M-T The Ganadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 16, 1982 - Page 5 World-National J. B. SALSBERG Throughout the war in Lebanon, North American Jews felt, and with justification, that the printed and electronic media were gravely biased against Israel. It is, therefore, painful to firJd that the Jewish multilingual press can also be tripped up by' the news agencies that feed them with specific Jewish news. That realization does not, of course, reduce the burdens of guilt from * the , general press, TV and radio . . . but it does make our own offence more difficuh to condone. A couple of weeks ago Mr. Max Frankel, the editorial page editor of the New York Times, wrote that leading Israeli opposition figures had urged the U.S. to cut its non-military aid to Israel in order to topple the Begin government. This was, of course, immediately dispatched from New York to the Israeli media. According to the respected commentator oftheAlgemeiner Journal of New York, Mr. Shlomo Shamir, the Israeli press carried the news "with reserve and self-control." Biut, says Mr.. Shamir further, "a few Likud members of the Knesset sensed that they could utilize the New York Times article as an instrument against the Maarach (official opposition) and against other circles that are opposed to the Begin government.'.' Well, all hell was let loose in Israel. J. B. Salsberg Shimon Peres-, Abba Eban knd other leaders of the official opposition were recklessly accused of the offence. The opposition Labor Party branded the charges made by some members of the Begin cabinet as outright lies and equal to the horrendous blood-libels that our ene-n^ies used in the past against Jews. According to the same Mr. Shamir, even "after Frankel himself made it known that his words 'members of the opposition' were not directed against members of the Maarach," the clamor was continued inside the Knesset as well as on the hustings. But that is only the beginning of the hullabaloo. The Jewish Telegraph Agency office in Jerusalem dispatched a stoiy to the Jewish media in the world that leaders of the Israeli Labor Party were accused of trying to influence the U.S..to cut aid to Israel. I have no record, of how the multilingual Jewish press carried this dispiatch but carry it they did and the average reader or listener was left with the impression that Labor was charged with a serious offence. The totally undeserved smear of the Labor Party had taken place. Only the most discerning and dedicated students of the Jewish media aciquired an inkling of an idea of what actually took place. But since readers of this column are among the most discerning and truth-seeking of our .Canadian community, they are entitled to information that is generally unknown. Here itis: • The Algemeiner Journal, of New York, is, by Yiddish press standards, a mass circulation weekly with a readership in most Jewish communities around the world. That.^ paper is an organ of Jewish Orthodoxy, with an unconcealed bias for the Lubavitch chassidic movement; It is, in my view, a hawkish supporter of the Begin government and of Ariel Sharon. By no stretch of the imagination can that periodical be considered as being soft on the Labor opposi^ tion in the Knesset. In its Nov. 26 issue the editor-in-chief of the Algerneiner Journal, Mr. Gershon Jacobson, reveals a number of astonishing facts in a signed editorial entitled "Vo's iz der raash?" (What's all the commotion?). After declaring, at the very outset, that he doesn't believe that Shimon Peres could have been the person to make such suggestions to Mr. Frankel of the NY Times, he then says: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiH new information iiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiminiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiliiiiiiiliinii^ "I accept Peres' denial, in good faith_1 believe him that he would never say such things. But with my own ears I have heard other leaders of Maarach say worse things. Not only of Maarach *. . but even members of Begin'sown Likud, such as the Liberal Party (of the Likud coalition), and other former and present members of Begin's inner circle have said explicitly that Begin is a fascist, that he is a danger for Israel and he should, therefore, be rerhbved from office.'' If that is not enough here is Mr. Gershon Jacobson's. real bombshell, in the same editorial: "Only a few weeks ago, at a private gathering in the home of a New York Jewish millionaire, a member of Begin's cabinet said that American Jews should become more involved in what's happening in Israel and should advise President Reagan to suspend aid to Israel while Begin aind Sharon.continue to build new settlenients in Judeia and Shomron (West Bank). So why badger the Miaarach because Frankel wrote his articli^s; here you ha:ve a member of the Begin camp saying the same thing." It would, of course, have been a most serious offence for a leader of the opposition Labor Party to have offered such anti-Israel advice to prominent, official or unofficial Americans to use the aid-to-Israel clout against the Jewish state, whatever the nature of the government presently in power. But It Is positively mind-boggling to be told by a responsible, pro-Begin, Jewish journalist like Mir. Jacobson that a member of the Begin cabinet offered such advice to prominent and, assumedly, influential American Jews! As for myself, I'm inclined to fuljy accept Gershon Jacobson's evidence. He was there and he heard it himself. But did the Jewish telegraph Agency distribute the very serious charge contained in Mr. Jacobson's signed editorial? I have not yet seen any reflection of it anywhere. Has the Israeli press carried Jacobson's evidence? Has the matter, which would create a storm in any parliament, created an uproar in the Knesset? All of which shows that our own press arid press service could also be misled, biased, or negligent. It also shows how difficult it is to be a Jewish state. •.. The bank known for dependability. Consolidated assets exceeding Gan. $12 billion. Over 270 branches and offices in Israel and abroad. Subsidiaries and offices in North America. 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