2 Friday, January 21, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

Documentaries as Recorded
History During Distress

Fact-finding becomes a duty in a time as filled with
distress as the present. So much bitterness has enveloped a
large portion of mankind that differing views are both
expected and are acceptable.
In the matter of the horrible massacre in the refugee
camps in Lebanon, there have been distortions in present-
ing the facts as well as bias that added to the pains result-
ing from inhumanities. There must be clarification, and it
will become evident very soon. This is not an expectation
marked by dreams but they are inevitable realities.
Whatever the report from the Israel commission of
inquiry, it is certain to add to a basic fact: that it is being
compiled by representatives of and spokesmen for a
genuine democracy rooted in Israel's being.
Therefore, the account must include the TV Closeup
which took into account the attitudes of all elements in-
volved in the disputes, backgrounds, aspirations, prej-
udices, guilt, realities. It could not possibly cover every-
thing, and there may be some resentment over some ap-
proaches, but the ABC Closeup showed specifically that the
murders were conducted by Christians exacting vengeance
from Moslems. The Israeli failures to act on time to prevent
the massacre: The ultimate verdict must come from the
Israeli inquirers.

The Israeli Contributions
Towards Lebanon's Revival

Was Israel's purpose on ending the PLO threat suc-
cessful in the serious war which was marked by so many
hatreds, misrepresentations, distortions and, indeed, lies?
The PLO is not finished and the forces seeking Israel's
demise may have made some gains in having been granted
hearings on a "diplomatic" basis. But Lebanon certainly
gained from a task very costly to Israel but profitable to the
Lebanese.
A measure of freedom from the terrorists who domi-
nated their -country has been achieved for the Lebanese.
Now they are profiting economically. The proof is
everywhere and there is fact in an article from Beirut
written for syndication by the Associated Press. The entire
Terry Anderson report is filled with a glorious account of
great progress now being enjoyed by Lebanon, as evidenced
in this brief excerpt from that report:
Large pockets of deep and irreparable de-
struction from this summer's war can be seen in
some areas — the former Palestinian camps in
southern Beirut districts and the 100-yard-wide
"green line" zone that separated east and west
Beirut for eight years.
Elsewhere in the crowded capital, with rub-
ble and broken glass cleared away, shell holes .
filled and new paint, neighborhoods that during
the fighting appeared devastated and unlivable
have quickly been brought back to life.
For small-businessmen, shop and restaurant
owners, the release of a flood of money kept
tucked away by the Lebanese during the war
years has put the reconstruction in full swing.
Even in this illuminating report there was nothing to
acknowledge the fact that Israel's costly and bloody opera-
tion in Lebanon is what brought prosperity and a new
freedom to the nation that was virtually shackled and
enslaved by the PLO terrorists since 1975.

The Testing of Israel's Soul
and U.S. Jewry's Response

The testing of Israel's soul and the morality of the
People Israel began as a sport and continues in the media
and in public forums-.
While Jews themselves add to it and indeed multiply
it, time will surely prove the unity in Israel's defense that is
unbreakable.
Of course, there are the dissidents, the defectors, the
enemies within — and the latter need not be printed in
quotation marks. They exist.
Typical among the latter is an Israeli member of the
Knesset. Charlie Bitton, leader of the Israeli Panthers, who
was elected to the Israel Parliament on a ticket together
with the three Communist members, came to the United
Nations to consort with the PLO, to undermine Israel's
status, to advocate everything that is platformed by the
Communists in their anti-Israel programs. Himself a
Moroccan Sephardi Jew, he is the troublemaker in Israel
who has transferred his poison to the international organ-
ization at its headquarters in this country.
The media should properly identify him, as the Com-
munist who benefits from Israel's democratic electoral sys-
tem, who is not denied the right to be a Communist and
speak as such in the Knesset. If the privileges are remem-
bered, that he is a free Israeli, free to travel and to speak as
he chooses, even poisonously about the country that will
even welcome him back to his haven in Israel, then the
damage will be lessened. As long as the facts are in the
record: that's what counts.

Studies in Ethical Approaches to Grave International
Issues and to Israel's Role -Involving the Media and
the Official Treatmeat Accorded the Press in Time of War

Meanwhile, the democratic way of life, the soul of the
Jewish people, the morality ethically pronounced and per-
petuated by the Jewish people, becomes evident in the
American Jewish community. The American Jewish
Committee has just given such evidence.
How effective were the Israeli treatments of the media
during the Lebanese crisis? Together with the Hebrew
University Communications Center, the American Jewish
Committee examined the many issues related to the press
treatments, including the views of 34 news correspondents
who covered the events. They included 12 who worked for
television, four for radio, 10 for newspapers, four for maga-
zines, two for wire services, one for an Israeli newspaper
and one photographer.
A statement outlining the results of these studies ex-
plained that "the general treatments of the Lebanese crisis
in the Western media has disturbed many American Jews
and Israelis, who have been questioning the effectiveness of
Israel's press relations." It is on the basis of such an ap-
proach that the AJCommittee review of the events prompts
the following brief excerpt, which contains many lessons
for both the Israeli authorities and their critics:
Almost unanimously, the correspondents
complained of Israel's unpreparedness, lack of
planning, inefficiency and neglect to meet the
needs of the press in modern war, and placed the
heaviest responsibility for these failures on the
Israeli Defense Forces. There was an influx of
several hundred foreign correspondents, some of
the top people in the world, "and they just
couldn't handle it," said one. Another said, "Yes,
they tell the truth. But the entire mechanism for
providing information — military, political, and
so on — is just simply absolutely non-existent."

.Discussing the escort officers provided by the
IDF, the correspondents found some of them ex-
cellent, but many incompetent or indifferent, with
little knowledge about their government's posi-
tion, sometimes even less about the historical
background of the war. "One would think," a
newsman said in exasperation, "that out of 3%
million Jewish Israelis, you could find a hundred
guys who (a) can speak English, and (b) could be
told how to put the government line across."
In the early weeks of the war, virtually all the
correspondents agreed, the Israeli authorities
were withholding crucial information. Explain-
ing how false casualty figures could be widely
disseminated by the media, a significant number
of reporters expressed opinions like "Israel
could have provided some estimate of the killed
and wounded . . . We were getting figures from
the Red Cross, and only later discovered that they
were being provided by the Red Crescent (a PLO
agency). But the Israelis simply weren't putting
anything out to counter them."
One correspondent said he had "pleaded" for
such information and been turned down; another

By Philip
Slomovitz

said that "failure to correct (false PLO figures)
was the failure of the apparatus — bad organiza-
tion, bureaucracy, censorship."
Again and again, the correspondents men-
tioned the scarcity of press briefings — "no high
level briefings at all during the whole time, no
political and no intelligence briefings whatsoever
to the foreign press . . . nothing about the coun-
try's objectives or considerations. Not the Prime
Minister, not the Foreign Minister, not Defense.
None." About half the reporters attributed this
failure to "a deliberate policy" of withholding in-
formation.
These evaluative criticisms have special significance
in the ultimates which affect Israeli policies, as well as the
attitudes of American Jews vis-a-vis the Israel govern-
ment. In the first instance, it must be admitted that even
admist censorships when they involve the state's security,
the democratic aspirations leaning towards freedom of
speech and press are never stifled. They always emerge and
predominate.
In Diaspora Jewish involvements, this dedication to
highest ethical ideals are never stifled. Else, why would an
American Jewish organization undertake the study under
consideration?
The AJCommittee-Hebrew University testing of Is-
raeli treatments of the press during the Lebanese warfare
summarizes with these interesting conclusions:
Regardless of their opinions about which side
of the Lebanese war was right or wrong, and
whatever their difficulties with Israel's informa-
tion services, the respondents to the survey of-
fered practical suggestions, in good faith, for im-
proving the nation's press relations.
Many of their recommendations were techni-
cal — like the need to improve facilities for both
print and broadcast media. But above all, they
suggested learning more about what the foreign
media look for and why, greater trust and open-
ness, and the establishment of a Ministry of In-
formation with a professionally-trained staff as
the central source for information. As one re-
porter said: "We are a pipeline to the world that's
begging to be used."
There is much for concern and little to fear from the
developing events as they relate to the morality of Israel
and her friends as it had been challenged in recent months,
especially from the dissidents in Israel. Tragically, much of
the condemnation stemming from the disillusioned ele-
ment in Israel is traceable to political enmities. They have
a scapegoat in Menahem Begin and a target in the
militarism of Ariel Sharon. The Israeli progressively
democratic policies will surely resolve them.
The hope is that the Lebanese entanglements will end
speedily. The commendable treatment of the issues by the
American Jewish Committee, cooperatively with the He-
brew University, will be on the record as a notable contri-
bution to Jewish self-respect and to Israel's high ethical
devotions.

Holocaust Events Heighten Awareness

By REV. FRANKLIN
LITTELL

National Institute
on the Holocaust

PHILADELPHIA — As
time is running out on my
generation, more and more
persons are stepping for-
ward to insist that the story
of the Holocaust and the les-
sons of the Holocaust must
be written large in our so-
cial memories. Some see it
as a matter only for Jews,
and an event only in Jewish
history. But more and more
it is understood and taught
that the lessons — like the
lessons of the Exodus and
Sinai — have a message for
all persons of conscience.
In April there will be held
in Washington, D.C., in
connection with the Days of
Remembrance, an Ameri-
can Gathering of Survivors.
The occasion of the gather-
ing is two-fold, for this will
also be the time of the 40th
anniversary of the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising. A half-
dozen survivors of that
event will be present.
Among the thousands of
fellow-survivors who will
participate, and the many

liberators and other in- millions of gentiles perished
Aware of what? Will they
terested parties who are at the hands of the Nazi kil- understand this massive
present at the nation's lers — although their event, the Holocaust and its
capitol, along with the mil- deaths and the deaths of the lessons? Or will it only sur-
lions who are reached in one 6,000,000 targeted Jews face from time to time, like a
way or another by the Yom were of a different order and kind of family tale which be-
Hashoa observances, will meaning.
longs in the closet, a tale of
be found at this time hu-
which little is known but
With
the
announcement
manity's tribute to the little
shame?
of
the
Anne
Frank
House
in
band of heroes who in battle
Those who have launched
joined 40 years ago held up Philadelphia there has been
the massed forces of the a major eruption of the Anne Frank House are
Nazi Third Reich longer enthusiasm by survivors, agreed: the story must be
than the whole French na- liberators and teachers of told, and the lessons must
the older generation. be drawn for the well-being
tion.
Everyone seems to have of children - and children's
In the spring of 1984 come individually to the children. What we could
there will be held at the same awareness: time is hardly deal with at all must
University of Washington fleeting; the children are become, with the passage of
(Seattle), in connection grown; the grandchildren time, to the healing of the
with the 50th anniversary are becoming aware.
peoples of the earth.
of the founding synod of
the Confessing Church's
resistance to Hitler, an
international symposium
on the church struggle
By THOMAS EYLES
and the Holocaust.
It is important to re-
member that there were
How can Israel hope for peace
some Christian witnesses
with the Arabian, his brother?
against Nazism, though not
When nations on the outside
enough; that the first mil-
strike trouble twixt each other!
lion Germans incarcerated
Supplying arms to both sides
in concentration camps
to keep their economies stable,
were put there before the
No need for weapon-testing sites .. .
Holocaust began at all; that
while Cain is killing Abel!

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