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bodians by the Khmer Rouge
becomes real for us only when
an American reporter with
impressive skills tells the
story for us. The deaths of pro-
testors in an open society
receives disproportionate at-
tention as compared to what
goes on in closed societies.
That reality poses a terrible
temptation to the leaders of
democracies and their par-
tisans. That reality is, to some
extent, inherently unfair. It is
tempting to say that if we just
cut off access by the com-
munications media, if we
could just get the press to shut
up about the negative news
about Detroit, if we could just
make the unblinking eye go
away, the problem would go.
I have seen Israel toy with
such an idea. I have seen the
U.S. government play with the
notion of imposing such a cur-
tain of secrecy. I frequently
hear it from the mayor and his
partisans. I know we in the
communications business can
become a part of the problem.
What I would argue is that
even with the risk, even with
the imperfections, in the long
run the open, democratic,
seemingly vulnerable
societies prove stronger.
Let me turn, then, to
editorial policy. Let me try to
define precisely what I believe
our editorial policy to be in the
areas where we have some-
times been criticized in The
Jewish News. That policy is
based on support, but not un-
critical support, for Israel as
our most important and
dependable ally in the Middle
East.
I believe the historic fact of
the Holocaust and the historic
and continuing anti-Jewish
attitudes in the Eurocentric
world require that we make a
special commitment to the
principle of a secure and free
homeland for those Jews who
elect to live there. I believe
that we need to resist the
threats to Israel's security as
we understand them.
I also believe that the status
quo in the Middle East is in
itself a long-term threat to
Israel's security as well as to
the peace of the region. I
believe it is important that
American policy search for
ways to make the Middle East
more stable and to see
whether there are ways we
can bring about a greater
degree of peaceful accom-
modation between Israel and
its neighbors.
I believe that Israel cannot
be and should not be forced to
accept our definitions of its
security needs, but I also
believe the United States has
an obligation to make its own
best judgments as to where, if
anywhere, there are
opportunities.

I believe we ought to be con-
cerned about human rights
throughout the world, in-
cluding the rights of Palesti-
nians. I think we have to try
to keep searching for possible
openings that might ultimate-
ly lead to peace.
That is fundamentally our
agenda. I believe it is an
honest agenda. I also believe
that in dealing with difficult
and volatile issues such as
this, we are going to be mak-
ing judgments about which
reasonable people can
disagree. How much of an
opening do you see in a par-
ticular change of language by
a leader of the PLO? I believe
the process of trying to find

I thought the
Naylor article
made scapegoats
of Jews for
aspects of recent
American history
that Jews cannot
possibly have
controlled.

opportunities to advance the
cause of peace will be long,
very imprecise and often
painful.
I struggle to assure that we
are as precise as possible in
describing the choices. I know
that every word, every
sentence will be examined,
parsed and dissected. I know
that we will sometimes use a
word that has a particular
meaning for some of our
readers and that our meaning
will be misunderstood.
What I would hope you
would concede is that I am
sensitive to the concerns and
open to questions and
criticism as we the American
people and we the Free Press
editorial page try to work our
way through extremely dif-
ficult issues.
You probably will not agree
with us in every instance. I
would hope we could at least
be accepted as trying to act in
good faith.
Finally, I'd like to put into
some sort of balanced perspec-
tive what we try to do with
our "other voices" page — why
we tolerate some pretty obnox-
ious commentary there, and
why some commentary is too
obnoxious to tolerate. The
distinction is important both
to the cause of promoting
strong, honest, open debate
and to the attempt to fight
bigotry and, in a particular re-
cent case, what I saw as an im-
plicitly anti-Jewish or anti-
Semitic column.
In very broad terms, I think
it is important for the Free

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