L
AST YEAR,
WE ADDED
THESE
EXCEPTIONAL
STUDENT
ATHLETES
TO OUR
HALL OF FAME.
Pawns In The
Peace Process
JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
F
The Nlichigan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame and The Jewish News believe in
applauding excellence.
That's why w e reward the outstanding
achievements of Jewish high school ath-
letes with academic scholarships. And,
that's why we take pride in conferring
the honorary. title High School Athlete
of the Year on deserving male and
female students through a program
administered in cooperation with The
Jewish .Vews.
For applications,
please send the attached form. to:
WHO WILL THIS
YEAR'S CANDIDATES BE?
Now is the time to nominate exemplary
students for those honors in 1993. Let us know
about the "good sports" in your life whose
exceptional performances deserve recognition.
And give excellence a sporting chance.
Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
19785 West 12 Mile Road, Suite 334
Southfield, Michigan 48076
For further 1.1 formation,
call Harvey Frank at (313)443-1630.
r
Please send me application inAnnation for the athletic scholarship and honors programs.
Your Name:
Address:
"Telephone-
City, State, Zip-
1
L
Secure A Great Price On A
Great New Security System!
• 1 Six Zone Control Panel
• 1 Standby Battery • 1 LED Keypad
• 1 Interior Siren • 1 PR Motion Detector
or two (2) Door Contacts
Additional Security Devices
INSTALLED
$2195/mo. Monitoring
*RJ31 X Required
- Recessed Door/Window
Magnetic Contacts
- Passive Infrared Motion Detector
- Smoke Detector - Heat Detector
- RJ31 X Phone Jack - LED Keypad
313-864-8600
or reporters, the Mid-
east peace talks have
taken on a kind of com-
fortable familiarity.
There is a pattern to each
round of talks, a predictable
ebb and flow; a careless edi-
tor might accidentally run a
story from two rounds past,
and few readers would be the
wiser.
Since the talks are held be-
hind closed doors—and be-
cause "progress" is measured
in the most microscopic of in-
crements— much of what we
report involves the atmos-
phere rather than the sub-
stance of the talks.
Instead of details about
who is proposing what, we are
forced to discuss the idea
the Palestinians were
angry at being coerced
back to Washington, and
that they were pessimistic
about the results—a mes-
sage directed at their dan-
gerously dwindling con-
stituency in the occupied
territories.
In both cases, it was the
press that carried the mes-
sage, largely through our re-
ports on the mood of the talks;
what took place at the nego-
tiating table was almost be-
side the point.
By the middle of last week,
the mood had changed dra-
matically. Suddenly, there
were dark warnings that the
talks were moving nowhere
and that patience was wear-
ing thin.
Israeli negotiators were
venting frustration at the re-
luctance of the Syrians to de-
fine what they meant by a
"full peace," and with the
Palestinians because of the
turf battles raging within the
delegation. The Palestinians
insisted that the Israelis had
brought nothing new to the
table and warned that the
talks might not last the full
two weeks.
So we wrote stories reflect-
ing that gloom—and, in doing
so, we were again helping ne-
gotiators send smoke signals
to each other and to the folks
back home. By becoming an
indirect part of the process,
we were elevating these
moods into substance, at least
in terms of the broader poli-
tics of the peace process.
By Saturday, the emotion-
al tenor had changed once
again.
"Delegates are Upbeat
About Mideast Talks," trilled
the Washington Post; the
day's stories reflected a new
optimism on all sides that the
days of posturing and proce-
dural maneuvering were corn-
ing to an end.
And indeed, there were
signs of progress by the be-
ginning of the second week of
negotiations—including an
agreement in the Palestinian-
Israeli talks to break up into
"working groups" on specific
issues, the best indication yet
that negotiators are moving
The press is serving
as a kind of safety
valve, a way of
dealing with the un-
seen partners.
beyond the petty-sounding
procedural wrangling.
But still, the details of this
progress were sparse. Again,
lacking anything more con-
crete, we emphasized the up-
beat new mood—knowing full
well that gloom could return
in a matter of hours.
We reported what we
knew—which wasn't much,
and which was exactly what
the delegations wanted us to
report.
We in the press understand
that we are being manipulat-
ed, and this can be frustrat-
ing, especially when we keep
writing the same stories over
and over again.
But we also understand
that the manipulation is in-
evitable. The negotiations
probably could not survive if
every last detail of the talks
was readily available to the
press; the whole idea is to get
the parties to negotiate di-
rectly, face to face, without
the kind of public dueling that
has proven wholly ineffective
in solving the Mideast con-
flict.
In a way, the press is serv-
ing as a kind of safety valve—
providing an alternative mode
of communication for the ne-
gotiating teams, a way of
dealing with the unseen part-
ners to the talks in Washing-
ton and back in the Mideast.
The strange role of the
press is probably a necessary
part of a delicate and enor-
mously complex process that
may be the last best hope for
peace in the troubled re-
gion. ❑
N