Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 30, 1982 Page: 4 of 20
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TEXAS JEWISH POST THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1982 POSTORIAL PAGE 4
postoriol:
Anti-Jewish Attacks Continue
MONITOR Rivera Cites Pro-PLO Bias
MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
t
The American Jewish community was deeply
shocked by news reports on the eve of the Rosh
Hashana holiday that a horrifying barbaric massacre of
Palestinian men, women and children had occurred in
the Shatila and Sabra refugee camps in West Beirut.
The wanton and savage killing of innocent people
strikes to the heart of Jewish consciousness for it is the
Jews who for centuries have been suffering from
massacres and pogroms.
BY MIKE ROSENBERG
While the massacre received the widespread
attention it deserves from the international community,
it is also with sadness that the Jewish New Year
brought again to the surface the ugly scenario of
international terrorism striking against Jews in Paris
and Brussels. Again another year goes by and Jews
continue to be targets indiscriminately by Palestinian
terrorists who spill unremorsefujly innocent Jewish
blood on the streets of European cities.
Now that he’s dead, the
press has a few good words
to say about Bashir Gemay-
el, late president-elect of
Lebanon. Even the Wash-
ington Post had to concede
that Gemayel was “dedicat-
ed to the unity of Lebanon”
and that he was “Lebanon’s
best hope of escaping the
agony it had endured for
nearly a dozen years.”
spoon-fed to them by the
PLO. They quickly develop-
ed a “radical chic” attach-
ment to Arafat and an
antipathy to anyone who
stood in the way of the PLO
and its goals.
In Paris, some 50 people, including 45 non-Jewish
students were wounded by an explosion which blew up
the car of an Israeli diplomat on New Year’s Eve. In
Brussels, a man fired a submachinegun at worshippers
leaving the city’s main synagogue on the first day of
Rosh Hashana. Jews throughout the world prayed thi«
year behind police cordons with snipers ready to
protect them from further terrorist attacks.
From all records of the Beirut tragedy, and from
statements by some officials, Israel was at least morally
responsible for the massacre at the refugee camps.
There is no evidence or proof that Israel was physically
involved in the slaughter. However in the case of
wanton attacks against Jews in western Europe by
Palestinian terrorists, these heinous crimes can be
traced back physically to the PLO and those who were
either trained by them <Tr who accepted their terrorist
ideology. The lesson that needs to be driven home time
and again is that the identifiable terrorism of the PLO
and their ilk must be stopped by all legal means
This was a far cry from
the pejorative characteriza-
tions of Gemayel that
marked most press coverage
of him while he lived. Most
commonly Gemayel was
labelled a “warlord,” a man
who made it to the top
through the ruthless elimin-
ation of his antagonists. His
followers were “rightists.”
His army was modelled on
principles his father, Pierre
Gemayel, had picked up in
Hitler’s Berlin and Musso-
lini’s Rome. The same media
that portrays Yasir Arafat
as a friend of little children
suggested that Bashir Ge-
mayel was, quite simply, a
fascist.
Rivera believes that there
was a conscious effort by
some reporters to smear
Gemayel with the facist
label just as there was to
portray Arafat as a man who
runs “day care centers.”
Rivera noted that press
accounts frequently referred
to Pierre Gemayel’s visits to
Germany and Italy in 1936,
“eleven years before Bashir
was born,” while failing to
mention Arafat’s regular
pilgrimages to Moscow now.
He said that much of the
press “has taken to Arafat
the way the New York
Times” took to Fidel Castro
in 1959. He said that this
“institutional bias” in favor
of the PLO is dangerous and
puts the truth “in jeopardy.”
li
Rivera’s words cannot be
taken lightly. A respected
journalist, he demonstrates
real courage when he public-
ly, admonishes his colleagues
for their bias. But he feels
that he must do so. First, he
is concerned about the truth
— that it not be misrepre-
sented by partisan journa-
lists. Second, he is worried
about the United States and
its role in the world. The
incessant press criticism of H| }
nations and leaders allied I £
with the United States can*
only serve to weaken Amer-
ican interest. The danger in
this is clear and Rivera
intends to point it out.
1
available to governments which are now paying homage
to Yasser Arafat. Laws, after all, are made tobe
enforced not ignored.
Arab States Must Recognize Israel
WASHINGTON [JTA] -
Vice President George Bush
said that the Arab states
must go beyond their “im-
plicit recognition” of Israel
contained in the Fez declara-
tionand “state with clarity.
It is a characterization
that deeply offended, even
wounded, those Americans
who knew Bashir Gemayel
and understood what he
menat to the people of
Lebanon. On an ABC-TV
Nightline, on the night of
Gemayel’s death, journalist
Geraldo Rivera attacked the
print and electronic media
for its unfair coverage of
Gemayel. Riveria had come
to know Gemayel while
as Egypt has, that Israel has
a right to exist.” Speaking at covering the Lebanon story
the National Press Club, he and readily conceded that he
also urged Israel to recog- was impressed with the man
nize the legitimate rights of Lebanese Christians called
the Palestinian people.
TEXAS JEWISH POST
Dedicated to Truth, Liberty and Justice
Editor and Publisher.......................J.A. Wisch
Managing Editor and Asociate Publisher........ Rene Wisch
Social Editor.. .....................Linda Davidsohn
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Dallas Manager........................Chester Wisch
Typography..........................Wylma Hooker
Food - Home...........................Susan Wisch
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“Sheikh Bashir.” Rivera said
that the press performed a
“grave disservice” through
its biased coverage of
Gemayel. “He was given a
raw deal by people who
should have recognized the
fact that no one emerges
from eight years of civil war
with clean hands ... I think
the warlord image of him
was the creation of people
who assumed that Yasir
Arafat and the PLO would
remain in Lebanon and be a
force in that country and
would govern that country’s
destiny as well as Pale-
stine’s, wherever that is,”
Rivera told Nightline’s Ted
Koppel.
*
I
between
you and me
BY BORIS SMOLAR
[Editor-in-chief emeritus, J.T.A.]
[Copyright 1982, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.]
THE MAX FISHER SAGA: Max M.
Fischer is “American Jewish leader
Number One” according to many in this
country and in Israel. In his modest way
he has been in the front row leadership of
major national Jewish organizations, as
well as a top leader of local Jewish
agencies in Detroit, where he resides. He
is also very active in general politics and
in civic affairs where he enjoys a high
reputation.
An influential figure in the Republican
Party, Fisher has been close to the White
House under Republican Administra-
tions. He could have been appointed a U.S.
Ambassador, and at one time there was
talk about appointing him to the Cabinet
as Secretary of the Treasury. However,
while deeply interested in American
politics, he preferred to concentrate on
activity in the Jewish field, playing at the
same time a leading role in the affairs of
his party.
Fisher, who frequently met with
Republican Presidents, felt very much at
home in the White House. He helped
Israel a great deal in the White House as
the top unofficial advisor and liaison
between the U.S. government and the
State of Israel. He worked closely with
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,
advising him and becoming a close friend.
His contributions to U.S.-Israel relations
have been cited by Presidents, from
Eisenhower to Reagan.
Later, in an interview
with Near East Report,
Rivera elaborated on his
thesis that the slanted
coverage of Bashir Gemayel
was a product of a segment
of the media’s infatuation
with the PLO. Rivera
pointed out that the journa-
lists covering Lebanon were
all based in Moslem West
Beirut and rarely, if ever,
“stayed overnight on the
Christian side of town.”
These journalists were quite
content to sit in the
Commodore Hotel and have
much of their information
Reared mainly in the company of
gentiles and having a meager Jewish
education, Fisher, nevertheless, develop-
ed a high Jewish consciousness which
brought him to top leadership positions
locally and nationally in Jewish organiza-
tions, including the Council of Jewish
Federations, United Jewish Appeal,
American Jewish Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, American Jewish Committee and
HIAS. In addition, he is one of the pillars
of the Jewish Agency for Israel which he
helped to reconstruct, becoming in 1971
the chairman of its Board of Governors, a
post he continues to hold. His contribu-
tions to the Jewish community here and
abroad, and his stature, is all the more
fascinating given his antecedents.
See Between You and Me-Page 16
*
I
4
4
•i
J
A FAMILY PORTRAIT: Max Fisher’s
background and that of his antecedents
are now provided in a 150-page book, “The
Fishers — A Family Portrait,” by
archivist Philip Appelbaum, published by
Harlo Press in Detroit. The book is not a
biography — which remains to be written
— but chronicles the history and
genealogy of the Fisher family going back
to its roots in a small town in Lithuania.
I
I
Fisher’s grandfather, Itzchak, was one
of the boys of 12 to 18 years of age who
used to be kidnapped under the Czarist
regime during the first half of the last
century and transported to remote places
in Siberia for 25 years of military service
and forcibly converted to Christianity in
their early youth during the years of their
service, the book points out.
I
*1
Thousands of these boys, abducted by
police on streets in small towns, in
synagogues and from their homes —
known now in Jewish history as
“Cantonists” of “Nikolai’s soldiers” —
never returned to their Jewishness. They
became estranged from their Jewish past.
!
But Max’s grandfather stubbornly
refused to be baptized. After completing
his 25 years of forced service he returned
to his native small town and eked out a
meager subsistence as a farmer in the
backwoods. He later married the daughter
of a pious Jew who was engaged in the
business of making barges on the banks of
the river in the area.
I
Max is the third generation of the
Fishers. His father immigrated to the U.S.
in 1906 and his mother followed a year
later. They were naturalized in 1915 in
Lisbon, Ohio. Max, who was born in
Pittsburgh in 1908, was the first of four
children they had. There are now fourth
and fifth generations of the Fishers, all
born in the U.S. Some of the second
generation perished in Europe in the
Holocaust.
I
l
A RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT:
Max’s youth was no bed of roses. His
father once told me of the difficult times
the family faced when he started life in the
U.S. as a peddler and later bought a men’s
* » *- % *
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 30, 1982, newspaper, September 30, 1982; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754789/m1/4/: accessed May 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .