BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

121
121
A leading Army Radio journalist has confessed that the
media and political systems have turned a blind eye in
allowing/encouraging the disengagement at the price of
democracy.
"I have failed. We have failed," wrote Kaveh Shafran, political
affairs correspondent for Israel Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) in
a recent article for the Israeli Institute for Democracy. "As a
diplomatic correspondent, I was among those who in the
past year were supposed to tell the public exactly what is the
disengagement plan, why it was created, how it will be
implemented, and to discuss its various aspects, as well as
how the Prime Minister functions."
He explained that one of the reasons for the failure is the
feeling of closeness of the media with the Prime Minister
when they fly together. The media and senior government
officials have "become a part of the [Sharon] family who fly
together [on press trips] and do not truthfully openly protest
for fear of being demoted," Shafran wrote.
The media kept silent, he added, when Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon "lied" by saying he would accept the results of a
Likud referendum on disengagement. "The media's
conspiracy of silence protected Sharon when he fired cabinet
ministers who did not support disengagement," he wrote,
noting that the media also ignored the High Court's criticism
of the dismissals.
"We denounced [former Minister] Benny Elon (National
Union) for not immediately making himself available to
receive the letter of dismissal, but we ignored the criticism of
the High Court" on the firings, Shafran wrote.
"We stayed silent when Sharon formed government [policies]
with an Arab majority and when he distributed bribes to the
hareidim and Shinui. We said nothing when he pressured,
threatened and bribed MK’s with jobs so that they would