NEWS EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

have to decide which of the scores of
ast week an Oakland County_
pictures that come in every day we
judge watched a videotape of.
should publish and which to skip.
a killing that the rest of the
The two accompanying this article
country had seen a few
came in last week. I find them pretty
weeks earlier. On the tape, Jack
dramatic and disturbing. One shows a
Kevorkian is shown injecting a lethal
young Palestinian demonstra-
dose of drugs into a terminally
tor crumpling as he is struck
ill man, Thomas Your, who
by an Israeli bullet. Looking
had asked Kevorkian to help
at it, I wonder why he had to
him die.
be shot. The flac, he carried
The tape was gruesome,
was a visual weapon but
horrifying, repulsive. But it
apparently not one that
was something else as well —
immediately threatened the
a direct window for all of us
lives of the IDF forces
into the profoundly important
against which it was flown.
debate on whether we should
Falling, he seems a figure
have a right to die when and
from the French Revolution,
JONATHAN
how we choose.
(please look at the
outgunned
FRIENDLY
CBS's 60 Minutes was
but bravely
lower
picture)
News Editor
attacked for allegedly sensa-
leading a charge on the
tionalizing the death and par-
barricades.
ticularly for having aired it during
And that tells me something
sweeps" month, when audience size is
else — that the Palestinians are
so critical to ad revenues. Critics said
winning a media war. Look at
the show wasn't as much interested in
the pictures on page 30 and 31
assisted suicide as it was in boosting
and consider who seems to be
ratings.
David and who Goliath. Which
But CBS was right to show the
is likely to be seen more sympa-
footage, which it did with as much
thetically by the world, or by a
explanation, context and taste as it
nation like the United States that
could. If it had been my decision to
likes to root for the underdog?
make, I'd have done the same thing.
It is no pleasure to run a pic-
And the fact is, I do confront simi-
ture like the one of the Palestin-
lar decision-making.
ian being shot, and we don't
The Jewish. News is not a television
run it expecting to attract more
station, of course — although our
subscribers or advertisers. We
Website, JN Online, eventually may
run it because it is the most
allow us to bring you both video and
appropriate and effective way to
audio recordings. But as news editor, I
present information to you. In

040

was Annie Ginsberg, so there is a
strong possibility that this was either
her brother or uncle. My grandmother
came from Kanatop in Russia and was
born on Sept. 1, 1870, to David Gins-
berg and Bessie Kolchinsky. She mar-
ried Harris Brosky in Kanatop and
arrived in Liverpool [England] in
1890.
I wonder if it would be possible
to publicize this letter. Hopefully,
there are descendants of I. Ginsberg
living in Detroit who know of the
family history. Unfortunately, I do
not have their address and would be
very grateful if you could make this
letter seen.
Mrs. Jackie Lubman

12 Primrose Road
Liverpool L18 2HE
England

fact, we would be ethically derelict if
we censored these images because we
thought you couldn't understand them
or stomach them.
We have an implicit contract with
you. You agree to buy us; we agree to
try as hard as we can to give you unbi-
ased information on all the issues that
are vital to Detroit's Jewish communi-
ty. Sometimes that means presenting
Left:
information that is disturbing.
... While
A look at press history shows we've
IDF soldiers been through this issue before.
take aim.
Remember the pictures from Vietnam
of the police chief summarily executing
a Viet Cong prisoner on the street, the
young girl fleeing the napalm attack,
the monk immolating himself? Those

Above: A
Palestinian
demonstra-
tor drops
his flag as
he is struck
by an
Israeli
bullet ...

I'm sure of it.
You see, some-
times we must
excuse a little
I write this not yet knowing
obfuscation in
what will occur in Israel dur-
the interests of
ing President Clinton's trip
decency.
this week. But the president,
We will
this great man, is at all times
applaud the
100 percent committed to
eventual release
maintaining and spreading
of Pollard, a
peace and prosperity
human bribe for
throughout the nation and
the sake of
the world. And dollars to
peace in the
doughnuts says Jonathan Pol-
Middle East.
lard sees Jerusalem before
But the \X'ye
Jonathan Pollard
President Clinton's term
River confer-
expires on Jan. 20, 2001.
ence was not the time for the presi-
The president himself said, I. think,
dent to talk about it. We know Bill
"I did not agree to release Pollard to
Clinton by now: a friend of Israel;
that man, Bibi Netanyahu, I never
dedicated to a future of peace in Israel
told anyone I did, not a single time."
and the so-called Palestinian sectors;
He was shaking his finger at the rime,

Stand Up
For Clinton

SHOCKING on page 26

enemy of the Christian Coalition,
which seeks to destroy the Constitu-
tion in the name of Jesus.
Fellow Jews and supporters of
Israel, now is the time for us to stand
up for our friend Bill Clinton.

Richard Tolin
Farmington Hills

Lebanon Stand
Is Vital

A news item ("Lebanon Redux," Dec.
4) referred to southern Lebanon as
the haunting quagmire known as
Israel's Vietnam."
The Lebanon-Vietnam analogy is
completely unfounded. Vietnam is
thousands of miles away from the
United States; the American with-
LEBANON STAND on page 26

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