;.cJlem Report
;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:      
RE:    Jlem Report
REF:  Jlem Report Feb. 10, 1994
CC:   David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron; 02-247803; 257303 
------------------------------------------------------------------
                  
The Jerusalem Report, although ostensibly a pro-Labour alternativeto the Jerusalem Report, has no clear character nor focus.  Itseems predominantly oriented along the entertainment lines of popjournalism, a sort of high-brow Jewish People Today.  Itapparently has an excellent distribution network in the USA, butit's hard to imagine it being taken very seriously elsewhere. Although it continually beats the drum for the Beilin/Peres/Rabin'piece process', it frequently suprises one with incisivecriticism of aspects of same; one can find, sometimes with a bitof reading between the lines, points not found in the Jlem Post.

Anyhow:  The Feb. 10 issue includes a tortuous exercise byJonathon Broder aimed at explaining that in allowing itself to beco-opted by the Peres/Rabin administrtion into propogandizing itsown constituency to support the 'piece process', AIPAC is merelyadhering to its apolitical principle of loyally serving thegovernment of Israel.  The fact that this government has putitself in a position of opposition to approximately half theIsraeli electorate is glossed over; as is the fact that theintensity of political polarization in Israel is now greater thanat any time since 1947; hence a false analogy is drawn betweenAIPAC support for the Likud-led governments and present AIPAC cooption by the Rabin administration.
	The extent of opposition among U.S. Jews to the Peres/Rabinadministration -- apparently including most of the orthodoxcommunity -- is obscured with an off-hand, unspecified referenceto "recent survys showing 90% of U.S. Jews supporting Rabin".

The same issue also has a bit of a hatchet job on Cyril Stein, awealthy Englishman opposed to the 'piece process'.  There are theusual journalistic tricks, but too unsubtle to be worrisome: "domineering", "firebrand Geulah Cohen"  "his conviction that oneone inch of territory now controlled by Israel should be given upis by no means shared by the majority of U.K. Jews" , "Stein wasbeside himself" "In an astounding attempt at outside interventionin Israeli politics, indeed, Stein actually wrote a letter inAgust to Rabbi Ovidiah Josef..." [emphasis added, to facilitaterepublication in better British tabloids], "Stein has a history ofanger" [unlike, eg, Shimon Peres]  "vehement".
