As Greer Fay Cashman has already reported, the first Jewish Media Summit has convened in Jerusalem and will run for three days.
I know I have attended in the past several conferences of representatives of the Jewish press from around the world here in Israel (in 1977, it was called the World Conference of Jewish Journalists) so the “first” was a bit of hubris but be that as it way, the idea is excellent.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found out that, after a show of hands, English was the preferred language,
I was surprised there was no simultaneous translation available as there was a large contingent from the former Soviet Union’s empire as well as France and Latin America.
Be that as it was, President Shimon Peres did provide some linguistic foible when he described the brain not as an organism but an orgasm.
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I thought of asking Peres if he regretted supplying former terrorists (who continued and continue to be terrorists) with rifles as part of a peace process (in Ireland it was the other way around, but what do goyim know) but someone else asked whether he had any regrets, Peres said:
“I never regret. Why should I waste time regretting? There’s always the Opposition. They’ll do the job,”
And here I thought he was above politics. Then I thought perhaps I should ask whether he precedent “diplomatic working sessions” as President was proper. The answer to my unasked query I found in his description of Mahmoud Abbas as ‘the best partner Israel ever had” and given our partners that was so laudable a title. His three Jewish lessons were a) the 10 commandments; b) learn; and c) seek peace. No one had the cutzpah to ask him about the New Middle East vision he had.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was excellent in his presentation but before him, the head of the JNF spoke and I found out that that organization is also in the forefront of Israel’s public diplomacy battles and not only because trees supply paper.
I saw friends
and also two representatives of the Tatzpit news agency and the news editor of IsraelNationalNews and it is about time the right-of-center press makes its presence felt. Perhaps next time, in two years as Nitzan Chen announced, some will even moderate panels.
(To Be Continued)
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