Prime>. TIME Like everything else in Israel, simply watching television has become a national debate. LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT Controversial Israeli comedian Gil Kopatch appears on Israel Television Channel 1. A s a rule around the world, conservatives have a deep antipathy for state-run radio and television as the free- loading mouthpiece of the lib- eral elite. Since Margaret Thatch- er's day in Great Britain, British conser- vatives have tried to dismantle the British Broadcasting Corporation. Amer- ican Republicans are trying to turn off the Public Broadcasting System. And in Israel, some believe that the Netanyahu government is trying to do away with the Israel Broadcasting Authority. "There is a sense that an all-out battle is being waged to wreck the Broadcast- ing Authority. If there are things about the authority that need correcting, then they should be corrected; but by no means should the authority be privatized," said the Third Way party's Emanuel Zisman, chairman of the Knesset Education Com- mittee. Privatization is nearly a holy mission for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and there is probably no government company he would rather sell off than the Broadcasting Authority. Like the entire Israeli right-wing, Mr. Netanyahu has long condemned the me- dia in general, and state-funded televi- sion and radio in particular. The claim is that the media slants the news to the left and views Israel through an elitist's lens. Although the attitude can get a bit para- noid, this doesn't mean that it's without merit. As Orit Shochat, a left-wing columnist fol. the left-leaning daily Ha'aretz, wrote, ."Journalists, directors, satirists, produc- ers, emcees and announcers — in Israel and the rest of the world, on public sta- tions and commercial stations — tend on the whole to the left side of the political map. This is just a sociological fact." Hatred of the media in Israel by the right-wing "street" is especially intense. Scores ofjournolists have been beaten up over the years by crowds of settlers or young soccer-hooligan types, especially after terrorist incidents. Hebron's Jewish residents recently re- fused to speak to journalists for a few days in protest against what they saw as hostile coverage. In the last couple of months, the right-wing, especially the re- ligious right-wing, or haredim, has found a new focus for its attack: satire on pub- lic TV. First the haredim tried to pressure the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) into cancelling the irreverent commentary on the weekly Torah portion offered by co- median Gil Kopatch. But IBA director- general Mordechai Kirchenbaum — the pioneer of TV political satire — fought off the assault. Now the target is Israel Television's weekly satire "Cameri Quintet." In a re- cent skit, they implied that Mr. Ne- tanyahu had ordered the opening of the Hasmonean Tunnel last year to prove his manhood. The quintet's sexy Keren Mor faced the camera and, feigning arousal, pleaded, "Bibi, open the tunnel ... Open it by force ... Open it from behind ..." This performance brought outrage down on Israel Television's head. "How can you say that the Broadcasting Au- thority reflects the Israeli 'street'?" de- manded Knesset Member Zvi Weinberg of Yisrael B'Aliya, the Russian immigrant party. "What 'street' does it reflect? Hook- er's Row?" "What 'street' does it reflect? Hooker's Row?" — Knesset member Zvi Weinberg A Shas (Sephardi Orthodox) party member petitioned the Supreme Court to either suspend screenings of the Cameri Quintet or at least compel it to "moderate its crudeness." Justice Theodore Orr decided, however, that while the show may offend large portions of the public, the court's tampering with it would be "a far-reaching infringement on freedom of expression." Mr. Netanyahu has delegated gutting the IBA to his chief aide, Avigdor Lieber- man, who has likened the Israeli media to Pravda. He has fought bitterly with Mr. Kirchenbaum during Knesset hear- ings, charging that the IBA is grievous- ly wasteful with its money. With the cooperation of powerful Knes- set Member Rabbi Avraham. Ravitz of Agudat Yisrael, Mr. Lieberman managed to have the IBA's budget held up. Mr. Kirchenbaum has accused Mr. Lieberman of running a "campaign of in- citement" against public broadcasting, and of forging documents to smear his name, a charge Mr. Lieberman has de- nied. The Labor-led opposition has given full backing to Mr. Kirchenbaum. And so public broadcasting has become one more piece in the puzzle of Israel's left-right political schism. Until this decade, Israel Television's Channel One was the country's sole TV station. Now it competes'with commer- cial Channel Two and subscription cable TV, whose shows are generally flashier, shallower and more popular. The real question is whether Israel still wants a public broadcasting station that can offer quality programming without fear of low ratings. This, of course, has been obscured by all the outrage. The best the government has been able to manage so far is a statement of prin- ciple that it would like to privatize pub- lic broadcasting in another two years. In the meantime, the BBC is still around, PBS is still around, and, for the foresee- able future, so is Israel Television and Radio. ❑ ti CY) C, ti >- CC 67