;.cViorst
;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l2,15,75,192,2,20,25,127,15,0,
;.l3,20,75,192,2,25,127,20,0,
;.l4,25,75,192,2,127,25,0,
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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:    Hebron mass-murder
REF:
CC:   David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron; 02-247803; 257303 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ONCE AGAIN `THE FIX IS IN'

SUMMARY:  World reaction has been surprisingly unscathing.  
Weizmann's assessment that no person in the history of state ofIsrael has done it more harm may turn out to have been alarmist.
Presumably the victims are identified with Islamic fundamentalism,and it's conventional wisdom that that's the next threat toCivilization as We Know It.
If it was one of Arafat's Tunis villas that got shot up we'dreally be in trouble.     

1):  Int. Herald Tribune 3/1/94, Milton Viorst:  "Hostile SettlersDoom the Peace Prospect."  
The same Op/Ed page runs an article by William Safire, "Make aPeace that doesn't strand Israeli settlers", so one can't imputeanti-Israel bias to the Herald-Trib.
I forget what Viorst's political &/or ethnic affiliation is.  

Virost's tone is literate and reasonable.
The old "more in sorrow than anger" shtick.

There's a nice anachronistic touch:  "the rejection by thesettlers of the [1947!] principle of Palestine's partition" 

a bit of knowing distortion: "a Knesset member who supports [thesettlers] has even asserted the right to shoot an Arab policemanwho stops him for a traffic violation" {true, but MK Eitan saidthat he'd do so in fear that any self-respecting Palestinianpoliceman would, upon recognizing him, shoot him first}

there are so nice descriptive touches about settlements:"encircled by barbed wire, guarded by  watchtowers, patrolled bysentries ... but the settlers must leave their homes to go to workor to market" -- that lead one to doubt that the writer has everbeen inside an Israeli settlement.

and there's a small dab of plain calumny:  "Arab agents, often'recurited' by torture or extortion ..."

and a nice sentimental touch fit for Reader's Digest:  "What thePalestinians want more than anything ... is ... the restoration oftranquility, of 'normality' in the territories.  The presence ofhostile settlers makes this goal unattainable. "                   
.a2
He concludes: "Most Israelis now agree that ...Begin's vision of a'Greater Israel' was a terrible mistake.  But until thesettlements are dismantled, peace remains its hostage.'

2)  TIME March 7, 1994.  Run as the cover story "of some of ourinternational editions".  Written by George J. Church (New York);reported by Lisa Beyer and Jamil Hamad (Hebron), with Dean Fischer(Cairo) and J.F.O. McAlister (Washington).  
Jamil Hamad seems to have reported some details not picked up bythe Jlem Post.
George Church's tone is much more reasonable and more fair toIsrael than one might have feared; he goes out of his away tosuggest  acceptance, even commendation,  of Rabin's statements ofregret.  But that's Rabin-puffiing as usual.
There are a number of inaccuracies; but it's not clear when thedeadline was for reporting.
PRESUMABLY INACCURACIES WERE UNINTENTIONAL AND IN GOOD FAITH; BUTBECAUSE TIME IS APT TO BE USED AS A REFERENCE WORK, THEY SHOULD BEREBUTTED.

"The firing inside the mosque continued for about 10 minutes."
"A particularly hot issue is whether some worshippers were shot byIsraeli soldiers amid the chaos."
"The total of dead and wounded last Friday exceeded even thenumber [the perpetrator] could have hit"
        
Political inaccuracies:
Church does not try to lump the settlers with Kach; but he followsa current trend of trying to discredit their religious/ideologiccommitment to remaining in biblical Israel:  "[the Rabingovernment ... has made no secret of its distaste for holding theentire Israeli population hostage to the Greater Israel dreams ofa few thousand zealots."
This is a clever tactic; anti-Semitism is a no-no, and Israelbashing ain't cool; so minimize and trivialize the ones you don'tlike; cut and patronize the rest to fit.    

.p
3) Newsweek March 7:  Russel Watson (writer, I guess) "withCaroline Hawley, Jerfferey Bartholet and Christopher Dickey inJerusalem)".   For WASPs, a hardship post.

"One eyewitness said he also three 3 hand grenades into thewrithing (?) crowd."
"The shooting did not stop until desperate Palestinianas swarmedover the attacker and killed him.  Some reports said they pundedhim to death with iron bars and a fire extinguisher."
COMMENT:  At this stage, that seems like sloppy reporting, to thepoint of irresponsiblity.

"Brooklyn, a hotbed of militant Orthodox Jews"
l2
And the Brooklyn Bridge is an eruv they forgot to unpack.
l1

"what extremist Jews expansively define as the Land of Israel"
l2
Nope; that's Afghanistan.
l1

Raises the question of accomplices in the mass-murder.
Implies that it may not have been.

"And Israel has to do something, at least, about the morebelligerent settlers.  For years, they have had almost a licenseto kill."
l2
USA loves James Bond, albeit secretly.
l1

THRUST:  "'They're really on the defensive after this,' said aWhite House official."  Aims to build a media-event that willcreate momentum for precipitous concessions by Israel.  After thatit's not the world's problem any more; lotsa luck.

Box by Tom Masland:
   [the perpetrator] "had in fact trained most of his life tobecome one of the most devastating mass murders in Israelihistory."
l2
No, he trained most of his life to be an emergency physician.
You maybe want George Habash?

l1
N.B.:  It is worth noting that Kach started from the JDL, whichformed to counter attacks by blacks on Jews, and so may be said tohave started from a racist perspective that was easily shiftedonto Palestinians. 