By Jessica Davis , JTNews Correspondent
“There’s a double-ness in what you hear people say about Jews and what you see written about Jews,” said Stuart Schoffman to an intimate group of 48 at a community briefing in Seattle on Feb. 13.
The briefing, entitled “Israel and the Media: An Insider’s View,” centered on Schoffman’s firsthand experiences living in and reporting from Israel. Schoffman, associate editor and columnist at The Jerusalem Report is the first to participate in the ADL Koppelman Scholar-in-Residence program. He is currently a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
The Jewish identity is often a source of anti-Semitism because it is different, said Schoffman at the briefing. “There’s always a tension about one’s American identity,” he said. There is a stereotypical concept of Jewish identity in Western culture. “You’ve seen the movie — look at me: Paul Newman,” he joked.
He said there tends to be a cliché of the Jews being like David turning into Goliath. Jews have to understand that victims do bad things too, said Schoffman. “There are things you have a right to do that aren’t smart,” he said. “I have a right to eat three pints of Häagen- Dazs before I go to bed.”
Commented an audience member: “We’re not the underdog anymore,” adding that perhaps some like the persona of the weak Jews better.
Schoffman said there is an obsessive focus on the Jews, with an unwillingness to look at similar situations in other places.
Schoffman read an article written by Robert Fisk in The Independent, published on Sept. 3, 2001, that read, “CNN caves in to Israel over its references to illegal settlements.”
The article started out: “Just as the BBC last month ordered its reporters to use the phrase, “˜targeted killings’ for Israel’s assassination of Palestinians, CNN under constant attack from right-wing Jewish pro-settler lobby groups has instructed its journalists to stop referring to Gilo as a “˜Jewish settlement.’ Instead, they must call the settlement, built illegally on occupied Arab land outside Jerusalem, “˜a Jewish neighborhood.’”
“What we’re talking about here is a clash of narratives,” Schoffman said about the article. He said things like this should be addressed and lobbied.
The war in the Middle East is a sophisticated fight, said Schoffman. “It’s a very big and complicated challenge.” The idea that there is a moral equivalency of good terrorism and bad terrorism is glib, he said.
An audience member said to Schoffman that invariably there is always a good guy and bad guy portrayed in the media. Schoffman said when he went to Jerusalem in 1968 for the first time as a student, there were more journalists who were “swashbucklers” and “drinkers.” Now, he said, members of the media are part of what he calls the “Revenge of the Nerds phenomenon.” Journalists are less roguish than they used to be, he said. They like to study and they are just trying to do their jobs and often risk their lives to do so.
“Other people are paying the price for what you write,” said Amos Leviant, a member of the audience. He said that it does not take much to tilt things one way or another in the media, whether the reporter lives there or not.
“The alternative is censorship,” answered Schoffman.
“It’s a different readership in America,” said a woman in the audience.
Schoffman said sometimes when he listens to a news program on the TV at his home in Israel, he can hear the same sounds with the TV turned down. “For you, the front is the TV screen, the computer screen,” he told the audience.
He said that a Palestinian propaganda Web site (www.electronicintifada.com) believes that the media is overwhelmingly pro-Israel, while the ADL Web site (www.ADL.org) posts surveys of editorials, to maintain strong credibility and to demand the right to be vigilant, when vigilance is necessary. Every conceivable slander is posted on the Radio Islam Web site (www.abbc.com) and at The Guardian, “They’re equal opportunity snobs,” said Schoffman. The Army spokesman office is part of the problem in Israel with the inaccurate information it gives to the media, he said.
“We’re a long way from turning like that [he snaps his fingers] in this country,” said Schoffman, ending the briefing.
Before Schoffman spoke, there were some brief announcements made by some of the attendees. Barry Goren of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle announced the return of a community solidarity mission to Israel. He plans to organize another trip to leave on April 21.
“No one’s visiting Israel right now and visits are desperately needed,” said Goren.
Audience members also acknowledged Judge William Dwyer’s death with a moment of silence.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Northwest Region hosted the community briefing in coordination with AIPAC, the AJC, Hadassah and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.