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INSTANT MEDIA BIAS
TO:  BAR-ILAN, EYE ON MEDIA, JLEM POST; CC: BEDEIN ISRAEL RESOURCE
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Haon, 15170; 06-757572; FAX: 06-757511
RE:    BBC World Service
REF:   BBC World Service Newshour 10/19/94 05:15+ GMT 
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I.  PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS: The Midnight Ascent of Arafat

Setting the terms of debate, the news-reader (Max Passmore) statesthat 3 parties have a claim to Jerusalem:  Israel, Palestinians(whom he takes as represented by the PLO), and Jordan; and thenargues that the Jordanian claim lacks credibility.  Implicit isthe argument that the Palestinians have lived a long time on thisland.  The question of responsible custodianship of the Islamicsites is not raised.
 
An interviewee then suggests, citing Herzl 
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(who, as Dry Bones was wont to point out  probably hasn'tkept entirely abreast of the daily news in recent years), 
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that Jerusalem be internationalized in order to safeguard therights of access to holy sites of all peoples.
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Speaking as a liberal, that strikes me as an entirelyreasonable suggestion, 
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aside of course from the fact that Israel has alreadydone it, 
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as-it-is-said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  
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One must then anticipate a pseudo-rational debate over whether ornot Jerusalem should be internationalized, with the implicitassumption, for which evidence of sorts may then be offered, thatIsrael has not afforded non-Jews full access to their holy sites. 
                                    

II.  The politically correct attitude to take toward the JordanIsrael 'peace treaty'

"Well, even though Syria and the PLO are angered by the JordanIsrael deal, someone must be in favor of it." 
{Underline indicates news-reader's vocal emphasis.}

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ANTI-SEMITIC OVERTONES:  Those Jews, dealing as usual.
POLITICAL LINE:  Pro-PLO
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COMMENT:  Coming from Cambridge -- the one which a few Bostoniansvisit  -- I would very much like to believe in the intellectualuncorruptabiliy of the BBC.

The BBC World Service news-staff is exceptionally intelligent(even if not half as literate as they fancy) and exceptionallywell-informed.  So one can tentatively assume that inaccuracies intheir reporting about Israel stem fron deliberate editorial bias.