Though American Jews often say that Israel is discriminated against in the media, veteran Israeli journalist Amotz Asa-El “seldom has qualms” about the way that Israel is portrayed in news today.
Instead, “my problem is with the context,” he said. “My qualm is not about how Israel is being covered.” “My qualm is that the Arab world is not being covered,” said Asa-El, former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Asa-El shared his thoughts during a lunch program titled, “World Media and the Middle East,” held at the Newsroom Pub on Monday, March 6. The event was sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle and the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.
Calling the problem “not one of bias but one of proportions and allocation of resources,” Asa-El said that the issues in the Middle East “far transcend” those only between Palestinians and Israelis, Asa-El said.
“At any given moment,” there are “400 foreign correspondents” in Israel, while only a handful are reporting on issues in the rest of the Arab world, he said.
That fact is “not only absurd, it’s malpractice,” he said.
Little in the media is heard of other problems concerning the region, such as the situations in Sudan and Algeria, as well as unreported perspectives on issues, such as the low numbers of Middle Eastern women in the workforce and low literacy levels.
These issues of “stagnation” and “backwardness” are “not a matter of fate, but of design.” And, he argued, they should be part of responsible Middle Eastern coverage.
Asa-El also spoke about the need for “patience for historical change” in the Middle East.
Using the recent election of Hamas in the Palestinian elections as an example, Asa-El said that letting people elect undesirable leaders is important “to let people decide their own fate.”
Previously, Hamas has enjoyed “maximum authority with minimum responsibility.” Now, Hamas will be held accountable when the Palestinians suffer from poverty, unemployment and substandard services.
Asa-El, who writes a weekly column titled “Middle Israel” for the Post, described a shifted perspective of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Israelis like me who thought that the conflict was about real estate” were wrong, he said. “It’s about values. It’s about our belief in freedom…. It’s about our sanctification of life and theirs of death.”
During his four-day visit, which was organized by the WSJL, he spoke to several other groups in Milwaukee and Madison.
On Monday evening, Asa-El spoke at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun on the topic, “There’s More to the Jews than Ashkenazi and Sephardi: Diaspora Jewry and the Lost Tribes of Israel.”
Asa-El has also been the Post’s business editor, news editor and editor of the International Jerusalem Post. Previous to joining the Post, he was foreign editor of the Telegraph financial newspaper in Tel Aviv and foreign correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Author of “The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel,” Asa-El is currently writing a new book.
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