OPINION

GARY ROSENBLATT

Editor

Why did Presi-
dent Bush de-
clare political
war on Israel
this past week in
urging Congress
to delay consi-
deration of $10
billion in loan guarantees for
the Jewish state?
Logic dictates that Mr.
Bush had no reason to call a
press conference and assert
that Congressional approval
of humanitarian aid to help
Israel absorb hundreds of
thousands of Soviet Jewish
immigrants could delay the
Mideast peace process.
After all, the Arab states
and Israel had already
agreed, after much arm-
twisting, to negotiate — pro-
vided the issue of Palestin-
ian representation can be
resolved. The Arabs had not
made a freeze on Israeli set-
tlements a pre-condition for
the peace talks, so why
would Mr. Bush create a new
stumbling block — espe-
cially when he claims that
his only motivation is to
safeguard the negotiations?
Further, Washington has
long advocated freedom for
Soviet Jewry and expressed
an obligation to help Israel
share the financial burden of
taking in up to one million
immigrants over a five-year
period. So why would Mr.
Bush threaten to veto Con-
gressional approval of a five-
year loan guarantee - not a

cash outlay — at a time
when Israel desperately
needs funds to provide for
the newcomers?
The only way this makes
sense is to think of the clash
between Mr. Bush and Israel
as purely personal. Some
disagreements between
countries are motivated by
foreign policy; this one is a
nasty grudge match between
Mr. Bush, Chief of Staff
John Sununu, National
Security Advisor Brent
Scowcroft and Secretary of
State Baker on the one hand
and Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir and his
cabinet, particularly Hous-

For all of the anger
among Jews, Mr.
Bush may be doing
Israel a favor.

ing Minister Ariel Sharon,
on the other.
The simple fact is that the
stern, lectern-thumping
George Bush we witnessed
at his press conference last
Thursday is frustrated and
angry with Israel's refusal to
put a halt to new set-
tlements in the occupied ter-
ritories. Curiously, he never
mentioned the word
"settlements" in his press
conference statement, but
that is the crux of the con-
flict .— not the $10 billion
loan guarantee to help Israel
provide housing and
employment for Soviet Jew-
ish immigrants.
Mr. Bush has long opposed
the settlements and con-

siders them a hindrance to
the peace process. He held
up a $400 million loan to
Israel last year, voicing con-
cern that immigrants not be
settled in the territories.
Israel's response has been
on the stick-it-in-your-ear
level, announcing the crea-
tion of new settlements vir-
tually every time Mr. Baker
comes to Israel to negotiate.
The Shamir government's
policy ,is that Jews have a
right to settle anywhere
within the land of Israel, and
that the matter of set-
tlements should be on the
table at the negotiations, not
resolved beforehand.
As serious as these differ-
ences are over the loan
guarantee, the settlements
and the conditions for a
peace conference, what is
particularly disturbing
about the president's actions
are the way he characterized
the dispute and the manner
of confrontation he chose.
First, he pleaded for a
delay of 120 days without
ever giving any assurance
that he would approve the
loan guarantee at that time.
Indeed, pro-Israel activists
are convinced that if the
guarantee is not approved
now, it will be a dead issue.
Second, Mr. Bush reinforc-
ed the image of the pro-
Israel lobby as acting beyond
the boundaries of the dem-
ocratic process, with hordes
of lobbyists descending on
Washington. He spoke of
himself as "one little guy"
up against "powerful polit-
ical forces" demanding im.-

Religious News Service

George Bush's Bully Pulpit

George Bush: Bullying Israel and American Jews?

mediate Congressional ac-
tion.
In fact, the lobbyists were
average American citizens
exercising their Constitu-
tional right to express their
concerns. What makes the
pro-Israel lobby successful,
not "powerful," is the mes-
sage it sends: that the
United States has a dem-
ocratic, strategic and hu-
manitarian ally in Israel.
That is why Congress has
long supported Israel's in-
terests as reflecting
America's own.
Finally, and most impor-
tantly, Mr. Bush has shown
us how he chooses to conduct
policy with Israel. For lack
of a more polite phrase, it is
economic blackmail.
The president held up the
$400 million loan last year
over settling immigrants in
the territories, now he wants
to halt the $10 billion loan
guarantee until there's a
settlement freeze. The issues

change but the style is the
same. That is not discussion
or even persuasion among
allies; that's holding an
economic gun to Israel's
head and threatening to pull
the trigger.
But for all of the anger
among Jews over the presi-
dent's actions, he may be do-
ing Israel a favor. He is giv-
ing Israel the impetus, one
would hope, to wean itself
away from economic reliance
on the United States.
Times have changed. U.S.
aid is no longer automatic.
There are conditions and
stipulations and now,
threats.
Mr. Bush said the other
day that the United States
remains Israel's closest
friend in the world. That
may be so, but with friends
like George Bush, Israel
needs to look hard in the
mirror and begin to rely
much more heavily on its
own economic resources. El

And Now We Have Peter's Principle?

PHIL JACOBS

Managing Editor

eter, I really wanted
to believe you when I
read Arthur Magida's
May 31 Jewish News cover
story titled "Off Camera,
Does Peter Jennings Have A
Jewish Problem?"
In total respect for my
friend and colleague Arthur
Magida, I defended the story
to people who criticized it for
what they called a lack of
hard-hitting responses and a
feeling that we as a news-
paper were so taken with the
fact that we had this ex-
clusive interview that we in
effect cozied up to you.
I'm not in the mood to cozy
up to you now. I'm angry,
and I feel like a fool for

p

defending you in the past.
Your Sept. 12 ABC special,
"A Line in the Sand: What
Did America Win?" wasn't
journalism. It was show biz.
Let's begin with a quote
from the story we published.
The quote comes from you.
"I don't understand .. .
(charges that I am anti-
Israel or pro-Arab). I tend to
answer with a fairly
automatic response — which
is a fairly neutral response
— that the Middle East is a
complicated place. People on
this subject, more than any
other, tend to see truth
through their own eyes."
Let's freeze that quote.
And let's remember it. Be-
cause Americans depend on
you and your network to
take them to the Middle
East. You are their eyes.

You are everyone's eyes. So
truth for Americans is how
you and your camera crews
and your production teams
see it. We can't see anything
on the periphery of your
camera. So if you interview a
radical West Bank Jewish
settler who uses the word

Go ask Hafez
al-Assad if you can
roam his country
with a camera.

"idiot" to describe an Arab,
we don't know about the
Arab who wants to see every
Jew, not only on the West
Bank but in all of Israel,
dead. We don't know that
this woman's opinion might
not be the opinion of every

settler. We_ don't know that
there are Palestinians who
are friendly with Israelis.
We don't know that because
usually those Palestinians
are killed by their , own peo-
ple.
Peter, I'm sure it took days
and days, hours of film
footage and hard work to put
that show together. But I
have to wonder what ended
up on the editor's floor this
time around. Did you or your
producers ever consider why
this settler might feel the
way she does about the Pa-
lestinians? How about an
interview with a couple of
Palestinians who want to see
the Israelis killed, who got
on their roofs and applauded
the Scud missiles crashing
into Tel Aviv?
I know it's my job to come

up with more specifics. I ad-
mit I can't. But there was a
tone in your report, a tone
that carried sarcasm and
one-sideness to it. Review
how you reported the news
that evening, you'll see that
tone there as well.
In Mr. Magida's story, you
are quoted as saying, "There
is no such thing as an expert
on the Middle East. The re-
gion is too complicated."
You are right.
So stop pretending that
you are an expert on the
area. Listen to your words.
To give a historical perspec-
tive to the many different
sides and opinions of this
issue, you can't possibly
make it a part of a larger
program. The settler situa-

Continued on Page 10

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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