From: wmuhanna@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Waleed A Muhanna)
Subject: Kissinger, Ajami, and Rather display Anti-Arab Bigotry at Israeli Benefit
Keywords:  racism, CBS, New Republic, U.S. News and World Report 
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 19:56:26 GMT


__________________________________________________________________________

		Anti-Arab Bigotry Rampant in U.S. News
		  By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon
			Syndicated columnists
_________________________________________________________________________

	If a former U.S. secretary of state flatly declares that "you
can't really believe anything an Arab says," would that be big news?
	Or are we so accustomed to anti-Arab prejudices that this
statement by Henry Kissinger - first publicized in the article you are now
reading - won't be considered newsworthy?
	Time will tell.
	We have obtained a tape recording of Kissinger's comment, made two
months ago at a fund-raising which the New York Times termed an "Israel
benefit."
	Kissinger, who sits on the CBS board of directors, was joined in
the panel discussion by two prominent CBS News employees - anchor Dan
Rather and Middle East analyst Fouad Ajami, described by Rather that
evening as "a very longtime CBS News consultant, one of our in-house wise
men."
	But neither the anchor nor the "in-house wise man" uttered a word
of objection when - during the $250-a-plate dinner in New York City for the
Jerusalem Foundation on June 3 - Kissinger rendered the verdict against an
entire ethnic group.
	Imagine if a former secretary of state had publicly declared, "You
cannot really believe anything a Jew says." Or, "You cannot really believe
anything a black says."  It's hard to believe the CBS anchor would have
let such a statement pass without challenge.
	But among the many U.S. news outlets with a routinely anti-Arab
tone, one of the most flagrant is the CBS Evening News - where the task of
denigrating Palestinians and other Arabs often falls to a man considered
by many Arab-Americans to be equivalent of an Uncle Tom, the Lebanese-born
Academic Fouad Ajami.
	At the Jerusalem Foundation event, Ajami drew laughs by making fun
of Bedouin Arabs.  He belittled the Palestinian cause, and repeatedly
proclaimed that Arabs were incapable of practicing democracy.
	Ajami explained his participation in the Israel benefit with these
words: "I was simply drafted for this assignment by two people I can never
say 'no' to, and Marty Peretz and Mort Zuckerman."  Ajami was expressing
an affinity with two of the most fervent Israel-can-do-no-wrong magnates
in the media:  Peretz of the New Republic and Zuckerman of U.S. News and
World Report.
	Kissinger's ethnic slur that night was in sync with tenor of the
entire evening.
	After Peretz introduced Rather - "the moderator, the chairman,
really, of this evening" - as "my favorite newsman," the CBS anchor took
turns with Kissinger and Ajami in playing to the prejudices of the
audience.  The result was fore than 10,000 words of unmitigated praise for
Israel, along with recurring mockery of Arabs.
	Rather said that "many of us celebrate" 25 years of Jerusalem
"united under Israeli rule." He didn't mention the numerous U.N. Security
Council resolutions declaring Israel's annexation of Palestinian East
Jerusalem illegal.
	Why didn't Rather object to Kissinger's assertion that "you can't
really believe anything an Arab says"? Perhaps the explanation has to do
with the attitudes that prevail at his workplace. To watch the CBS Evening
News is to see the Middle East through the eyes of Israel.  And in the
world view, Palestinian people look very small and far away.
	But they don't look that way to our associate at the media watch
group FAIR.  Sam Husseini, who discovered the Kissinger comments on a tape
of the Jerusalem Foundation event. Husseini, a Palestinian-American, was
deeply offended:  "I thought we'd progressed beyond the point where it was
acceptable to declare an entire people untrustworthy."
	Along with asking why Rather remained silent about Kissinger's
anti-Arab defamation, the public should also ask what he was doing on a
dais in the first place - at an event where some of the money raised will
help settle immigrants on Israeli-occupied territory.
	As Rather has demonstrated in the past, a journalist claiming to be
objective will lose credibility when he or she becomes a cheerleader in a
foreign conflict.  That's what happened when Rather became an
enthusiastic advocate for the Afghan rebels in the 1980s.  CBS Evening
News, where Rather is managing editor, was shown to have aired false
reports, phony battle footage and accounts of non-existent victories by
ani government guerillas.
	
	If Dan Rather is so eager to up with chronic Arab bashers, that's his
prerogative.  But perhaps in the future his reports on the Middle East
should be labeled "commentary."

	And perhaps the new media of this country will tell Henry
Kissinger that he owes Arab people an apology.

(Copyright, 1992, Creators Syndicate Inc.) 


Xref: sparky soc.culture.arabic:3352 soc.culture.pakistan:13903 soc.culture.afghanistan:864