A Crooked Mirror

Read the Bible

George Bush, we are told, is a deeply religious person, and so is his yeoman, Tony Blair. It is a pity thatthey do not read the Bible more.

One of the most beautiful Hebrew sentences can be found in I Kings XX. When he threatened Israel, the Kingof Syria boasted of his mighty army and demanded surrender. King Ahab replied with four immortal Hebrew words,rendered thus in English: "Let not him that girdeth on (his harness) boast himself as he that putteth itoff."

Retroactive Terrorists

Schoolbooks in dozens of languages must now be rewritten.

The old books said that the men and women of the French resistance in World War II were heroes. Thesecivilians went out in the night to bomb German trains, kill German soldiers and execute collaborators. Theinstructions came from London. They knew that if they were caught, they would undergo gruesome tortures and beput to death. American and British movies sang their praise.

The Russian partisans, whose slogan was "Death to the Invader!" made the life of the Germansoldiers hell. The partisans were hanged in droves. The original guerillas - for whom this Spanish wordmeaning "little war" was coined - attacked Napoleon's soldiers. Goya immortalized them in hismagnificent painting. A whole generation of Israeli children was taught to admire the Irgun and Stern Groupfighters, all civilians, of course, who blew up the installations of the British army and killed its soldiers.It appears now that they were all vile terrorists.

Presstitution

In the Middle Ages, armies were accompanied by large numbers of prostitutes. In the Iraq war, the Americanand British armies are accompanied by large numbers of journalists.

I coined the Hebrew equivalent of "presstitution" when I was the editor of an Israelinewsmagazine, to denote the journalists who turn the media into whores. Physicians are bound by theHippocratic oath to save life as far as possible. Journalists are bound by professional honor to tell thetruth, as they see it.

Never before have so many journalists betrayed their duty as in this war. Their original sin was theiragreement to be "embedded" in army units. This American term sounds like being put to bed, and thatis what it amounts to in practice.

A journalist who lies down in the bed of an army unit becomes a voluntary slave. He is attached to thecommander's staff, led to the places the commander is interested in, sees what the commander wants him or herto see, is turned away from the places the commanders does not want him to see, hears what the my wants him tohear and does not hear what the army does not want him to hear. He is worse than an official army spokesman,because he pretends to be an independent reporter.

The problem is not that he only sees a small piece of the grand mosaic of the war, but that he transmits amendacious view of that piece.

In the Falklands and the first Gulf wars, journalists were simply not allowed to reach the campaign area.It seems that a bright fellow at the Pentagon had an idea: "Why keep them out? Let's allow them in,they'll be told what to write and broadcast and eat out of our hands like puppies."

Shame

Since the age of 19, I have been a journalist. I was always proud of it. On innumerable forms I wrote"Profession: Journalist."

I am ashamed when I see a large group of journalists from all over the world sitting in front of amany-starred general, listening eagerly to what is called a "briefing" and not posing the simplestrelevant question. And when a courageous reporter does stand up and ask a real question, no one protests whenthe general responds with banal propaganda slogans instead of giving a real answer.

Remember the virtual surrender of the Iraqi 51^st division? The "uprising" of thepeople of Basra that never was? The thousand and one other lies, that have gone with the wind? Where were thejournalists when all this happened?

Almost all the journalistic reports of this war are a crooked mirror. We see in it a manipulated, distortedand mendacious picture. Therefore, praise be to the few who, like Peter Arnett, are ready to sacrifice theircareer on the altar of truth.

The Bottom of the Barrel

I am ashamed of being a journalist. I am doubly ashamed of being an Israeli journalist.

In this war, all sections of the Israeli media have sunk to a new low. No criticism at all gets published.The opponents of the war have effectively been silenced. Even in the American media, some voices of dissentare being heard. In Israel, this is not possible. It would be worse than treason.

The only exception I know of is the TV reporter San Semama, who stole into Iraq, was caught by theAmericans, imprisoned in a jeep and starved for 48 hours. He saw what was really happening. Parts of hisreports were published here and there, and then the curtain of silence came down. All the rest - journalists,pundits, the bunch of ex-officers and so on - appear on our screens, hour after hour, and repeat like parrotsthe American propaganda-line, even when it is manifestly ridiculous.

Toy Soldiers

I am especially allergic to "military correspondents". They are indeed a unique human species,the ultimate he-men, the ultimate soldiers. They are also ridiculous frauds.

I saw them first in our 1948 war, when I was a combat soldier. When we were lying in the mud and crawlingamong the thorns, from time to time we saw such a "soldier", clean shaven, in a fresh uniform,wearing a helmet and radiating all the martial virtues. These were the military correspondents, attached tobrigade headquarters, associating with senior officers, far from the front line.

(I really shouldn't complain. When I published my combat-diary after the war it became a run-awaybestseller overnight - simply because not one of these toy soldiers was able to write an authentic book aboutthe war.)

The Theater of Operations

I read somewhere that the briefing room of General Tommy Franks was created by a professional designer fora quarter of a million dollars. The American army does invest a lot of money in designing this theater.

I assume that much bigger sums are paid to the professional designers who shape the public appearances ofPresident Bush. One should pay attention to the scenery - much more interesting than George W.'s words.

For some months now, Bush is almost always seen against a background of soldiers. The stage designer seesto it that the soldiers are all around the President, so that from any photo angle the admiring faces shinebehind him.

A few days ago, the designers achieved a special effect: behind the President there stood a white CoastGuard ship, with red-uniformed sailor tastefully dispersed on it in photogenic groups. Other sailors were infront and on either side of the President. No scene from opera could have been better arranged. I would nothave been surprised if the President had started to render an aria. But he only uttered his usual inanities.

The Great Patriotic War

When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin understood that the Russian people would not lay down theirlives for Marxism-Leninism. Overnight he changed his message. Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, FieldMarshal Suvorov and Prince Kutuzov were resurrected in order to win the masses for what was officially namedthe Great Patriotic War.

Saddam Hussein does it now. He calls upon his people to stand up and kill the invaders - not in the name ofthe Ba'ath party (whose founders were Christians) but in the name of Allah and the Muslim homeland.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist. His essays are included in TheOther Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.