Anti Israel Bias in the Junior Scholastic

    Last October my children came home from school with the October 18-25 issue of Junior Scholastic in which two small paragraphs about Israel and the PLO were packed solid with distortions and misinformation slanted against Israel and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Junior Scholastic reaches thousands of students in the Philadelphia area.

    Under the banner "Who's Who Among Government Leaders" (page 35) it says that former Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres were "strong supporters of peace" but Prime Minister Netanyahu is "not as enthusiastic about peace... Many Israelis like his hard- line stance... [which] will destroy any chances for peace in the region."

    The editors of the Junior Scholastic, a venerable, highly respected children's bi-weekly news magazines with national distribution, have created a dangerously false impression of the Israeli people's desire for peace and Netanyahu's position on the peace process. If Junior Scholastic intended to be fair, it should have said that every Israeli longs for peace but not all Israelis agree on how peace can be achieved. Prior to his election and immediately after the election, Netanyahu reiterated that he wants peace and security. He promised to abide by the Oslo accords and was doing so by virtue of the negotiations on redeployment from Hebron which was taking place at the time of the issue's publication. Instead of educating its readership as to why Netanyahu's approach to negotiations is different than his predecessors, it purposely chose to give American's impressionable youth a false image of Israel and the new prime minister.

    The popular children's magazine made no reference to the Palestinian Authority's numerous violations of the Oslo accords which has been recognized by our own State Department, and by Peace Watch, a nonpartisan group monitoring Israeli-Palestinian compliance. It made no mention of Yasir Arafat failing in its foremost obligation - to take all necessary measures to prevent terror attacks against Israel and Israeli targets. It made no mention of Arafat's speeches urging "jihad" (Islamic holy war) against Israel. It made no mention that the United States recognizes that Arafat has not fulfilled his promise to change the PLO charter that calls for Israel's destruction.

   A more fitting statement to give young readers would have been "despite the Palestinian Authority's numerous violations of its agreement with Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to seek peace through negotiations with the PLO." The fact that Junior Scholastic only points to Netanyahu as the one responsible for destroying any chance for peace reveals a blatant bias against Israel. The magazine continues to discredit Netanyahu in its discussion of the PLO. It declares that Netanyahu's refusal to negotiate with the PLO over Jerusalem "could create hostilities." The periodical makes no comment on the PLO's readiness to resort to violence as a negotiating tactic. The magazine wants its readers to blame Netanyahu if the PLO resorts to violence, and that Palestinian violence is justified if Israel refuses to negotiate on its capital. The magazine does not say that prime ministers Rabin and Peres were equally as emphatic about Jerusalem remaining undivided, under Israeli sovereignty and not be the capital of any other entity. This educational newsmagazine for children makes several crucial misrepresentations, omissions and factual errors in its discussion about the PLO. It states that the "PLO and Israel had been at war ever since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967." In fact, the PLO was founded in 1964, before Israel controlled "the West Bank" or East Jerusalem. The PLO convenant, calling for Israel destruction through violence was also written in 1964. Therefore, the PLO has been "at war" since 1964, not 1967, and its thirst to destroy Israel has little to do with Israel's control of the West Bank and Gaza strip and everything to do with Israel's very existence. It is also patently false that "the Palestinian council ...governs the new state." (italics mine).

   The Junior Scholastic wants American children to believe that a new Palestinian state exists. At best this reveals a lack of understanding of the Israeli- Palestinian accords - inexcusable in an educational magazine, or at worst, Arab propaganda, which must be eradicated from the American school system. The Palestinian Legislative Council of 88 members cannot influence, cannot criticize and has not legislated a single matter of substance. When the subject of a constitution was brought up Arafat denounced the members as "sons of whores" and left the chamber. On page 38 there is an excellent glossary of "Terms To Know" to understand the "Who's Who Among Government Leaders." The term "Presidential Dictatorship" is defined as "A government in which the president exercises total power, as in Peru." Peru is not included among the "Who's Who Among Government Leaders" but the PLO is. Unfortunately - perhaps purposely - the Junior Scholastic did not take the opportunity to properly apply its own definition to Yasir Arafat. Instead, it chose to malign the prime minister of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and staunch ally of the United States. In its brief discussion of Israel the Junior Scholastic characterizes the man who murdered Yitzhak Rabin as "Jewish terrorist. " But in its discussion of the PLO there is no mention of the PLO's long history of terrorism.

   Barry Morrison, Regional Director of the Eastern Pennsylvania /Delaware Region of the Anti-Defamation League agreed that in this issue of the Junior Scholastic "sections contain several errors of fact as well as examples of bias against Israel." Neither he nor myself have received any response from Junior Scholastic to our numerous attempts to contact the magazine regarding this issue. Mr. Morrison informed me that this was not the first time ADL heard about the Junior Scholastic's anti-Israel bias. ADL had previously contacted the Junior Scholastic regarding its September 1996 Teacher's Edition, pointing out that "several critical thinking questions and activities are biased against Israel and do a great disservice to students seeking a balanced perspective on complex Arab- Israel issues." ADL recommended that Junior Scholastic issue a corrected Teacher's Edition. Steven C. Manning, Editor of Scholastic Update replied, "I do not believe that issuing of a corrected Teacher's Edition is warranted." It looks like we must correct these errors ourselves. As Rabbi Mordechai Gewirtz of Torah Academy did after he read the offending passage. He had the teachers point out the inaccuracies to the class and had them do a lesson on bias in the media. We must all be vigilant about combating the informational warfare against Israel lest a generation be brought up believing the lies they read in influential children's magazines like the Junior Scholastic.