * * * * *
At a dinner party at the London home of newspaper publisher Lord
Black, a diplomat-guest described Israel as "a ****** little country" and demanded
"Why should we be in danger of World War
III because of those people?" [Comment: Not a very
astute diplomat, if he thinks that one tiny country that stands all alone
on this earth can start World War III.] Lady Black, who is the columnist Barbara
Amiel, in a piece on chic anti-Semitism quoted the remarks, without naming
either the diplomat or his country. The
Guardian newspaper quickly identified his as Daniel
Bernard, Ambassador of France. Lady Black was much excoriated for quoting
a remark he meant only for his friends.
Deborah Orr, columnist for The
Independent, sister paper of The Guardian, wrote on
December 21: "I'm fed up being called an
anti-Semite." She so liked Monsieur Bernard's
phrasing that she repeated it several times, expressing unreserved agreement.
Then she explained: "Anti-Semitism is disliking
all Jews, anywhere, and anti-Zionism is just disliking the existence of Israel
and opposing those who support it. This may be an academic rather than a practical
distinction, and one which has no connection with holding the honest view
that in my experience Israel is * * * * * * and little."
[Comment: Miss Orr and her colleagues are, of course, entitled to
their personal tastes. The matter at issue is not what they like or dislike,
but whether their reporting and analyses are honest or dishonest, true or
false, straightforward or distorted.]
* * * * * * *
In December, Newsweek presented "A Tale of Two Enemies," a side-by-side comparison of
Arafat and Sharon. Annotations by A Time To Speak
are in brackets.
YASIR ARAFAT:
1929: Born in Egypt. At 16 he starts smuggling arms to Palestine
for use against the British and the Jews.
1948: Leaves school briefly to fight in Gaza during Arab-Israeli
conflict.
[Comment: The "conflict" was war of annihilation launched by six
Arab states against newly-reborn Israel.]
1956-58: Graduates as a civil engineer. Settles in Kuwait. Forms
Al Fatah with friends.
[Comment: It is not noted that Al Fatah is and has always been a
terrorist organization.]
1964: Leaves Kuwait to be a revolutionary. Fatah joins PLO, a new
umbrella group created to liberate Palestine.
[Comment: It is not noted that the charter defines "liberation of
Palestine" to mean the destruction of Israel].
1969: Named PLO chairman.
[Comment: It is not noted that the PLO is a terrorist organization,
with a charter defining its purpose as the destruction of Israel.]
1974: Addresses U.N. General Assembly-the first time a non-head
of state is invited.
[Comment: It is not noted that this was the first time a speaker
was wearing a gun.]
1993: Holds secret peace talks with Yitzhak Rabin in Oslo.
{Comment: It is not noted that he assures his followers that the
"peace" is only a trick to help destroy Israel.]
1996-2000: Continues talks with Israel, but turns down Clinton-Barak peace plan.
[Comment: It is not noted that he then launched a terrorist war against civilians.]
ARIEL SHARON
1928: Born in Palestine.
1948-49: Heads an
infantry in Israel's War of Independence.
1956-67: Fights
in Sinai campaign and later in Six Day War; noticed for his military ability
and ruthlessness.
[Comment: Arch-terrorist
Arafat is not described as "ruthless" or with any other pejorative term.]
1972-73: Leaves
the Army for politics. Helps form Likud.
1981-82: Named Defense
minister to Menachem Begin. Heads Israel's invasion of Lebanon that kills
2,000 Palestinian refugees.
[Comment: It is
not noted that the Palestinian refugees were killed by Lebanese Christian
Arabs. A Commission of Inquiry and the jury in a New York libel suit against
Time Magazine both found that
Israel had no part in it and Sharon had no foreknowledge of it. In the biography
of Arafat, no reader could guess that he caused a single death.]
1990: Speeds buildup
of settlements in Palestinian territory as minister of Construction and Housing.
[Comment: It is not noted that there is no such thing as "Palestinian territory".
The settlements are entirely legal, and in fact in land designated by the
League of Nations Mandate for "close Jewish settlement".]
1998: Holds peace
talks with Arafat as foreign minister.
2000: Visits Al
Aqsa Mosque, sparking the second Palestinian intifada (uprising).
[Comment: It is
not noted that Sharon visited the Jewish Temple Mount. He never went near
the Al Aqsa Mosque. Even PLO admits that it had already planned the violence,
and only used Sharon's visit to Temple Mount as an excuse to launch it.]
2001: Elected prime
minister.
* * * * * * *
When reporting comes not from a privately
owned newspaper or network but from a public body, then the taxpayers are
subsidizing it. What that can mean is reported by CAMERA on "National Public
Radio – All Bias, All the Time," 12 August 2001:
National Public Radio reporters may not be fair or balanced when
it comes to covering the Middle East, they may not be paragons of accuracy,
or exemplars of journalistic ethics, but say this much for them – they are
consistent. When it comes to putting forth a pro-Palestinian line, day in
and day out, they have no equals in the United States.
On the morning of July 27, for example, there were two Middle East
stories for NPR to cover:
(1) Palestinian gunmen shot and killed a seventeen-year-old Israeli
boy named Ronen Landau as he was driving home with his father and brother.
Just before this attack the same gunmen had shot at Israeli children in a
playground.
(2) The funeral of Saleh Darwazeh, a senior Hamas operative who
had been killed by Israeli troops. Darwazeh had engineered numerous fatal
attacks against Israelis.
Which story did NPR emphasize, which person did the publicly-funded
network humanize with details and names and interviews? In an 1141 word story,
NPR devoted exactly 26 words to the murder of the Israeli boy in front of
his father and brother, not even bothering to mention his name: 'Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian security posts
in the West Bank early today after Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli teenager
at the entrance to a Jewish settlement.' The rest
of the story – all 1115 words – were devoted to Saleh Darwazeh, who was described
as an 'activist' and his cause. [….]
The NPR reporter [Linda Gradstein] then helpfully describes to listeners
the Israeli "siege" of Nablus: "A trip between Jerusalem and Nablus used
to take just over an hour, but now only Jewish settlers are allowed to travel
on the main road. Palestinians must take a long detour on a winding road
through the Jordan valley, almost triple the distance. They must also pass
several Israeli roadblocks, often waiting for hours at each one. Israeli troops
have also sealed off more than a dozen villages near Nablus".
Of course, Gradstein is wrong – it’s not just "Jewish settlers"
who can travel on the main road, it’s anyone with an
Israeli license plate, including Israeli Arabs. And while Palestinians might
be inconvenienced by having to take a detour, many Israelis must also take
long detours as they attempt to avoid deadly Palestinian ambushes. Like the
Palestinian ambush that killed Ronen Landau, which NPR barely reported.
Gradstein also never mentions that had the Palestinians not started
a virtual war against Israel, there would be no detours, not for Israelis
and not for Palestinians. Gradstein interviewed no Israelis in her report
who might have articulated all this, she interviewed no Israelis who might
have explained why the Hamas leader, Saleh Darwazeh, was targeted. Instead
she offered an entirely Palestinian view.
In contrast, when Gradstein covered the suicide bombing of the Sbarro
pizzeria in Jerusalem on August 9, which killed 15 Israelis including 7 children,
she first interviewed Israelis, but then gave the last word to Yasser Abed
Rabbo, the Palestinian Information Minister. Rabbo blamed the bombing not
on Hamas, which sent the bomber, and not on Arafat, who refuses to arrest
the bomb makers and even collaborates with them, but on Israel’s Prime Minister:
NPR’s tax supported bias is an affront to journalism, and an insult
to the taxpayers who are forced to subsidize it. Until NPR begins to report
accurately and fairly, it certainly does not deserve subsidies or charitable
gifts. Neither do the local public radio stations that broadcast its shoddy
work.
* * * * * * *
In recent weeks, there has been some pressure upon Arafat to arrest
the more flagrant terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Even some European
governments have suggested this – though perhaps only to refurbish Arafat's
own image.
Reportedly, the PLO has offered its men, including Arafat's private
Tanzim Militia, an honorarium of $3,000 each to sit in jail cells for a month
and pretend to be Hamas or Islamic Jihad prisoners. This would be for display
to media persons and the circuit-riding diplomats of the European Union.