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76

FRIDAY, SEPT, 25, 1987,

Connie Lawn, Kol Yisroel's Washington
correspondent, has to deal with Israelis'
confusion, befuddlement — and
sophistication — about the U.S.

JAMES DAVID BESSER

Washington Correspondent

C

WARREN

JB CARPET
CLEANING 14"4--
; •

Interpreting America

overing the Washing-.
ton beat for a domes-
tic audience is dif-
ficult enough. But how does
one explain the intricacies of
American politics to a radio
audience in a country with an
entirely different political
and cultural climate?
For 14 years, Connie Lawn
has been a Washington re-
porter for Kol Yisrael, the
radio service headquartered
in Jerusalem. Although
Israelis are sophisticated
about American politics, she
said, they have difficulty un-
derstanding many aspects of
the American system. The
U.S. system lacks the no-
holds-barred directness of the
Israelfpolitical scene. Conse-
quently, our system's nuances
are often peculiar to Israelis.
Lawn began her radio free-
lancing career in the late
1960s. "After college," she
said, "I took off with just a
sleeping bag and a tape re-
corder, following Eugene
McCarthy. Then I switched to
Bobby Kennedy and became
very close to him. During the
primaries, I did the first inter-
view with him every night.
As a result, I had the last in-
terview with him before he
died. I went down the elevator
with him — and then Sirhan
shot him. I had his blood on
me?'
Lawn then traveled
through eastern Europe and
the Middle East. She was in
Czechoslovakia in 1968 when
the Russians moved in.
Just four months before the
1973 war, Lawn began her
duties as Washington re-
porter for Kol Yisroel. This,
she said, makes her the
senior Israeli correspondent
in Washington, since the He-
brew-speaking correspon-
dents for the Israeli radio ser-
vice rotate every three years.
"Not that that gets you any
honors," she said, "since
you're not really part of the
Israeli correspondent corn- ,
munity unless you broadcast
in Hebrew. That's a problem,
and I feel bad about it. But
I'm trying!'
The Camp David negotia-
tions, she said, were among
her more important stories._
"It was all very difficult," she
said, remembering "running
up to Camp David every day,

rushing frantically to get a
report on the air by one
o'clock for our major broad-
cast of the day. It was almost
impossible to get an interna-
tional telephone line. And
then I had to do a broadcast
with the babble of all those
other reporters talking. But
we did it every day, and we
almost always beat the Amer-
ican networks on the big
stories!'
She added that she was also
eight months pregnant dur-
ing the negotiations. •
More recently, she covered
the Israeli incursion into
Lebanon and was briefly
taken hostage by Lebanese
militiamen. She escaped
when her abductors en-
countered an Israeli patrol.
During the Iran-Contra
hearings, Lawn dug daily
through the tangles of testi-
mony. The hearings, she said,
surprised her Israeli
audience.,
"It's amazing to them that
we wash our dirty laundry in
public," she said. "Israelis are
so much more practical than
Americans. They know that
you often have to do this kind
of thing to survive. You say
you're not going to talk to ter-
rorists, but then you make
deals because the most impor-
tant thing is to get your peo-
ple out. Every country has its
covert operations, but the
United States is the only one
that airs them publicly this
way."
Israelis, she ' suggested,
have a better grasp of the
details of American politics
than do the people of other
countries. "They are very
sophisticated when it comes
to our presidential elections,"
she said. "They know more
about the candidates than do
many Americans. Obviously,
this is because of the close
economic and military ties
between the countries.
Israelis can't afford not to be
interested!'

In Lawn's reporting, she
sees many examples of the
problems posed by Israel's
divided government. "Most
Americans realize when
they're dealing with Israel
that they're dealing with two
governments," she said. "It is
very difficult. On the other
hand, they're also dealing
with so many divided govern-
ments in the Arab countries.
The Middle East is such a