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Israeli Papers
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Israel is relatively small (dai-
ly: 25,000; weekends: 45,000),
it is reportedly the first news-
paper the American ambassa-
dor and The New York Times's
bureau chief read every mor-
ning, and its international edi-
tion (60,000) reaches an in-
fluential readership in
capitals throughout the world.
For the past two years the Post
and the Israeli right have
clashed head on, with Jewish
settlers in the West Bank
(many of whom are im-
migrants from the U.S.)
blasting the paper for what
they regard as sympathetic
coverage of the Palestinian
uprising.
Last year the Post lost
388,000 shekels (about
$200,000). Early this year,
with the Histadrut facing a
financial crisis, its subsidiary
decided that it was time to sell
55 percent of the paper's stock,
whose value was estimated at
around $1.5 million.
This proved to be a wildly
low estimate as efforts by
political and business forces
eventually jacked up the price
of the control stocks to more
than $20 million. The bidding
started in December 1988
with Ampal, a New York sub-
sidiary of an Israeli bank own-
ed by the Histadrut, offering
a modest $900,000 for the con-
trol stock. Among the 14
suitors were an Australian-
Jewish businessman, Richard
Pratt ($3 million), and U.S.
News publisher Mortimer B.
Zuckerman ($3.8 million).
Three of the most serious
suitors were Genger, British
press tycoon Robert Maxwell,
and Hollinger, Inc., a
Canadian-based newspaper
chain that owns, among other
properties, three conservative
British publications, the Dai-
ly Telegraph, Encounter, and
The Spectator. Its president,
David Radler, who conducted
the negotiations in Israel, is a
member of the Canadian Con-
servative party.
Since the Post seemed an
unlikely source of profit, the
assumption in the Post
newsroom was that the paper
was facing a major political
threat. Paradoxically, the most
threatening of the three
suitors, in the eyes of many,
was Maxwell, who calls him-
self a Social Democrat and
who is a supporter of the
British Labour party, and was
in fact a Labour member of
Parliament from 1964 to 1970.
However, when it comes to
Israel's foreign policy, Max-
well, like many liberal and
even left-wing American and
West European Jews, tends to
be almost as hawkish as Ariel
Sharon.
Maxwell had already suc-
cumbed to the urge to buy in-
to the Israeli media market.
The paper that had attracted
his interest was Ma'ariv,
Israel's respected evening
newspaper which, after years
of being a circulation leader,
had fallen far behind Yediot
Ahronot, a low-brow tabloid.
The 1983 launching of an even
lighter-weight tabloid,
Hadashot (published by the
Shocken family, which owns
Ha'aretz and an international
publishing house), exacerba-
ted Ma'ariv's problems. In
1985 press accounts put the
paper's monthly losses at be-
tween $100,000 and $200,000;
several reporters and editors
were fired that year and there
For Genger to buy
half of "Ha'olam
Ha'zeh's" stock
was like Jesse
Helms buying a
half-interest in
"The Nation".
was speculation that the
paper was up for sale. In 1986,
a new editor was appointed —
Ido Dissentshik, a former
Washington correspondent
and son of the paper's late
editor, Arie Dissentshik. The
new man in charge, hoping to
revitalize the paper, signaled
his interest in new investors.
It was Maxwell who, in
February 1988, following
negotiations with several
Israeli and foreign
businessmen, emerged as the
paper's savior, willing to buy
about one-third of Ma'ariv'S
stock.
It didn't take long for
Israelis to gain some insight
into Maxwell's management
style. Appearing at a press
conference with Prime Min-
ister Yitzchak Shamir on the
occasion of an international
Jewish conference, Maxwell
was asked for his reaction to
a story that had appeared
earlier that week in Ma'ariv.
The story suggested that
Shamir had been advised, in
a secret report prepared by the
country's military intelligence
service, to open discussions
with the PLO as a means of
dealing with the intifada.
(Shamir subsequently denied
the existence of any such
report.)
Maxwell, who made no ef-
fort to conceal his anger, re-
plied that he would ask the
editor not to publish "such
rubbish?' In a later interview,
Dissentshik said that Max-
well had apologized to him for
his remark and went on to say
that, as the editor, he enjoyed
complete editorial indepen-
dence. Dissentshik empha-