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NOTEBOOK I

The Hero Of Watergate
Sees Echoes In Israel

GARY ROSENBLATT

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Journalist
Carl Bernstein
set down a chal-
lenge to the edi-
tors of American
Jewish news-
papers earlier
this month, urg-
ing them to "recognize
Israel's mistakes" and not be
afraid to "cover the real
story" in Israel themselves.
In so doing, he touched on
a critical issue in the on-
going debate over the
media's double standard for
Israel, and he alienated
many, if not the majority, of
editors in his audience.
Bernstein's thesis is that
many American Jews refuse
to believe what the general
press writes about Israel and
that the Jewish press in this
country has a special
responsibility to report the
truth because Jewish news-
papers have more credibility
with American Jewish
readers.
American foreign press
coverage of Israel and the
Mideast is first rate, accor-
ding to Bernstein, and
"much of what American
Jews think is biased repor-
ting is, in fact, accurate."
Contrary to popular opi-
nion, the press does not have
a "predisposition to be bias-
ed against Israel," he said,
citing favorable coverage of
Israel in the past. "The
reporting changed when the
facts changed," he said,
beginning with the Lebanon
war in 1982. "The reporting
has changed because Israel
has changed."
Bernstein, who along with
fellow Washington Post
reporter Bob Woodward won
fame and glory — and a
Pulitzer Prize — for
coverage of the Watergate
political scandal in the early
1970s, believes that the
Israeli government has
taken a chapter out of the
Nixon White House in re-
sponding to press criticism.
Rather than refute the
charges, Jerusalem is at-
tempting to discredit the
press, making the conduct of
the media the major issue
instead of the government's
conduct, according to Berns-
tein.
"Today in Israel," he said
at the annual convention of
the American Jewish Press
Association, "I sense that
Jerusalem blames the press

rather than its own con-
duct."
Many of the editors in the
audience blamed Bernstein
for his conduct in referring
to Israel as stubborn and in-
transigent. They felt his pre-
sentation lacked perspec-
tive, focusing on Israel's
shortcomings while paying
scant attention to the level
of violence and lack of
democracy in the Arab
world. Some believed that
Bernstein's vision of the
world was caught in a
Watergate-era time warp.
"He sees everything in
terms of Watergate," said
one editor, "where you are
either a good guy or a bad
guy. And obviously, to him,
Israel is now the bad guy."
Bernstein, of course, is no
stranger to controversy. He
confided over dinner, before
his speech, that the United
Jewish Appeal has stopped
including him on its lecture
circuit. He said they called
and asked him to make some
changes in his address to
Jewish groups but that he
refused.
And recently, as a New
York correspondent for Time
magazine for the past five
months, he angered many
American Jews with a major
article he wrote in the May 7
issue of Time, entitled "The

It is true that the
Israeli press is far
more active and
open about
covering Israel,
warts and all, than
the American
Jewish press.

Agony Over Israel." In it, he
asserted that "the American
Jewish community has
become a house divided —
and sometimes loudly so —
over Israel's treatment of
the Palestinians in the oc-
cupied areas and its reluc-
tance to pursue a com-
prehensive settlement that
finally might bring peace to
the region."
In his address to the Jew-
ish editors, he urged Ameri-
can Jews to engage in a
"constructive dialogue" and
not be afraid to discuss
Israel's policies, including
the intifada, human rights
and the West Bank ter-
ritories. "Our counsel is
needed," he said. "Not our
silence."

