European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday october 21,1990 Colum Santhony . Support of israeli policy has its limits the israeli government s behaviour toward the United states Over the last two weeks appears to be based on a delusion. That is the belief that Israel can deceive America provoke it injure its interests a and still get uncritical american support for whatever Israel wants. Only such a belief can explain the Shamir governments decision to break a solemn undertaking just Given to Washington that it would not build new housing for soviet emigrants on land won in the 1967 War. Only such a belief can explain its contemptuous rejection of . Concern about the killing of 21 palestinians in Jerusalem. When the police shot the palestinians israeli spokesmen blamed the victims. The police had fired Only to save their own lives from palestinian rioters the spokesmen said and to save jewish worshippers from stones thrown by palestinians. Israelis police minister Ronnie Milo said a the rioters were sent into action by outside instructions with the aim of diverting world Public opinion from the american jewish organizations took the same line and some . Commentators charged explicitly that the incident had been staged by Saddam Hussein. Every one of those claims has now been rejected by competent unofficial investigations. A leading israeli human rights group by to Selim and a palestinian group Al Haq inquired and reached conclusions that substantially overlapped As did foreign correspondents on the scene. All agreed that the deadly police fire came Long after worshippers at the Wall below had left and when the police themselves were in no danger. It was 15 minutes after an initial clash when the police stormed onto the Plaza outside the two great mosques and sprayed a palestinian crowd with gunfire. A the shooting took place in bursts of Una Mcd automatic weapon fire from the hip a the by to Selim report said a spraying a Large if there was mortal danger to the police it added a this was a Brief stage at the beginning of the riot a Long before the police attacked. View of be Meed mme Famou. V6n6eot07ur Kew Twe saw chs Quot an american tourist Darrin Glass Man made a videotape that had time Stamps on it and showed the time Gap before the police in no danger attacked. Joel Brinkley of the new York times reported physical evidence that the police chased palestinians for hundreds of Yards shooting and killing. As for the assertion that the palestinians or Saddam planned a riot the by tse Lem report said a we do not know of any preparations for violent rather the unofficial investigations concluded that the palestinians had gone there to protest a planned March that Day by a jewish extremist group that wants to tear the mosques Down and build a new version of Solomon a Temple. The group had much publicity for its planned events and the palestinian Community was highly agitated. The israeli supreme court had barred a plan to Lay a Cornerstone for the proposed Temple but the Temple group was told that it could March around the mosques. That morning the police vetoed the March too but the palestinian crowd May not All have heard or believed that news. Exactly How and Why the Stone throwing began remains unclear. It was in any Case reprehensible. But there could still be no justification for a threatened police to Spray automatic weapons fire at a crowd a in violation of their own rules. The official israeli inquiry into the shootings is said to be nearly finished. If the report is candid it Coula undo some of the harm the government has done itself by its callous dismissal of concern about the deaths. The report could also be Given to the United nations to satisfy its frustrated inquiry. There remains the question of housing for soviet jews. Washington agreed this month to guarantee $400 million in housing Loans in return for a Promise that the building would be in a areas which were subject to israelis administration prior to june 7,1967.�?� yet Israel is moving to Settle soviet jews in new subsidized housing to be built in East Jerusalem taken in the 1967 War israeli officials apparently believe that such provocations a the breaking of a signed undertaking a can be readily smoothed Over. That View mistakes the feelings of George Bush and of most americans. It is in americans moral and political interest to sustain the state of Israel. It is not in americans interest to help Israel inflict moral and political wounds on itself. C new York times Howard Kleinberg Media has reason to ask if it can be trusted shortly after the . Invasion of Grenada in 1983, then Secretary of state George Shultz told an enraged Media that journalists had been excluded from witnessing the attack a which would have required Advance knowledge of it a because they no longer could be trusted. Backed by then president Reagan Shultz argued that reporters today Are not like they were during world War ii. They were a on our Side then he said but a these Days m the adversary journalism tradition that a been developed it seems As though the reporters Are always against Quot rightly or wrongly what was behind Shultzz a argument was a fear that Advance knowledge by the Media might Lead to a leak that would expose the invasion plan thus endangering it and the lives of Many american troops. The journalistic Community has smarted Over the charge Ever since. Almost seven years later with several Hundred thousand troops poised in saudi Arabia opposite the iraqis George in Ultz a fears have resurfaced but not As a result of anything an american journalist wrote. The French news Magazine la express a widely circulated and Well regarded mainstream publication exposed on oct. 12 what it said was the Battle plan to defeat Iraq and liberate Kuwait. Citing what it said was the outline of a plan obtained from an unidentified adviser to defense Secretary Dick Cheney the Magazine proceeded to give away the approximate time of an invasion the locations from which air strikes would come the types of warplanes involved and their flight paths the types and numbers of tanks and their deployment the movement and numbers of troops a including United states British French and those from anti iraqi Arab states a and the four phases of the Battle plan. For just a couple of francs at a Paris newsstand Saddam Hussein had it All. Where does journalism end and treason begin a first reaction would be that this was a Plant that the Magazine was being used by the americans a a or the French a to confuse or panic Saddam. That Well May be so although Cheney already has had his hands full with Pentagon types with Loose lips. Evidence is in the dismissal of air Force chief of staff Gen. Michael Dugan for telling reporters in mid september of a list of specific Aerial targets in Iraq. Whether the word came to la express in the form of a ruse or As a leak the Magazine nevertheless believed it had a real plan or it would not have printed the information. I cannot imagine what la express hoped to gain from the exposure other than the scrubbing of an invasion or the tipping off of Saddam so that he might be better equipped to meet it. Or worse so that Saddam might launch preemptive strikes. International wire services carried versions of the la express Story and it ran in Many american newspapers. The following Day the Pentagon naturally denied the Story but added that there Wasny to any invasion plan. That there is no invasion plan at All would be Surpris ing and disturbing. That there is no invasion Joan agreed to by All the parties of operation desert shield might be More like it. La express has a history of staying on top of major International stories. In september it reported that French built radars in saudi Arabia were Able to detect the supposedly undetectable . F117-a stealth fighters. Earlier this month la express reported that new evidence indicates the 1988 bombing of pan am 103 Over Lockerbie. Scotland was totally a libyan operation not an Iran Syria palestinian conceived and supported project As is widely believed and which has been claimed by the Central intelligence Agency. One must assume therefore that la express has some pretty Good sources. And one might suspect that indeed la express has a mole in Dick Cheney a War room. But once Given the plan of Battle and having assumed it was real Why did la express print it what was to be gained the Magazine noted that 4,000 French troops would be involved. If la express editors care not for the lives of the american British and Arab troops what about their countrymen in 1983, journalists challenged the Reagan administration to cite a single instance in which the press had endangered the lives of troops by giving away invasion information. It might not have been possible to produce that instance then. But thanks to our French cousins it is now. C Cox news service
