Nuances of Truth: NYTimes, Arabs, Israel
By KENNETH BIALKIN
National Chairman, Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith
(Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.)
NEW YORK — Late in December, the New York Times presented a
four-part series on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel by David Shipler, the
Times' chief Israel correspondent.
Relying heavily on interviews, but also using government statistics,
reports and school texts, the series sought to examine how Jews and Arabs
perceive each other. The Times' titles for the articles indicate their thrust:
"Jews and Arabs of Israel: Worlds That Don't Mingle," "Arabs and Jews of
Israel: The Bigotry Runs Deep," "Israeli Arabs: Scorned, Ashamed and
`20th Class'," "Arabs and Jews of Israel: Bridges Across Bitterness."
The series demonstrates that one can present information that is
essentially accurate and still convey a story which is essentially mislead-
ing.
Accumulating
Prejudices
Continue
to Defile
Public Arenas
Commentary, Page 2
Anyone who cares about the future of the state of Israel, who
cares about conflict between ethnic groups, cannot help but be
concerned about problems which Shipler and other observers of
the Israeli scene have pointed to. There are social problems in
Israel; there is discrimination against Arabs; there is little integra-
tion of Jews with Arabs; there are differing levels of education,
income and services. (Even as one puts these words down, one can't
help but ask: in what society on earth where different ethnic groups
reside are there no such problems and why the need of the Times to
focus on this manifestation, in a front-page, four-part series, on the
state of Israel?)
Still, out of what Shipler has chosen to emphasize and what he has
chosen to deemphasize a skewed picture of reality emerges.
Here is another way to tell the same story: Israel is a nation born out
(Continued on Page 18)
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Reviem
of Jewish Events
KENNETH BIALKIN
Realities
and Facts About
Arab-Jewish
Amity Negating
Correspondent's
Sensationalism
Editorial, Page 4
Copyright c The Jewish News Publishing Co
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 22
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, MI 48075-4491 424-8833
$18 Per Year: This Issue 40c
January 27, 1984
Kohl Weighs Israel Objection
to Weapon Deal With Saudis
Church Aids Search
for Hebrew Bindings
JERUSALEM — A treasure of thousands of 600-700-
year-old Jewish manuscript fragments lies waiting to be
uncovered in Europe, "concealed" in books and documents
on the shelves of church, public and private libraries and
archives.
An effort to bring to light such fragments has been
initiated by Dr. Josef Baruch Sermonetta of Hebrew Uni-
versity of Jerusalem, who was instrumental in securing a
grant from the Italian National Research Center to finance
(Continued on Page 5)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — West Germany has made no final decision on arms
sales to Saudi Arabia and is seriously weighing Israel's objections, Israeli
sources said Wednesday, the second day of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's five-day
visit to Israel.
The impending arms deal reportedly was raised by Kohl at his first meeting
with Premier Yitzhak Shamir on Tuesday, but was not discussed at their second
meeting Wednesday morning.
No details of their talks had been disclosed as of Thursday. Shamir repor-
tedly stressed that Saudi Arabia should not be considered a moderate state in
the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict and maintained that weapons supplied to
it would eventually be used against Israel, directly or indirectly.
Kohl's reply was not reported but the Germans have been giving
assurances, even before the chancellor arrived for his five-day official
visit, that due consideration would be given to the Israeli positions on all
hfr,
matters before Bonn reevaluates its Middle East policies.
HELMUT KOHL
The chancellor is said to have assured Shamir that Germany would be
considerate of the problems that may arise for Israel's agricultural exports to Europe after Spain joins the
European Economic Community. This has been a major concern of the Israelis because competing Spanish
citrus and other products would enjoy the economic advantages of Common Market membership denied
Israel.
Shamir played host to Kohl and his party at a dinner at the Jerusalem Hilton Tuesday night. Both men
referred to history in their speeches. Shamir
noted that the state of Israel rose 36 years ago
from the ashes of the Holocaust and observed
that if six million European Jews had not been
destroyed, Israel today might have been a na-
BONN (JTA) — Half of all West Germans still harbor
tion of 10 million rather than four million.
anti-Semitic feelings of varying intensity, according to a
Alluding to the German-Arab arms deal,
study by Cologne University based on a sampling of 2,000
Shamir said that one must always be on guard
adults. The study showed that only 24 percent of the popu-
not to reopen the wounds of the Holocaust, "It is
lation fully rejects anti-Semitism.
impossible for us today to imagine what hap-
The implication of the study is that very few Germans
pened then. But it did happen and Germany
have changed their minds about Jews despite the wide-
bears responsibility for it in history. I bow to
spread publicity given the massacre of Jews during the
Nazi era, including the American-made "Holocaust" tele-
you, Mr. Prime Minister, in grief for the suffer-
Germans Still Biased
Nuns in Cremona, Italy examine Hebrew manu-
script fragments.
(Continued on Page 3)
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Riots Worry Jews of Morocco
Cairo Fair Ban, Quote Ominous
PARIS (JTA) — "No Jews seem to have been killed or wounded in the riots" that
swept several Moroccan cities over the weekend, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was
informed - by Jewish organizations.
The organizations obtained their information from visitors returning from Morocco.
Direct communications with Morocco have been suspended by the Moroccan government
since the rioting began.
According to the returning visitors, there was no panic among Morocco's 20,000 Jews
but "many Jews were frightened" by the remarks made by King Hassan in a television
speech Sunday night in which he blamed the unrest in his country on "a multifaceted
conspiracy perpetrated by Marxist-Leninists, Zionist agents and Khomeinists," suppor-
ters of the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran-, who, the King said, were trying to sabotage the
Islamic Conference being held in Casablanca.
Most reports from Morocco said the riots were triggered by the government's
announcement of higher food prices and higher school fees. They occurred in
Tetuan, Casablanca and Marakesh. In Tetuan, thousands of unemployed or
(Continued on Page 7)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Egyptian officials said Israel will not be represented at the
annual Cairo bookfair which opened Thursday, because of a lack of space. It will be the
second consecutive year that Israel was barred from the event.
According to the reports, the Egyptians say Israel was invited but was late in
responding and by then no more stalls were available. But diplomatic sources hinted a
political motive. Only last Thursday, the Islamic Conference, meeting in Morocco, agreed
to invite Egypt to resume its membership. Egypt had been suspended when it signed the
peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Israel was banned from last year's Cairo bookfair to protest its invasion of
Lebanon in June 1982. The normalization process between Cairo and Jerusalem
has been frozen since then. Egypt has not returned its ambassador to Tel Aviv.
President Hosni Mubarak was quoted by King Hassan of Morocco over the weekend
as saying that "For Egypt, Camp David is dead" because Egypt has gained what it wanted
— recovery of Sinai and its oil.
The Reagan Administration claimed Tuesday that Egypt continues to support the
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