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May 31, 2002
Writer pessimistic about peace
U.S. aid money funds books for Arabs on how to lobby more effectively.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Americans and English-speakers have inaccurate perceptions of what
life in Israel is like, according to Jerusalem-based journalist
and author Judy Lash Balint.
"It is either a very idealized impression or they don't know
anything, they have no clue about what life is like."
Balint is on the road promoting her book Jerusalem Diaries: In
Tense Times, which provides a "behind the headlines"
look at what is going on in Israel. She stopped in at the Bulletin
when she was in Vancouver to share her views on everything from
the chance of peace in the Middle East to why Israel's media image
is so poor.
Born in Britain and educated in the United States, Balint visited
Israel many times before immigrating there in 1997.
She said that her motivation for putting together Jerusalem Diaries
was to impart what life is like in the Jewish state, to describe
some of the celebrations, commemorations and events that people
would enjoy hearing about.
"My goal is really to show people what is going on behind the
headlines," said Balint. In her opinion, the perspective depicted
by the politicians on CNN, the BBC or the CBC is not reflective
of that of the Israeli people or of life in the country.
"There is a tremendously unified feeling in Israel ... because
everybody's husband, brothers, sons are getting called up,"
said Balint. Also, morale in Israel is remarkably high, she said.
"Israelis who have been in Israel much longer than I say we've
been through worse. Yes, [the situation is] very difficult and this
is protracted, but we've been through worse, we've stood up to worse
and we'll get through this too."
The prospects for peace
"At the beginning of all this, the various pieces of the political
spectrum all had their take on what was going on and you still had
people on the left who sincerely believed that, yes, we should still
be talking to [Yasser] Arafat," said Balint. "Sad to say,
I think that illusion has gone by the wayside and I think that ...
the majority consensus of Israeli society is that it is clear that
we don't have anybody on the other side who acknowledges their right
to exist. That is the fundamental problem."
Balint said she was "extremely pessimistic" about the
prospects for peace in the region in the near future because of
the intense hatred that the Arab world has been shown to have for
Jews, Christians and the West.
"That is an ideology that is so entrenched and that they are
perpetuating, both through their schools and their media, that it
will take at least a generation, even given the best-case scenario,
which is that next week we get a leader who says 'We're putting
a stop to that now, we're going to go in another direction,' "
she said.
Prior to moving to Israel, Balint served as national director of
the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha, headed by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
She was a vice-president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
and the founder of Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry.
If there is hope for peace, Balint believes that it lies in the
ability of Israel and/or other western nations to cultivate some
kind of opposition movement in the Palestinian society. That is
how the situation in the former Soviet Union was overcome, she said.
Importance of the media
"People in the West are looking through, the journalists are
making you look through, a very narrow focus, a very narrow lens
at the conflict," said Balint. "So what is the conflict
in people's minds? It's a rock against a tank. That is the image
they are seeing in every single paper.... If you open up your lens
... you're talking about the larger picture, which is Islamic fundamentalism
and Israel is on the frontline."
According to Balint, one problem in Israel with providing a clear,
unified message is that the official information division of the
govern- mnent is under the aegis of the Foreign Ministry and its
minister, Shimon Peres, "who sees the situation quite differently
from our Prime Minister Arik Sharon." As well, she said, there
are many voices in the Israeli debate, but the Palestinians have
a clear message that they have developed: "Dictatorships manufacture
images. They don't let anyone else talk."
Another public relations problem, in Balint's view, is Israel's
inability to use English-speaking people who have media experience.
Balint said there is a group with which she is involved that is
trying to ameliorate this situation with several independent initiatives,
including the Web site www.medialine.org.
"The Arabs have about 12 or 15 of these groups ... and they
do terrific advocacy with the media, with the foreign correspondents
in Israel. So we're trying now to do the same thing, to provide
an independent, unaffiliated news source and to feed them stories
and all of that," she said.
Balint showed the Bulletin two publications for Arab organizations
on methods of advocacy and lobbying the media that were funded by
the United States Agency for International Development. But she
said the most worrisome of the nations who are supposedly engaged
in a war against terrorism is the European Union.
One chapter of Jerusalem Diaries is called "Europeans
in the Middle East: Assistance or Interference?" and it gives
examples of EU-funded Palestinian agencies such as the Applied Research
Institute, which "aims at inspecting and scrutinizing Israeli
colonizing activities," and the International Committee on
House Demolitions, whose mission explains that their purpose is
to "resist all aspects of the Occupation."
Struggle for existence
In Balint's opinion, the settlements in the territories are not
the main obstacle to peace. Before 1967, before the settlements,
the Arabs had the same problems with Israel as they have now, said
Balint. "The settlements are not the issue. The issue is Israel's
legitimate right to exist, which they have never accepted."
And Israel is struggling to survive.
"The economy is unbelievably bad," said Balint. Everyone
should be supporting Israel as much as they can, by visiting or
by buying Israeli products, she said, but Balint said she gets frustrated
with the missions where they come for four or five days and meet
with politicians who they can see on CNN anyway.
"If these people would come consistently, if we had hundreds
of people coming every week, that would be great, but that's not
happening.... Generally the groups are small, groups of 20 to 30
people who are coming for four or five days. Well, it's very nice
and I'm sure they feel great, but it's not enough."
Rather than organizing large missions, Balint believes that more
frequent trips and much simpler activities – such as walking
along the beach in Tel-Aviv or sitting in the cafés –
would be more helpful.
But Balint left the Bulletin with a more sombre message,
especially in light of recent warnings from the U.S. government
that Amercians should expect more terrorist attacks in the future.
"If Israel is not allowed to take care of this, then there
is no reason that some homicide bomber won't plant himself at the
Vancouver airport, or wherever it is," said Balint.
Anyone interested in more information about Jerusalem Diaries
should visit www.jerusalemdiaries.com.
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