Haaretz Editor’s Bias

by Howard Wohl

Gary Rosenblatt’s report on Ha’aretz Editor David Landau’s inappropriate advice to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is sickening, though not surprising (“Ha’aretz Editor Urged Rice To ‘Rape’ Israel,” Dec. 28).
I met Landau while my wife Diane and I were in Moscow for the Limmud in the FSU conference in mid-October. Landau presented at one of the sessions, where he extolled Ha’aretz as liberal in its editorial content while providing the highest level of journalism in Israel. Yet, as he discussed his views it became clear to me that Ha’aretz’s journalistic standards are at least “informed” by its leftist leanings.
Haviv Rettig, a Jerusalem Post reporter covering the conference, wrote that Landau admitted at one of the sessions that Ha’aretz “wittingly soft-pedaled” on alleged

corruption by politicians such as Ariel Sharon or Ehud Olmert, because it was convinced they were advancing the peace process with the Palestinians.
I believe in freedom of the press but editorializing the news is another matter. While Israel remains under siege, Landau and other liberal zealots want the nation to be “pure,” while at the same time right-wing zealots thumb their nose at notions of fairness and even the letter of the law. In the past it was said that capitalists would sell communists the rope to hang themselves. Now it seems that Israelis will accomplish what no Arab army has: tearing down the Jewish state from within. It is no surprise that many American Jews have lost interest in supporting the State of Israel when they see Israelis bickering and kicking dirt in each other’s face. It may be hard to be a Jew, but do we need to make it even harder?

Mill Neck, L.I.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization