;.cIBA, Ya'ari
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;.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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TO:    David Bedein, Israel Resource, Bet Agron
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:  11/10/93
RE:    IBA
REF:   Ehud Ya'ari, Jlem Report, 11/04/93, pp10-11
CC:     
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Since returning to Israel on Oct. 1, I find that I have to take abreak from reading the daily papers every hour or so, and readsome science fiction to restore my sense of reality.

One might argue that the above-cited article by Ya'ari shoulddisqualify him from his position as Director of IsraelTelevision's Mid-East department.

There is something a bit shocking in Ya'ari's urbane remark that

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"I have had many conversations with Mamdouh Nofar, the manresponsible for the 1974 operation at Ma'alot, in which 20Israeli schoolchildren were killed..."
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and with the doubletalk of his conclusion that
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"Now that the agreement has been signed, the main thing is todo everyhing to assure its sucess -- despite all its defectsand our reservations.  Its failure would be too serious ablow to the chances of ever making peace."
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not to mention his recommendation that
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"the Rabin-Arafat partnership needs a stronger PLO, updatedto cope with the new circumstances; a PLO in which those whosent agents to put bombs in movie houses become thecounterparts of the Shin Bet, and those who use to fireKatyushas supervise security on the Gaza strip border."      
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Had it appeared prior to 9/93 it would have been grounds forindictment for treason; but that's a trivial point.

Still, one might argue that Ya'ari, perhaps seduced in Tunis bythe pornographic glamour of violence, has inexcusably compromisedthe dispassionate objectivity that should be pre-requisite for theDirector of a television news division; and especially when thatnews service is a state-run monopoly.   

II:  A few notes on media bias; or more precisely, blatant misuseof language, in Ya'ari's article:


Ya'ari remarks that the 2nd level PLO leadership shows 
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"Dedication to establishing a 'democratic' [scarce-quotesYa'ari] leadership when rule in the territories istransferred to the PLO.  This may [my emphasis] not meandemocracy modeled on the western pattern..." 
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COMMENT:  "May not mean"?  
May mean democracy modeled on some pattern other thanthe western pattern?  What models of democracy doesYa'ari have in mind?  Classical Greek?  Jeffersonian? Preportional representation?  Dual-cameral?  Sovietdemocracy?  Tom Hayden's "participatory democracy"?
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Ya'ari simply means that it won't be democracy, itwill be an oligarchic junta-style tyranny.
He should be sued for literary malpractice.

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"Understanding that...there must be a comprehensive plan tointegrate people from the territories into the Palestinianadminstration at every level...perhaps with residents of theterritories given the major role." [my emphasis]
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COMMENT:  
In short, a new occupying force.  So much for democracy.
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I hate to sound elitist, and maybe Ya'ari is still practicingadvanced English, but it's a bit annoying to find liberal rhetoricmasking a Machiavellian realpolitik that makes Stalinist Leninismlook sentimental.

