Community Views
Editor's Notebook
Public Opinion Battles
Need New Armaments
The Elusive Search
For Jewish 'Leaders'
BERL FALBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Over its history, Is-
rael has been ex-
tremely successful
fighting military
battles — indeed,
that's probably the
only reason it has
survived — as well
as political wars,
internally and ex-
ternally.
But a third battle, which has
significant and potentially cata-
strophic long-term consequences,
is not only being lost but is hard-
ly being fought. And that is the
battle for public opinion.
Israel has ignored, either un-
intentionally or by design, the
one-sided coverage of the Middle
East by the world media while
the Israeli or world Jewish com-
munity.
Week after week, David Bar-
Ilan of the Jerusalem Post chron-
icles devastating distortions and
outright lies in reporting of Israel
by some of the largest and most
powerful media institutions in
the world, including CNN and
Reuters.
Is all this anti-Israel coverage
an accident? What are some of
the reasons?
First, reporters — the so-called
working press — are by back-
ground and education "liberal"
and tend to identify with the un-
derdog. There is no question that
this plays a role in Middle East
coverage.
Second, the media work on
/--
its enemies have used it skillfully
for strategic objectives.
Consider the recent coverage
of the tragedy in Lebanon. The
world media put the blame on Is-
rael for the death of civilians,
and few even mentioned that Is-
rael retaliated after suffering
weeks of rocket attacks from
Hamas, who used civilians as
shields.
Or consider the United Na-
tions, that paragon of objectivi-
ty in Middle East affairs, which
in a so-called "objective investi-
gation" blamed Israel for the
Lebanon crisis. The report
brought hardly a rebuttal from
Bert Falbaum is a public-relations
specialist and a freelance
writer.
what is called the "herd instinct";
they basically imitate each other
and few do any independent re-
porting. Thus, the media in its
news coverage is philosophical-
ly monolithic.
Third, the Arabs have become
very sophisticated in under-
standing how the media operate
and have implemented intelligent
public relations strategies. Con-
sider the announcement of the so-
called revision of the PLO
Covenants. Much, if not all, of the
media reported it as a fait ac-
compli when not a word of the
covenants has yet been changed.
Fourth, a good case can be
made about the merger of major
news organizations — with few-
er small, independent news in-
stitutions. The boards of the new
conglomerates are composed of
directors who sit on many in-
ternational boards and have bus-
iness interests with Arab
countries. It can hardly be an "ac-
cident" that suddenly some of the
most prestigious and scholarly
media houses print blatant lies
and engage in historical re-
visionism. This may be undue
cynicism, but it seems worth in-
vestigating.
Fifth, Israel never seemed to
be concerned about "public rela-
tions" or the importance of com-
munications to vital audiences.
For all his foresight and leader-
ship, the late Menachem Begin
seemed to consider it a waste of
time, and other leaders have em-
ulated this philosophy.
Sixth, some of the dis-
torted reporting comes
from journalists who are
anti-Israel and anti-Jew-
ish, if not anti-Semitic.
There are unquestion-
ably many other reasons;
the performance of the
media is a complex, frus-
tratin.g and somewhat ar-
bitrary process.
But whatever the rea-
son, the puzzling factor in
all of this is why Israel and
the Jewish infrastructure
have not recognized the
consequences being suf-
fered by Israel and, indi-
rectly, by Jews throughout
the world. If they have rec-
ognized the damage being
done, the question, of
course, is why haven't they
acted in response?
Organizations like
Camera, a media watch-
dog group, while well-in-
tentioned, hardly impacts
public opinion. It is en-
gaged in an academic ex-
ercise, quite esoteric; its
work does not reach the
"man on the street." More-
over, it generally preach-
es to the choir. There is
usefulness in its efforts,
but it falls dramatically short of
making a difference in the re-
porting of world affairs
Israel and its supporters need
to develop a major think tank
which must develop an effective,
pro-active strategic plan to deal
with media abuses.
On the battlefield, at times, a
losing scenario can be turned
around quickly with a sudden in-
genious military maneuver.
That is not true when public
opinion is involved. Sometimes it
takes years to correct false im-
pressions; at times, it is impos-
sible.
If this laissez-faire attitude con-
tinues, Israel's enemies may well
achieve their objectives, objectives
they could not win on the battle-
field. E
I
have yet to master the fine art
of "completing a wardrobe" (I
read magazines and con-
stantly ask friends for advice,
but the whole thing — from
what's a 'summer suit' to which
scarves go with which shirts, es-
pecially when a pattern is in-
volved — continues to mystify
me). I don't know much about
sports, and every plant I own
seems to die.
But I never fail when it comes
to one area: picking interesting
jobs. Among these have been two
Jewish newspapers, a Jewish
camp in the deep South (where
they really did say, "Shalom,
ya'll") and the Hillel Foun-
dation at Tulane Univer-
sity. Without fail, I have
learned a great deal from
each.
With my first job, for ex-
ample, I learned that
$12,000 a year to work 24
hours a day is not a lot of
money.
"$12,000!" I gasped
when first hearing the
salary. "What am I going
to do with all that money!"
I knew about rent and
maybe groceries, but con-
veniently I had overlooked
things like taxes, Social
Security and food.
I think often of all the
people I met at these jobs and
wonder what happened to them.
This is especially true of students
I knew while working for one
year at Tulane University in
New Orleans.
I got the job because I was for-
tunate enough to know Jane
Buchsbaum, director of the New
Orleans Jewish Federation. She
is an unusually bright, creative
and clear-thinking woman
whom I liked from the moment
I met her. It was she who
secured a one-year grant, creat-
ing the position of administra-
tive assistant at Hillel for me.
The director at the time was
an older man, about to retire,
who was not especially interest-
ed any longer in his work. I
wasn't much older than the stu-
dents then, full of energy and ea-
ger to get to business. Although
I was to encounter countless ob-
stacles along the way, the posi-
tion and I were a good match.
It became clear, early on, that
there was a handful of students
who were the cream of the crop,
a lot who were sort of stuck in
the middle, and many who were
simply lost, and nothing I could
do would interest them.
Some of those I remember
best are Wendy, thin as a mod-
el ("I like peas, not sweets, for
dessert," she explained), always
willing to help out on any pro-
gram. Arnir, gentle and eager-to-
please. Amy, thoughtful and
appreciative, who later became
a Reform rabbi. Eric, president
of the Hillel students, and his
elusive on-again, off-again girl-
friend, who let birds fly free in
her apartment. KC., a native of
Texas who had converted to
Judaism and was in love with
a Russian girl. Andy, who want-
ed desperately to be an author
and was always in search of a
muse in the form of a mysteri-
ous woman.
Most of all, though, I remem-
ber a young man named
Jonathan Cohen.
Jonathan was the son every
Jewish mother imagines she has:
handsome, exceptionally smart,
and both educated and commit-
ted Jewishly. He had a great
sense of humor. He lived off cam-
pus, where he had a bird named
Mealplan.
Jonathan was the founder of
a student group called the Israel
Action Committee. It was the
most hip, hard-working group
on campus. They were forever
organizing pro-Israel activities,
all of which were successful, at-
tracting both Jews and gentiles.
Once, Jonathan and I had a
long talk about what made the
Israel Action Committee work.
He gave a lot of credit to luck.
But I saw that it was the force of
his personality that shaped, and
ultimately drove, the entire
group.
We all hear too often about
how so many Jewish college stu-
dents are apathetic and disin-
terested, and from what I saw at
Hillel that year I would have to
agree. The majority are.
But not all.
Jonathan Cohen was the kind
of young man who could literal-
ly reshape the future of the Jew-
ish community.
What made him so unusual
had nothing to do with money.
He certainly wasn't poor, but by
no means did he have fortunes
to give away. It had nothing to
do with "going through proper
channels." either, because
LEADERS page 22