CONTENTS Does The Fourth Estate Support Censorship? STEVEN EMERSON Special to The Jewish News W hen I was on the West Bank last summer, a young schoolteacher was hacked to death by masked Palestinian youths and dismembered in full view of some 35 children. Why? The teacher had been deemed to be a "collaborator" with Israeli authorities. Yet his wife, friends, and neighbors all bitterly denied this. The man's death was reported in American news dispatches in one sentence, "Another suspected col- laborator was killed today." There were no quotes around the term "col- laborator." No interview with any neighbor or- relative disputing the characteriza- tion. The media has blindly ac- cepted at face value the justification for the killings. The killing of alleged col- laborators has been used to settle old political scores, per- sonal vendettas and financial disputes, as well as to silence moderate political voices and factions. Coverage of Israeli repres- sion of the Palestinian upris- ing has been appropriately extensive and hard-hitting. Yet the probing, skeptical press corps so willing to challenge the Israeli version of events seems incapable of applying the same skeptical standards to the Palestinians. The nearly total void in critical coverage of the killing of collaborators is just one example. Curious about the media's coverage of Arab countries, I tallied a computer printout of the total number of stories on the suppression of human rights in the Middle East published in the top four dai- ly newspapers — The Wall Street Journal, The Washing- ton Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times — from January 1988 through September 1989. Egypt was the subject of five stories, Syria got two and Saudi Arabia, zero. In total, fewer than 30 critical articles were devoted to the Arab world. Israel was the focus of more than 300 critical stories. Does this mean that Israel commits 1,000 percent more Copyright 1990 Steven Emerson. Reprinted with the permission of Penthouse Publications International, Ltd. human-rights violations? No. In fact, in relative terms, Israel has committed far fewer violations than its Arab neighbors. Journalists give several reasons for this imbalance, but they don't hold up: 1. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that grants access to reporters. While Israel is certainly more open and accessible than its Arab neighbors, human-rights organizations such as Middle East Watch — whose burden of proof is much higher than that of journalists — have been able to document thousands of cases of torture, political imprisonment, and mass arrest in the Arab world. 2. Israel is the recipient of the largest share of U.S. economic aid. New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, a fierce critic of Israel who almost always ignores violations of human rights in Arab countries, recently wrote: "Many governments in the world violate human rights. But none of them receive $3 billion a year in foreign aid from the U.S." In fact, if economic aid is the barometer for journalistic coverage, Egypt receives the second highest amount of aid, $2.1 billion. By my calcula- tions, Lewis should be writing about Egypt at least 67 per- cent of the time that he writes about Israel. Yet — at least in the past three years — he has never devoted a column to human-rights violations in Egypt. 3. Israel is a democracy and holds itself to higher stan- dards. Sorry, but Great Bri- tain is also a democracy that proclaims lofty egalitarian ideals, and I don't see American reporters clamor- ing to write daily about the undeniable abuses of human rights that plague England's occupation of Northern Ireland. In truth, news organiza- tions are loathe to admit that the major reasons for the absence of reporting on human-rights violations in the Arab world are their own intimidation and Faustian deals cut by reporters. Reporters willingly and voluntarily censor their stories in order to stay on the good side of the authorities. Censorship is censorship, whether imposed or self- induced, and in the end, the fourth estate ends up suppor- ting the very censorship it decries. ❑ DETROIT 15 Gay Rabbis What Detroit rabbis think of the Reform vote. 23 CLOSE-UP A Change In Direction 37 JAMES BESSER and ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM Smaller charities are doing what federations don't. INSIGHT Lost In°T1ranslation 37 ANDREW CARROLL Why are so many Jews tongue-tied about Hebrew? 46 SPORTS Traveling Man MIKE ROSENBAUM Mike Harris follows cars across America. FINE ARTS Wings Of Desire ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM A Toronto artist paints Jewish history. 71 TRAVEL 61 Avid For Aspen SUSAN WEINGARDEN The Colorado mountains draw Detroiters year-long. PEOPLE Doctor In The House 75 SUSAN SALTER A medical society installs its first female president. DEPARTMENTS 31 40 50 52 61 77 84 85 91 118 Inside Washington Synagogues Business Cooking Entertainment Engagements Births Singles Classified Ads Obituaries CANDLELIGHTING 71 Friday, July 6, 1990 8:55 p.m. Sabbath ends July 7 10:05 p.m. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 7