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March 02, 1984 - Image 72

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1984-03-02

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

12 Friday, March 2, 1984

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Israel's Role as Democracy in Warfare Portrayed by 2 Journalists

Eliahu Salpeter has an
established record as one of
Israel's best known foreign
correspondents. As the
Haaretz correspondent in
Washington and author of
many articles on the situa-
tion in Israel, he is judged as
an authoritative interpre-
ter of developing conditions.
Similarly, Dan Bavly,
who served in the office of
the Israel military spokes-
man during the Lebanese
war and as an author, is
considered most knowl-
edgeable on the issues.
In "Fire in Beirut" (Stein
and Day), these two jour-
nalists delve deeply into all
the areas of the conflict and
cover a vast field relating to
Israel's many involvements
and the status of the Jewish
state under prevailing con-
ditions.
Covering the many
difficulties encountered,
the conflicts with the
United States and with
the public, both in its
realities as well as the
distortions in the media,
this joint effort must be
treated as perhaps the
major evaluation of what
has occurred and the
continuity of events.
The two authors are not
apologetic. They are fac-
tual. They deal not only
with warfare but also with
the position of Israel in the
world arena, the economic
plight of the nation, the ten-
sions created by the horrors
of warfare and the miscalcu-
lations in the press and in
government circles.
There is a sad admission
at the very outset, in the
authors' preface, that Israel
failed in the current mili-
tary activity. They declare:
"The announcement by
Prime Minister Menahem
Begin at the end of August
1983 that he intended to re-
sign coincided, in effect,
with the realization that Is-
rael had failed to bring
about a new Lebanon. It was
not yet the last and final
chapter of the war, since Is-
rael and Syrian troops still
occupied more than two-

thirds of that tragic country
and the civil war had flared
again in its full cruelty, this
time between the Chris-
tians and the Syrian-
supported Druze. There was
no indication as to how long
Israeli soldiers would be
positioned in their new,
shortened lines in southern
Lebanon, to prevent it from
becoming PLO country
again.
"The Israeli govern-
ment's political targets
and ambitions that fol-
lowed the 1982 move into
Lebanon had not been
fully achieved, and Be-
gin's resignation marked
an implicit but clear ad-
mission of failure."
The conclusions reached
by the two eminent news-
men do not strike a happy
note. They indicate the obs-
tacles, they concede to diffi-
culties. As they assert in a
viewpoint with an applica-
bility to a measure of pes-
simism:
The retreat, and the re-
newed civil war and mas-
sacres that followed, under-
scored also the failure of Is-
rael's political aims and
ambitions in Lebanon. Two
of Israel's three war aims
have clearly not been
achieved, and the third was
in danger: the establish-
ment of a free, strong cen-
tral Lebanese government,
master of the country's fate
and able to reach a peace
settlement with Israel,
seemed more than ever to be
mere wishful thinking.
Gemayel's troops were
fighting in the outskirts of
Beirut, and the country ap-
peared to be destined for a
long division, among
foreign armies and warring
religious and ethnic
militias.
"The removal from Leba-
non of Syrian physical
presence and political influ-
ence seemed as distant, if
not more so, than it was be-
fore the Israeli tanks rolled
across the border in June
1982. Damascus, in alliance
with the Druze, had set out
to prove that not only could

it prevent the implementa-
tion of any Lebanese set-
tlement contrary to its
wishes; it had come close to
being able to force solutions
to its liking.
"The power of the PLO
has, indeed, been broken
and the West now ap-
peared to pay, more re-
luctantly than before,
only lip service to the

MENAHEM BEGIN
`Palestinian cause.' But
in the new-found, possi-
bly only temporary al-
liance with the Druze, the
Palestinian terrorists
may have found a path
back to Beirut and to the
western-central parts of
Lebanon.
"Israeli Chief-of-Staff
General Moshe Levi con-
ceded in an interview in
September that 'it is possi-
ble that the terrorists will
establish a new infrastruc-
ture in Lebanon.' "
As highly trained and a.
complished journalists, the
views of Salpeter and Bavly
are especially impressive in
their analyses of Israel's
democratic approaches to
freedom of the press. The
Jewish state had been as-
sailed on grounds of practic-
ing censorship. Therefore,
their views on the subject
are especially valuable, in
their comparison with those
who criticize and with the
Third World and the
Communist treatment of
the press. And they assert:
"The most universal im-
plications of Israel's media
experiences in Lebanon
stem from the consequences
of modern mass-
communication reporting

from an open society. There
were no restrictions on the
number of newsmen, who
rushed in to Israel. to cover
the war. Every public figure
in the country was ap-
proachable, and after brief
initial hurdles the war zone
was, practically speaking,
wide open to the press.
Consequently, some of
the reporting suffered
from a lack of profes-
sional standards and ex-
pertise. Approximately
1,500 journalists came
and went in-the three
months of active warfare.
(In comparison, in the
entire Soviet Union there
are only about 26 accre-
dited American corre-
spondents and about the
same number of other
Western correspon-
dents.)
"Some correspondents
stayed for several weeks,
but most spent only a few
days in the region. A few /
were old Middle East hands,
but for many others, it was
their first assignment in the
area. This accounted for
their lack of background
knowledge, their super-
ficiality, and the unusual
credulity displayed by a
great many of them.
"It probably was no coin-
cidence that veteran report-
ers and commentators were
considerably more re-
strained in chastizing Is-
rael. Similarly, by and large
correspondents who had
served in the Soviet Union
or in Southeast Asia and
who had experience with
the press restrictions of to-
talitarian regimes, on the
one hand, and the sufferings
caused by war and terror, on
the other, were the most
careful to check their facts
and their emotions when
reporting from Lebanon.
"The ignorance of the
newcomers and the bad con-
science over their past si-
lence of the old Beirut hands
perhaps explains the fact
that while Israeli military
censorship was emphasized
constantly, the 'censorship
of exclusion' practiced in

areas,
PLO-controlled
though much more effec-
tive, was left practically
unmentioned. With a little
cheating, every reporter
could easily avoid Israeli
censorship, and many did.
But, as in the Soviet Union
or Red China, very few
correspondents in PLO-
controlled areas dared go
where the authorities did
not want them to go nor did
they see what officials did
not want them to see.
"This is particularly
important in our age of
electronic journalism.
Unlike the newspaper-
man or even the radio
correspondent who re-
ports his observations
and conclusions (the dif-
ferences between the two
still being observed by
many), television report-
ers can film — and their
audience can see — only
where the authorities en-
able them to set up their
bulky equipment.
"Nobody filmed the
thousands of victims of Sy-
rian vengeance in the city of
Hama in February 1982,
when President Hafez al-
Assad destroyed all the
mosques in the city center
and ordered not only the kil-
ling of rebel Moslem
Brotherhood members but
also of thousands of inno-
cent civilians. Nor has any-
one filmed the two million
people or so living in the
gulags of Communist
China, or the tens of
thousands killed in the
Iraq-Iran war. The rulers of
Damascus, Peking,
Baghdad, and Teheran sim-
ply do not permit journalists
to roam about their coun-
tryside, carrying cameras.
"In the electronic age,
free societies are thus con-
fronted with a crucial di-
lemma: restrict the freedom
of the press or help distort
the balance of perception in
favor of the totalitarians
who do not allow the world
to see the facts.
"Never before have view-
- ers in every corner of the
world been able to receive

such a stream of images di-
rect from the battlefield
`where it happens, when it
happens' as they did during
the war in Lebanon. Never
before has this immediacy
created so many distortions
and potentially long-lasted
political consequences.
"With the new com-
munications technolo-
gies, this represents addi-
tional potential for man-
ipulating public opinion
and limiting its indepen-
dence of judgment.
"It is not only the general
public which is thus super-
ficially impressed. Secre-
tary of State George Shultz
remarked during the siege
of Beirut that 'the adminis-
tration has seen the pic-
tures and has been affected
by them.' Thus, we come
close to completing the vici-
ous circle: a retired film ac-
tor, elected president with
the help of the visual art of
electronics, is making his
decisions on the basis of
what he is shown (or not
shown) by the electronic
media. What is seen on the
TV screen exists for
decision-making purposes;
what is not seen may or may
not exist.
"It raises some crucial
questions: Are the democ-
racies being disarmed by
their natural revulsion for
images of war in their living
rooms? Can an open society,
any open society, wage a
just but protracted war in
an age of instant electronic
media, or is this ultimate
instrument of politics now
reserved for dictatorships?
"Was the Lebanese war
the last in which the elec-
tronic media were allowed
to watch and report fully
and freely?"
Thus, "Fire in Beirut" is a
valuable document, an ex-
cellent study of a tragic
world experience. It may
well be viewed as one of the
major works dealing with
Lebanon and the horrors in
the treks of this nation, with
emphasis on Israel's unfor-
tunate involvements.
—P.S.

Canadian Jewish Community Migrating from Montreal

By ARNOLD AGES
TORONTO (JTA) — The
Canadian Jewish Commu-
nity is undergoing some
startling political, demog-
raphic and religious
changes. American Jews,
accustomed to thinking of
their northern neighbors as
near clones, tend not to
realize that there are some
basic differences between
the two communities.
The Jewish population of
Canada has undergone
some important shifts
within the past 10 'years.
Montreal, which used to be

the major Jewish center in
Canada, is now second to
Toronto in population.
Accurate statistics are dif-
ficult to obtain but Toronto
is now said to have about
125,000 Jews versus
Montreal's 115,000.
The reversal in demog-
raphics is directly attribut-
able to the Parti Quebecois,
a nationalist political
movement in Quebec which,
since its rise to power in
1976, has stressed the pri-
macy of French language
and culture in the province
— to the exclusion, some

would argue, of English.
While the Parti
Quebecois has attempted
in recent months to miti-
gate somewhat the
harshness of its legisla-
tion bearing on the use of
French in the province,
the move has come
somewhat late to prevent
the hemorrhaging of a
significant number of
Montreal's Jewish popu-
lation.
Not all of the Montreal
Jewish "defectors" have
ended up in Toronto but
enough of them have and

their presence in the On-
tario capital is making a dif-
ference in the cultural and
religious configuration of
the city.
When one adds the new
Montreal component to To-
ronto's burgeoning Russian,
South African and North
African Jewish immig-
rants, the city, which lies
astride of Lake Ontario,
takes on a new dynamism.
To this new melange one
must also add the solid
block of Israelis (estimates
range as high as 10,000 who
have chosen Toronto as
their home.
There are a number of
signals which identify To-
ronto's growing Jewish
presence. For years the city
got along with one kosher
restaurant under rabbinical
supervision. Now Toronto
boasts of half a dozen, in-
cluding a Moroccan eatery.
The city also claims a fast
food restaurant modeled on

McDonalds but under strict
kashrut controls.
While Toronto and
Montreal are Canada's
two major Jewish centers
they are not the only
cities to have experi-
enced demographic
changes. The tiny Jewish
community of Ottawa,
the country's capital, has
also experienced impres-
sive growth. Ottawa's
Jewish community is be-
ginning to climb towards
the 15,000 mark after
years of stagnation.
Ottawa's Jewish profile
has been enhanced in the
past decade by the arrival in
the city of large numbers of
professionally trained ob-
servant Jews who have par-
ticipated in the synagogue
life of the community. Last
year, for the first time, a
yeshiva began to operate in
an environment which had
never had an institution of
higher Jewish learning.

Winnipeggers cannot yet
make a similar claim. This
dynamic Jewish community
(which has produced some of
the ablest Jewish leaders,
rabbis and entertainers on
the North American conti-
nent) remains demographi-
cally stagnant at' about
15,000 souls. Winnipeg is
still a place to come from
rather than go to — insofar
as the Jewish community is
concerned. This may be a
function of the city's uncon-
genial climate where –30
degrees is not uncommon in
winter.
Despite the absence of
vigorous growth, Win-
nipeg's Jewish community
maintains a strong profile.
Until recently, the city had
three weekly Jewish news-
papers, two in English and
one in Yiddish. The latter
folded two years ago but the
surviving English weeklies
provide ample column space
for the "mamaloshen."

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