THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 2 Friday, May 1, 1982 Purely Commentary Two Women of Valor — Charlotte Jacobson and Jeane Kirkpatrick — and Their Related Campaigns Against Bigotry and Injustice in the Media and at the UN The Libertarian Struggle an Uphill on Two Fronts Battle to Attain Justice ... Two women figure valiantly in the struggle for fair play and to eradicate bigotry. Their roles are related. One has risen to challenge untruth in media communications. The other has thrown the gauntlet to the hate-mongering forces in the United Nations. Charlotte Jacobson and Jeane Kirkpatrick emerge among the most courageous in the current libertarian struggles. Jeane Kirkpatrick had much to contend with since her appointment as chief U.S. delegate to the United Nations. The problems are as numerous as the nations sharing membership in the UN. Major on the problematic agenda of the UN is the Middle East, and it takes courage to confront the venom- ous, repetitive manifestations aimed at destroying one of the member nations. Mrs. Kirkpatrick tackled the issues with so much courage that her role will go down on record as the most dramatic in statesmanship. Equally challenging is the manner in which the media have been treating the same issues, and the head of the American section of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, as well as president of Jewish.. Na- tional Fund, Charlotte Jacobson, emerges as a valorous defender of Jewish rights in that sphere. Mrs. Jacobson expressed the sense of outrage over the biased reporting on events in Israel by ABC News. The earlier "20/20" program was followed by the equally-biased ABC "Fortress Israel" program. Whereupon she found it necessary to write to the president of ABC News, Roone Arledge, in these harsh terms: My hope for "20/20" vision in this the second time around for an ABC-TV program devoted to the sensitive area of Israel was rudely shattered by last night's (April 22) "Fortress Israel." Once again your myopic and blind-spotted, camera completely omitted scenes that demon- strate the fact that Israel's ideals of human rights, Jewish cultural and spiritual revitalization and political and economic self-determination are a living reality, despite her struggle for existence. Your viewers were not given the slightest glimpse of the normal, vibrant and pulsating life of Israel whose people pursue their daily tasks calmly and efficiently without hindrance in a free society; whose children go to school no differently than their peers in the Western democracies; whose creative and performing artists and writers are involved in producing a vital throb- bing cultural renaissance; whose people are dedi- cated to peace, to human dignity and to democ- racy's and Judaism's finest ideals. I would have thought you would want to bal- ance your previous deplorably pro-PLO program this time. Instead, you have added insult to injury. In consequence, I and many other viewers will turn to other channels for the objective coverage which can no longer be had from the biased re- porting of ABC-TV. I cannot imagine that your advertisers can be happy at the fact that it has become impossible for so many of their prospective consumers to con- tinue to watch ABC-TV, and who in their dismay and indeed, outrage at your blatant anti-Israel, bias, will turn away from their products in pro- test. It is most regrettable that it should have come to such a state of affairs that a top Jewish leader should be castigat- ing a news agency. But that's what has developed in the course of Israel's defensive position not only in Israel proper but also on the American scene. The regrettable fact is that ABC is not alone as a distorter of fact and as a spreader of bias against Israel. There was a similar program a few days after "Fortress Israel" on NBC News, and now the Saudi Arabia programs on Channel 56 multiply the bias, adding insult to injury. There is an explanatory piece related to this aggra- vated matter in the current issue of the ADL Bulletin. Dealing with charges of bias against the New York Times in its handling of news reports from Israel and Lebanon, there is a portion, "New York Times Responds," stating: To its credit, the Times responded on Feb. 17, reporting the furor in Israel about an alleged "cover-ifp" and including the previously deleted paragraph concerning the detention of its report- ers in Lebanon. The story container an explanation by Craig Whitney, the Times' deputy foreign editor, on why the incident had not been reported at the time it occurred: "The correspondents were detained until they could identify themselves the next day when they were freed. It is the policy of the Times to report difficulties encountered by its correspondents in the course of reporting only when the difficulties themselves become news, and we did not consider CHARLOTTE JACOBSON JEANE EIREPATRICK this such a case, then or now." The Israeli response was swift. "This state- ment," said Mr. (Zev) Chafets (director of the press information office for the Israeli govern- ment), "ignored the fact that the Times often re- ported difficulties encountered by correspon- dents, even when these difficulties can in no way be construed as news." As examples, he cited a story printed in the Times on May 29, 1979, by . Youssef M. Ibrahim, then a Times correspondent, detailing his deten- tion for five hours at the Allenby Bridge by Israeli authorities as he was entering the country from Jordan. Mr. Ibrahim acknowledged in the article that he was carrying tapes of conversations with leaders of the PLO and a letter of introduction fi=om the PLO's Beirut office to its Damascus office. On Dec. 8, 1980, the Times published a story by its Israel correspondent, David Shipler, featuring the detention for seven hours of a UPI reporter by the Israeli military authorities for entering a closed military zone while covering disturbances at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. "Neither of these incidents," said Mr. Chafets, "were remotely comparable in seriousness to the detention and intimdation of five senior Ameri- can correspondents by the PLO in Lebanon." Mr. Chafets has voiced the feeling of many Is- raelis that the Western press employs a double standard of reporting news, one out of the Arab capitals and the other for Israel. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post, the English language daily known for its critical stance toward the Begin government, boldly stated that "in reporting about Israel and especially the problems on the West Bank, they (the foreign press) have exploited Israel's open society to sav- age it. But in writing about Arab states, they have accepted the restraints of despotism, and in re- porting from Beirut, they have submitted to the parameters dictated by terror." * * * Now comes the story of Jeane Kirkpatrick and her firmness in treating the inanities — and stupidities! — at the UN. The Arabs were Mobilizing forces for adoption of a resolution calling for Israel's expulsion from the world organization. They withdrew it on April 27, the day on which its adoption was scheduled, and instead the UN General Assembly passed a condemnatory statement cal- ling Israel an enemy of peace. Israel's chief delegate to the UN, Yehuda Z. Blum, described those who voted for the resolution as: "Moral perverts, intellectual dwarfs, unprincipled cynics and bigots . . . (who) fan the flames of religious hatred of the United Na- tions." And the so-called pro- gressive and democratic Western nations often ally themselves with those who drag the world organization YEHUDA BLUM into the gutter! It is reasonable to believe that the reason the origi- nally-planned resolution was withdrawn was because on the previous Friday, on April 23, Mrs. Kilpatrick deliv- ered an address in which the bigotry was condemned and in which the U.S. delegate warned of the impending conse- quences to the UN if such a resolution were approved, declaring: This special session and its accompanying draft resolutions are one more clear example of a strategy whose goals and tactics are clear: use a United Nations body to make "official" demands incompatible with Israel's security and survival, By Phil Slomovi so as then to be able to complain that non- compliance with these impossible demands "pro- ves" Israel an international lawbreaker — un- worthy of membership in the international corn- munity of peaceloving states. --- Mr. President, if this organization established to seek, maintain and strengthen peace is used to make war by other means; if its avenues, estab- lished to provide a rational basis for discussion and settlement of international disputes, are used as battlefields in a holy war; if its procedures, designed to ensure fairness, are twisted to ensure desired political outcomes — then the purposes and structures of this organization are trans- formed. And the United Nations itself is trans- formed. It becomes, quite literally, a different organization, inspired by different purposes, dedicated to different goals, characterized by different modes of behavior; for an institution s, finally, nothing more or less than the regult teractions of its members. When the goals and behavior of the members change, the institution has changed as well. Mr. President, how much falsification can an institution stand without destroying itself entirely? This world body cannot endure as a moral and political force if its energies are de- voted to increasing conflict and conducting ven- dettas against targeted countries. If the United Nations prefers to make political war rather than peace, it must suffer the conse- quences in terms of its credibility and reputation. And if, in violation of its own rules, it should de- cide to exclude the democratic state of Israel from participation, it will inevitably reap the whirlwind. It is not too late, Mr. President, for a majority of member states to reverse the trend toward irres- ponsibility and destruction. The time to begin is now, before this trend gathers an irreversible momentum. The American people should bless the day President Ronald Reagan selected Jeane Kirkpatrick to speak for this nation at the UN. She helps keep this country on the side of reason and justice and she earns gratitude for firmness and courage. Thanks to her at least one nation resists the threats and the infaMy to which the rest of the world is bowing. Bigotry on the Home Front: Shocking Detroit News Hate-Editorial American newspapers have blundered on numerous occasions in their treatment of Israel, especially when, searching for excuses for hate-mongering — this is what it often amounts to! — they keep harping on their scapegoat, Menahem Begin. The Detroit News, on April 28, sank to the lowest level. The manner in which it impugned the Begin role as if he were the world's chief villain responsible for the occur- rences in the Middle East, glorified shop-worn contentions that if he were ousted all problems.would be solved. These are not the words of that outrageous editorial, but they certainly represent the sense of it. A Detroit News editorial writer stupidly suggests getting rid of the Israeli prime minister, as if Detroiters were casting the ballots. The lack of respect for the Israel constituency which elects its prime minister must be condemned as an outrageous assumption of the right to poison popular thinking. It is useless to suggest to such a writer that he look at the record, that he learn that Begin speaks the minds of the over- whelming majority of Israelis, that the vicious attacks upon him help solidify appreciation of his efforts in Ameri- can Jewish ranks. Is it too much to expect that editorial writers study the facts and refrain from spreading hatred with distorted judgments? No Sanction to Arsonists: JARC Honors Responsibilities Responsible leaders who are administering the activi- ties of the Jewish Association for Retarded Citizens acted promptly and realistically at a specially-convened mee of officers and members of the administrative board so 25 hours after the newly-planned home for retarded was set afire. The firm decision was to proceed with plans and to operate the home as originally planned. It won't commence on June 1, and the damage to the home will necessitate a month's postponement. But the home will function. It was the American and. Jewish way of stating to the evil minds that they can't dehumanize society, that the less fortunate will not be abandoned, that the dedication to a sacred cause will not be interrupted. Thus, bigotry and arson will not be sanctioned. Let the sad experience at the planned home for the retarded in Pleasant Ridge be a signal to the entire com- munity to mobilize for increased action in support of efforts to create additional welcoming homes for retarded by strengthening the work of the JARC.