Herzog Lashes U.S. Media for Front Paging West Bank Incidents While Burying Reports on Mass Killings

Israeli UN Ambassador Chaim Herzog accused the American media of a “complete lack of balance” between the reporting of the death of a single Arab on the West Bank and multiple killings in Northern Ireland and Lebanon. He told the leaders of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations last night that the Israeli incident appears in glaring headlines on the front page while the others are buried inside the newspaper.

Herzog told the Reform Jewish leaders that such reporting “could hardly be termed objective. Indeed, can we be blamed if we question the objectivity of these reports?” From time to time, he stated, “we point to the fact that we are the subject of discrimination. But what has occurred this week seems to me to go beyond that. Two days running at the beginning of this week the killing of one Arab in the West Bank was emblazened across the front pages and in the leading stories in the media.

“At the same time, I find on page II of a leading newspaper, which gave such prominence to these events, a six line story buried at the bottom of the page, reporting the death toll in the same period in Northern Ireland of 15. Perhaps most indicative of all, I find a story reporting that in the same period which involved the death of three in the West Bank, over 1200 were killed and wounded in Lebanon. Some 240 people were killed in one day. This fact lay buried somewhere in a story on the political struggle in Lebanon.”

CONCERN EXPRESSED OVER DISTORTIONS

Continuing, Herzog stated: “What is the reason for this very distorted picture of what is going on in the world? I can but express very grave concern at the fact that when Israel endeavors to maintain law and order and one casualty is regretfully caused, it becomes a major international story, while when a nation is being destroyed, the subject is relegated to a comparatively minor place in the media because it is no longer news.”

Ten children were killed on May 17th and 30 others wounded when an artillery shell, fired by Syrian controlled units, landed in a kindergarten in a Palestinian refugee camp south of Beirut, the Israel envoy said. “Was there a meeting of the Security Council on this issue? Will there be a meeting of the Security Council on this issue? You know, as well as I do, that there will be no such meeting. But just imagine what would have happened if Israel had been in any way involved?” Herzog asked.

Herzog and U.S. UN Ambassador to the Human Rights Committee, Leonard Garment, received special UAHC awards from Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, the organization’s president, on behalf of the UAHC’s Board of Trustees and the 715 member synagogues in the U.S. and Canada. Herzog was presented with a special UAHC art edition of the “Book of Psalms.” Garment was presented with a statue of Isaiah.