EDITORIAL
Media Ripples
Birmingham's Groves High School has received its share of media
attention this school year because of several racial incidents. Students
and administrators fear, however, that the attention has far outweigh-
ed the problems and may have contributed to them.
Race-baiting skinheads assaulted a black student inside the
school last fall. Two of the seven skinheads were Groves students,
and they were eventually expelled. In an incident this spring, the
lockers of seven black students were daubbed with slurs. Obviously,
students were directly involved in these incidents.
Non-students may have participated in spraypainting the out-
side of the building and the posting of racial leaflets in the
neighborhood. How much did media coverage of the first two occur-
rences contribute to the others? How much coverage should they have
been given? Are there unreported tensions at other high schools?
Does the public have a right to know?
Media coverage can enflame events. This was true in the Detroit
riots of 1967, Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the Palesti-
nain intifada of 1989. The public does have a right to know and it
is the media's job to inform.
But coupled with the obligation to inform is the responsibility
to be fair and objective, to report and not provoke. It can be as dif-
ficult an assignment at home as it is abroad, as difficult getting along
with one's neighbors at school as on the world scene.
it. Eighteen months of what amounts to a Palestinian insurrection
in the West Bank and Gaza cannot be stilled — and has not been
stilled — by beatings or the breaking of arms or legs or outright kill-
ings, whether it be by the Israeli Army or Israeli settlers. The
message of Arab and Jew was that armed force will not end the in-
tifada. It will merely force the Palestinians to find a new and, perhaps
a more violent outlet for their frustrations — and their hate.
Shipler's Arab and Jew was PBS at its best. It presented a long,
sober and balanced look at a difficult, almost ungraspable situation.
It showed that television, despite all its enormous shortcomings, is
still capable of illuminating the most thorny and sensitive of topics.
And it offered hope that another PBS show about the Middle East
will be equally balanced and worthy of the public broadcasting
imprimatur.
Slated for airing in early September, "Days of Rage: The Young
Palestinians," will report on the intifada from the perspective of the
Palestinians. The 90-minute film has been denounced by one New
York public broadcasting executive as "biased" and "one-sided." To
restore some balance to the broadcast, a panel discussion is being
planned to follow the airing of the film. One hopes that if criticisms
of the film as unbalanced are valid, that the panel discussion will
right the imbalance and give viewers a presentation as noteworthy
as this week's Arab and Jew. If it is, the telecast will have made
an important contribution to understanding the Middle East.
PBS At Its Best
The Public Broadcasting Service aired an extraordinary two-hour
documentary Monday evening. An adaptation of David Shipler's
book, Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, the film
explored the guts of the tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israel
and the West Bank and Gaza. It touched on the historical reasons
for these tensions and, inevitably, the current intifada. But at its
heart were the wrenching emotions that divide Arab and Jew, the
fears, the stereotypes, and the hate. For hate abounds in the region.
And, unfortunately, it is getting worse. To many Israeli Jews who
appeared on "Arab and Jew," Arabs are cunning, sinister, extreme.
To the Israeli Arabs, Jews are greedy, militant. To the West Bank
and Gazan Palestinians, Jews are, quite implacably, "the enemy."
Perhaps the most alarming quote of the evening came from a former
Israeli intelligence officer who had been told this about Arabs by
an Israeli cab driver, "We should beat them and beat them and beat
them until they stop hating us."
But beatings do not quench hate. They generate it. They perpetuate
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LETTERS
No Endorsement In
Bloomfield Election
Recently I have been con-
tacted by individuals residing
in the Bloomfield Hills School
District who have asked if the
Republican Committee of
Oakland County has endors-
ed any candidates in the
school board elections to be
held Monday, June 12. It ap-
pears that a rumor has been
circulated indicating that the
party has taken a position in
that race.
The Republican Committee
of Oakland County has not
been asked to endorse any
candidates for the Bloomfield
Hills Board of Education. The
committee, as a practice, does
6
FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1989
not issue endorsements in
non-partisan elections.
I hope this clears up any
misunderstandings which
may have occurred relative to
the race and urge all of the
registered voters in the school
district to go to the polls and
vote for the candidate of their
choice.
James M. Alexander
Republican Committee
of Oakland County
Tourism Helps
Jews And Israel
In regard to your article of
May 19, 1989 "Tourism As
Commitment In Israel
History," I would like to pro-
vide you with some additional
information:
Machon L' Torah, The
Jewish Learning Network of
Michigan, under the direction
of Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz,
spends a great deal of time,
energy and money every year
promoting educational and
historical study programs in
Israel to college students on
five major college campuses.
To date, Machon has sent
more than 150 students to
Israel, 50 of whom were given
full or partial scholarships
either through individual ar-
rangements via Machon
L'Torah or with the Machon
L'Torah Annual Sol and Nora
Lesman Israel Scholarship
program .. .
A "pilgrimage" back to our
Jewish roots is invaluable to
end apathy among our people,
as well as being a tremendous
aid to Israel itself vis a vis
tourism and aliyah.
I would like to thank you for
bringing this issue to light
and am hopeful that your ar-
ticle may inspire other Jewish
congregations and organiza-
tions to take up the reins of
this most important project.
Shari Klein
Oak Park
Baker Equated
Israel And PLO
We have serious misgivings
about Secretary of State
James A. Baker's speech
before the annual policy con-
ference of AIPAC held re-
cently in Washington, D.C.
While the secretary's state-
ment included some sound
policy guidelines, such as an
endorsement of Israel's peace
initiative, which, he em-
Continued on Page 10
Let Us Know
Letters must be concise,
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the writer.
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