16 Friday, Februry 10, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Bias Shows Through Magazine Article FREE LIGHT %' BULBS 04400,4900,5200 ) 32949-51 By-M.J. ROSENBERG No purchase necessary Details available at Ace Hardware of Pine Lake 4341 Ordiard Lake. Rd. at Pine Lake Slieppieg Ceder 855-3150 W. Bloomfield M-Fri. 9-9, Sat. 9-8, Sun. 10-6 Visa Mastercard of Pine Lake The National Geographic magazine, in general a first-class publication, has never been a treasure trove of pro-Israel writing. Arti- cles on more exotic places like Iraq and Syria tend to stress ancient history and local charm, while Israel is portrayed as a materialistic Western enclave — one that was somehow grafted on to the Arab Middle East. February's issue features a long article on Jordan. "Kingdom in the Middle," as author Thomas Aber- crombie puts it. He's not • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • DRAPERIES • BEDSPREADS • BLANKETS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • (Cleaned or Laundered) WINDOW SHADES • LAMPSHADES • PILLOWS VENETIAN BLINDS (Cleaned, retaped & re-corded) ANY OTHER ITEMS YOU MAY HAVE — IF IT CAN BE CLEANED, WE'LL CLEAN IT AND CLEAN IT PROPERLY • • • • • • • • • dw ned- ionw staolrl 6, yl foyuor ' re m ov di nrgapweer ecsa nt r fei tmaankoet • uexisting another • room. • • • VISA' We Remove & install • • • • DRAPERY CLEANERS • Suburban Call Collect • • "11111 that the name implies." VISA & MASTEPCHARGE • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ilmi•••■■•••=p, 4 I 891-1818 quite sure what it is in the middle of, however. For in- stance, Abercrombie tells of crossing the Allenby Bridge from Jordan to the West Bank. An Israeli policewo- man met him: " 'Welcome to Israel,' she dismissed me in English. Relieved to be through the formalities, I didn't bother to correct her. But, although Israel has occupied this side of the river since 1967, it has yet to formally annex the West Bank. I had merely crossed from Jordan into Jordan. Or had I?" Further along, Aber- crombie writes of other bor- der crossings: from Jordan to Jordan (or 'Israel' or `occupied territory') and back again . ." At first glance, Aber- crombie's slant is not surprising. Israel's claim to the West Bank is far from universally ac- cepted. Most of the inter- national community — and a good half of Israelis themselves — consider the West Bank to be dis- puted territory. The offi- cial Israeli position on the area is that it, like ev- erything else between the two nations, can be dis- cussed in direct negotia- tions with Jordan. Ac- cordingly, Abercrom- bie's dismissal of Israel's claim is to be expected. But there is more. In fact, National Geographic dis- AIIIIIII111111111111111 000„ PRINCETON FINAL WINTER CLEA ANCE LAST 3 DAYS Fri., Sat., Sun., Feb. 10, 11, 12 ENTIRE STOCK OF WINTER MERCHANDISE 0 OFF AND MORE ALL SALES FINAL . . . We accept cash, check, Visa and Master Card. No layaways, no exchanges, no refunds. Baic alterations at cost for young men 8 to 80 Maple Rd. at Orchard 1k. Rd. 851-3660 Daily 9:30-6, Thurs. 'til 9, SUNDAY Noon-5 1:21/1111SUMESMENMENWEIMMINIMMakingliaggaisnim misses Israel's claim — not only to the West Bank but to Jerusalem and to the Ju- dean desert, too. Abercrom- bie tells of being guided around Jordan and the West Bank by a university pro- fessor. "On his day off, he guided me on a tour of the West Bank's back roads .. . As we went along, Kamal (the guide) pointed out Is- raeli settlements; some 150 are already under construc- tion. Some seemed little more than small military observation posts; others like Ramot or Neve Yaacov on the northern edge of Jerusalem, were high-rise subdivisions housing thousands." Ramot and Neve Yaacov are, of course, not on the West Bank at all. They are in Jerusalem (although in areas occupied by Jordan prior to 1967) and can be labeled West Bank settle- ments only by those who op- pose a unified Jerusalem, and Israeli administration of its own capital city. • Then there is Masada, which is in the Dead Sea desert — an area that has been Israel's since 1948. Abercrombie writes: "Built for pleasure as well as protection, King Herod's fortified palace on the West Bank (em- phasis ours) contained a garden, bath houses and costly royal apartments Abercrombie notes that during the Jewish revolt against the Roman occupa- tion of Palestine in "A.D. 66-70, the great circular bastion sheltered rebels from Roman legions. There is a story that 'defenders here, among the last Jewish groups -to fall, chose mass suicide over surrender." This is mind-boggling. First, Abercrombie moves Masada to the West Bank. Then he refers to the suicides of its 900 defenders as "a story." He chooses to ignore both the historical description of the Masada suicides by Josephus (who heard it from eyewitnesses) and the physical evidence of the deaths — including the skeletal remains of Masa- da's heroes. Abercrombie, thus, does what he can to downgrade the ancient continuous Jewish connection to the land of Israel. He seems to, understand that to concede the age-old tie between the Jews and "Palestine" will justify the Jewish return home. In any case, the Aber- crombie portrait of Jor- dan is typical of biased reporting on the situation in the territories held by Israel since 1967. Aber- crombie even pays the obligatory call on Mrs. Miriam Levinger (wife of Gush Emunim leader Moshe Levinger). Rabbi and Mrs. Levinger live — with six other families — in Hebron. As is her custom, Mrs. Levinger offered Aber- crombie the religious case for Israeli retention of the West Bank allowing Aber- crombie (like others who interview Mrs. Levinger) to ignore the real reason for Is- rael's presence in the area. It is not religion and not his- tory that justifies Israel's hold on the West Bank — it is security. Without the West Bank, Israel is eight miles wide and the Tel Aviv metropolitan area (in which a million Israelis live) is vir- tually walking distance from an Arab world which still opposes Israel's- exist- ence. But naturally enough, Abercrombie prefers the fundamentalist claim to the West Bank to the one of- fered by Israel's military and most of its people. It is much easier to shoot down religious claims than to dis- pute strategic facts. . Offensive Line Cut from Play TEL AVIV (JTA) — A Haifa theater has agreed to a personal request by President Chaim Herzog to delete a line offensive to religious sensibilities from a play about the 17th Cen- tury false messiah, Shabtai Zvi, if the playwright, Mar- tin Sherman is amenable. Sherman is presently. in London. The line has a disillu- sioned follower of Shabtain Zvi curse God. But another line, in which a character denies the existence of God, will remain despite fierce protests from religious quarters. The play, "Messiah," opened to poor reviews of its artistic merits and was about to close when a bomb threat by Orthodox religious zealots revived public interest in the production. The Haifa municipality which owns the theater rejected Or- thodox demands to force the management to with- draw the play. Aguda Is- rael members of the Knesset Finance Com- mittee attempted to hold up funds for Haifa until the municipality com- plied. As a result, religious cen- sorship and religious coer- cion became the issue rather than the offending lines. The theater manage- ment plans to take the • production on tour of Israel to demonstrate that it will not bow to religious or polit- ical pressure. Fleet Boosts Israel Economy HAIFA (ZINS) — The U.S. Sixth Fleet has been an economic boon to Israel, pouring millions of dollars into the Israeli economy, especially in the Haifa area. According to the news- paper Haaretz, ship maintenance and repairs at the Israel Shipyards in Haifa have been worth $400,000 during the last two months alone.