A time of angry words, little action
The Mideast crisis has been played out in the news media to an extraordinary extent, from New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman acting as midwife to Saudi Prince Abdullah’s peace plan to the envoys of the countries and peoples involved slugging it out in the press. With the Israelis determined to crack down on the Palestinian Authority in what they say is a bid to end the suicide bombings that have terrorized their nation, they have declared Palestinian areas closed military zones and forbidden entry to journalists and other observers. On the one hand, the news media are locked out of the theater of operations while on the other hand providing perhaps the only arena for whatever diplomacy is taking place. This has been evident in many ways over the last week, including when Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou was forced to postpone a trip to Israel when it became clear he would not be able to visit Yasser Arafat in the West Bank. The Israeli government’s determination to ignore the international community has been made clear since early last Saturday, when the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, and urging both parties to undertake a meaningful ceasefire immediately. Resolution 1402, which was adopted by a vote of 14 in favor to none opposed, was a crucial step toward peace in the eyes of the diplomats, but in reality made no difference on the streets of Israel or the Palestinian territories where the Israeli army was launching a full-scale offensive. The Israeli incursion into Palestinian territories continues even today in defiance of the resolution, as do the deaths on both sides of the unfenced border. Moreover, European Union diplomats have been unable to contact Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat in Ramallah where he is under siege by Israeli forces, while American, European and UN diplomats on the ground in Israel have failed to convince Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to stay his offensive. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported yesterday that Israeli authorities prevented the Spanish premier (Spain holds the EU’s rotating presidency) from holding telephone talks with Arafat. According to the paper, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar tried four times to call Arafat on Sunday but was thwarted at each attempt. When he sought an explanation from Sharon, he was told: «Mr Aznar, you are trying to contact the head of the terrorists.» A similar fate befell the planned trip of the Greek foreign minister earlier in the week to Ramallah where he was to meet with Arafat. Israel, through its ambassador to Greece, David Sasson, informed the minister that it could not guarantee his safety while in the combat zone. Papandreou canceled the trip and instead met with Arab League and Palestinian officials on Tuesday in Cairo. The international community gradually came to terms with its inability to intervene effectively in a crisis situation, and has limited itself to strongly worded but mostly ineffective messages, which may sound portentous but have no teeth. With reporters banned from Palestinian territories where the Israeli forces are conducting military operations, and as both Israelis and Palestinians turn to the press in a public relations race, the truth remains elusive and the death toll rises from both sides. War and words «The war looks different abroad – and maybe so do the facts,» said Aviv Lavie in his column in yesterday’s Ha’aretz, a leading Israeli newspaper. The Israeli columnist sounded a note of frustration as he realized that the Israeli press had been pandering to the needs of the government instead of reporting objectively on the ongoing events, saying this was apparent from foreign press coverage. «A journey through the TV and radio channels and the pages of newspapers exposes a huge and embarrassing gap between what is reported to us and what is seen, heard, and read in the world – not only in the commentaries and analytical pieces, but also in the reporting of the dry facts,» Lavie wrote. «Israel looks like an isolated media island, with most of the reporters drafted into the cause of convincing themselves and the reader that the government and army are perfectly justified in whatever they do.» In the absence of meaningful diplomacy, reporters have been rushed to fill the vacuum, and «some have actually been drafted,» Lavie said in a reference to a Yedioth Aharonoth reporter who has been reporting from West Bank, «straight from his military reserve unit.» The Israeli media get their information mainly from army sources, with little if any time to verify the facts and with no access to combat zones. «Both in New York and Tel Aviv, when journalists cease collecting facts and asking questions, and instead turn to beating the war drums – yesterday, Ma’ariv editor Amnon Danker ran a front page article devoted to smashing, killing, tramping and destroying – it’s time to say goodbye, at least in the meanwhile, to a free press,» Lavie wrote. The «war of words» has extended to foreign capitals where diplomats from both sides have been inviting members of the national press to attend news conferences where each side denies statements made by the other. «He has water, he has food and he has medicine. Please stop quoting these myths which are not true. I know these are spread by the Palestinians in order to attract more sympathy from public opinion, but they are not true,» remarked David Sasson, Israel’s ambassador to Greece, on Monday in response to a reporter’s question on the conditions Arafat is besieged in in Ramallah as they were reported in the international press. Just a few days earlier, last Friday, the Palestinian envoy to Athens, Abdullah Abdullah, called an urgent news conference, hours after the Israeli army had attacked Arafat’s compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian envoy declared that Israel has launched a «war of ethnic cleansing» and «genocide» against the Palestinians, prompting a strong response by Sasson who said that any comparison of the Mideast crisis with the Holocaust is plain disrespect for the millions of Jews who died in concentration camps. In Athens, the government has firmly backed Arafat, who Papandreou has called a «close friend,» while continuing to condemn the suicide bomb attacks. Sasson, avoiding criticizing directly the Greek stance in recent days, told reporters that «it is influenced by sympathy or pro-Arab sentiment that exists in this country.» The Greek press has closely followed the Greek government line, devoting extensive space and time to the Middle East and sending reporters to the region for first-hand reports – they too, though, have faced restrictions. «Under siege the Holy Land – Enough Mr Sharon,» wrote daily Apogevmatini in its top front page headline on the Mideast crisis, carrying photos of Israeli tanks in front of damaged buildings in Palestinian territories. «Sharon’s poker with the head of Arafat – Allegations of assassination plan,» Ta Nea wrote in its headline yesterday. Media coverage across Europe has been similar, where governments in other European capitals have been extremely vocal in expressing their alarm at Israel’s assault in Palestinian-ruled territories, but have limited much of their diplomatic efforts to telephone exchanges. On Tuesday, Sharon once again used the press to convey a message to foreign governments that have been appealing to him not to harm Arafat, declaring that they could come and take him abroad, but that «he will not be able to return.» But as long as the two sides and the parties involved in the peace efforts are confining most of their diplomatic efforts to phone calls and statements to the press, one factor will remain constant – the rising death toll on both sides.
