This Week
Eye Witness
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Touring Detroit Free Press and News opinion-shapers see firsthand
the miracle of Israel and the roadblocks to peace.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
F
or six days in mid-January,
David Gad-Harf, executive
director of the Jewish
Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit, played host in
Israel to Detroit Free Press Publisher
Heath Meriwether and Editorial Page
Editor Ron Dzwonkowski.
Joined by Detroit attorney Herschel
Fink, who encouraged the trip, they
toured the country, meeting with
media and political personalities, aca-
demics and families in the Federation's
Partnership 2000 region of the Central
Galilee.
David Gad-Harf also spent two days
in Israel with Detroit News Editorial
Page Editor Nolan Finley, who had
toured the country with the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee
accompanied by local AIPAC chair-
man David Victor.
The three journalists also used con-
tacts in Metro-Detroit's Arab commu-
nity to spend time in Palestinian
Authority areas_ and meet with P.A.
representatives. It was the first trip to
Israel for all three journalists.
•
.
No Easy Answers
In an
move for competing
papers, the editorial page editors agree:
They say being in Israel clarified the
issues at stake but obscured acceptable
solutions.
"The more I learned the less I
knew," admitted Dzwonkowski of the
Free Press. "I came with preconceived
notions that are very American, but
when I suggested an approach, I was
given six or seven very good reasons
why it would not work.
"I wish I was able to say I came back
with magic dust to solve it all, but I
1/31
2003
,
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Jewish Community Council Executive Director David Gad-Half and Detroit News Editorial Editor Nolan Finley visit with
children from the PACT Early Childhood program in Netanya. (PACT . stands for Parents and Children Together.)
didn't. People who have only seen this
conflict from a distance, probably
shouldn't be telling people over there
how to solve it. It looked very differ-
ent up close than it did from a lifetime
from afar. It is very complex."
Finley of the Detroit News, saw it
similarly.
"The people there don't have the
answer, and the people here don't have
the answer," he said. "I was very much
stunned by how small the nation is,
and how Israelis and Palestinians live
so close to one another; they are so
intertwined whether they like it or
not. This could be a garden. It could
be the shining star of the Middle East.
Both sides say they want peace, but I
didn't come back at all encouraged."
Nonetheless, they say being there was
very helpful in understanding the issues.
"After six days in the Middle East,
we have no presumption of expertise,"
said Meriwether of the Free Press. "But
there is no substitute for on-the-
ground observation. It was great to
have the opportunity to see for our-
selves the situation there. Things are
pretty extraordinary."
Geography Tells Much
Dzwonkowski got a greater apprecia-
tion of Israel's security concerns dur-
ing a helicopter trip along the "Seam
Line" separating pre-1967 Israel from
areas won in the war.
"We got the sense from the air of
Israel's position vis a vis the neighbor-
hood," he said. "It's a vantage point
you just can't get from the ground."
Noting that he is not a military
expert, nonetheless he said, "Even I
could see how vulnerable Israel is on
the north. I could see quite dramati-
cally how narrow Israel would be with
a return to the 1967 borders" and
how the topography made it clear that
to have "a defensive position, from a
military sense, Israel has to hang on
to" some of the high ground.