Is The Press Missin
The Story?

1

was connected in some way to funda-
mentalist Muslims," he said.
Mr. Rotem noted that when he took
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to meet
with Wall Street Journal editors, when
the Israeli leader was in town, a third of
the meeting was devoted to discussing
the Islamic fundamentalist threat.
`They were all of a sudden prepared
to hear our input about the Hamas. But
as to the eruption of violence in the pre-
vious three weeks, I didn't see an un-
derstanding of its significance, nor a
perception that this was news," Mr.
Rotem said.
Mr. Rotem sees another reason for that
perception. 'The reality is that the White
House's agenda determines that local
American issues be dealt with more than
anything else. There is no room in this
milieu for the terror in Israel story, un-
less it takes on a new dimension, as in
the incident of Prime Minister Rabin's
interrupting his visit here because of it,
and then you suddenly see it on the front
page of The New York Times."
Shlomo Shamir, U.S. correspondent
for the daily Ha'aretz, agreed that the
World Trade Center bombing has made
American media more willing to listen
to the Israeli viewpoint.
Prior to the bomb attack, Israeli ac-
tions against Hamas, including the de-
portation of 400 supporters to Lebanon
were "greatly misunderstood," he said.
But after the attack, "the Americans said,
Wait a minute, the ISraelis are not com-
pletely crazy ..."
He noted that several weeks ago Time
magazine • published an article that
"ridiculed the Israeli concern about
Hamas. They even went as far as to ac-
cuse Israel of making up the entire thing,
to divert public opinion from the depor-
tees. Now things appear differently."
Roni Zafrir, managing editor of Israel
Shelanu, a Hebrew weekly based in New
York, was somewhat more critical of
Another clash: A Palestinian youth hurls a rock at
American
media, however.
Israeli soldiers.
He views the recent coverage as being
sad, but Middle East violence is no longer tinged with spitefulness, albeit unin-
news."
tentional. 0,
Still, he said he was delighted with the
"Subconsciously, both the [American] —
receptiveness to Israel's perspective administration and the media are think- ,-
shown by the American press in recent ing, We told you so,' " he said. "You want-
weeks.
ed the Arabs under your rule — now pay cr
"I think that the level of understand- the price ... I believe the majority of the
ing of our problems has changed signif- American media think this way," he
icantly in the last two weeks, since it was stated. ❑
discovered that the [Trade Center] blast

Israeli journalists say the recent wave
of violence has not been fully understood by American media.

YORI YANOVER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

111

he recent wave of Arab
killings in Israel has tormented that na-
tion's psyche to an extent that rivals the
angst that followed the Yom Kippur and
Lebanon wars.
But the degree of psychic pain caused
by the killings has not been fully reflected
in the American media, say several Is
raeli journalists who work in the U.S.
"You can always find in The New York
Times items on clashes in Gaza," said
Ben Kaspit, a correspondent for Ma'ariv. .
"But it's being given only minor play,
as are the knifings of Israelis. Very mar-
ginal coverage."
Is this one more example of the me-
dia's anti-Israel bias?
My American Jewish acquaintances
here have little doubt that it is.
But my colleagues in the Israeli press
corps in New York, all of whom share
) their countrymen's trepidation at the

.

Yori Yanover is an Israeli journalist and
, i children's book author living in New York.
7

wave of killings, are nonetheless under-
standing of the American media's choice
to all but ignore it.
"American Jews view this from a com-
pletely different angle," said Mr. Kaspit.
"They feel betrayed, because it's their
media here. Whereas I don't expect any-
thing of the American media. It's not my
media."
Tzadok Yechezkeli, U.S. correspon-
dent for Yediot Aharonot, Israel's largest
daily, said he believes that "the Ameri-
cans are too preoccupied with their own
Arab terror issues [following the World
Trade Center bombing] to pay attention
to anybody else's problems."
Overall, however, he said Israel should
not complain about the coverage it has
recently received.
"I don't entirely understand why we
expect the American media to cover Is-
rael, so intensively," he added. "Have they
covered intensively, in recent weeks, the
hardships faced by the residents of Gaza?
Or the fact that over the past month and
a half close to 20 Arabs have been shot
in clashes with IDF units?
"I'm not being critical of Israel, but I
do ask, how come we're not wondering
why those issues weren't covered? The
sad truth is that the media cover items
which contain elements of news, as in
new things...And, to my great disdain,
the topic of stabbings perpetrated by
Arabs in Israel is no longer news. It's be-
come routine."
Yuval Rotem, spokesman at the Israeli
Consulate in New York, agreed that "it's

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