It’s often pointed out that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer used to work for AIPAC. In a highly-favorable review of Walt and Mearsheimer’s book on the Israel lobby, former Senator James Abourezk relates the following anecdote:
My real Middle East education began during a trip I took through the
Middle East in 1973… In early 1974, I
held a press conference at the Federal Press Club in Washington, D.C. I
related to those gathered there that every single Arab leader I met
with, including Yasir Arafat, told me that each was ready to make peace
with Israel, to begin commercial trade with it, on the condition that
Israel withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, and allow a Palestinian state
in the West Bank and Gaza. Amazingly, the Arab leaders I talked to… were
willing to concede the land that Israel had already taken by force in
1947 and 1948. That was the same offer King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
made to Israel last year—an offer that was scoffed at by Israel and
ignored by the United States.When I related what I had heard in the Arab countries… at the Press
Club, a short reporter rose to ask me a few hostile questions, after
which he left. His name was Wolf Blitzer, at that time a writer for the
AIPAC newsletter, The Near East Report. The headline of his story was, “Abourezk Sells Out to the Arabs.”
I have a couple questions about Abourezk’s story. Like, what is the Federal Press Club? Just the same, the tale speaks to something many of us in the press know intimately and that Walt and Mearsheimer spoke of more detachedly: a love for Israel is part of American Jewish culture that is rarely openly acknowledged by the press. Back when I was at the Observer, former publisher Brian Kempner used to tell me I didn’t know what I was talking about re Israel, and said I shouldn’t write about Israel without going there (I am grateful to him for that push). In these exchanges, Kempner smiled acknowledging that he had once worked for AIPAC. And once he said to me, "Of course the Palestinians have reason to be angry; we took their land and houses…" A statement I found shocking at the time because I had so little knowledge of Israeli history; and I remember walking away confused that someone could accept this truth and still be a giant booster for Israel.
My point is that a love of Israel runs through American Jewish culture, and the best journalistic response to a book as important as Walt/Mearsheimer is for Jews in public life to talk openly about Israel. To have a forum where Jews–and yes, a gentile Zionist, and a Jewish critic of Israel–speak of their feelings about Israel and say what effect those attitudes have had on their professional lives. I remember Roger Hertog, the neocon backer of the New York Sun and the Manhattan Institute, speaking at a Manhattan Institute gala a couple years ago about a deathbed promise he had made to a good friend to look out for the Jewish state. I was thankful to him for his honesty. Daniel Schorr spoke of his mother’s Zionism in his memoir without really saying how it had affected his coverage of Israel. The Times’ Max Frankel spoke of his devotion to Israel very fleetingly in his memoir. More more more.
These sorts of attitudes are important. In a spirit of openness, without hounding people for their attitudes/affections, we need to learn about this social/religious/professional history. And discuss. How about on CNN’s "Situation Room"?
