 |
 |
 |
|
|
Sharon with Uri Dan (center) looking on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By israelinsider staff December 25, 2006 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
Noted Israeli journalist Uri Dan passed away yesterday after a long battle with lung cancer, presumably caused by his longtime smoking addiction.
Dan was best known for his relationship with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was the subject of Dan's literary focus -- both in and out of the newsroom.
In addition to devoting numerous articles and books to the documentation of Sharon's life and career, Dan also served the general-politician as a spokesperson and unabashed supporter.
After having learned about the wizardry of the Harry Potter character in the famed books, Dan once told a journalist from the Jerusalem post that, "People don't understand the magical powers of Arik [Sharon] Potter."
The relationship between the two men highlights a feature of Israeli news reporting that is well recognized within the country's cultural landscape but often goes unnoticed by outside observers. It is something that amounts to a symbiotic relationship in which the leaders provide the content for the writers' literary oeuvres, and the writers provide the leaders with access to the much-coveted public ear.
Although this is a feature common to many political landscapes, in a country of equally small geographic and demographic proportions where there is a constant scouring for 'true leaders', the relationships tend to be longer and more entangled.
In the case of Dan and Sharon, the journalist was present to document the general's glory, including the heroic crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 war against Egypt. The relationship -- "a close acquaintance" in Dan's words -- which was partly professional and partly personal, continued for more than 50 years.
The decades worth of news articles which Mr. Dan wrote about Sharon, or subjects connected to Sharon, reveal little or no serious criticism of the soldier turned statesmen.
But it was not for lack of opportunity that Dan produced little critique of a man who is equally famous for his talents as an unforgiving field commander as for accusations of massacre, and for turning a policy of encouraging settlement (a policy he fathered) on its head.
Instead, Dan chose to write about Sharon in laudatory terms, once calling him "a Churchillian figure". More importantly, though, Dan helped to champion Sharon's political causes in the Israeli press, which is understood by insiders to be a deeply entrenched powerbase in Israel's political field.
Specifically, Dan's support for Sharon's decision to withdraw from Gaza did not go unheard, as the journalist spoke in clearly supportive terms about the move which he hoped would allow Sharon to determine Israel's final borders.
But after Sharon fell into a coma following a series of strokes, and the 'tactical' move of withdrawal from Gaza was extended to Judea and Samaria by Ehud Olmert, Sharon's successor, Dan launched into a journalistic attack, expressing his disbelief that a leader could take such a step.
While firmly supporting the rational behind the Sharon-led Gaza withdrawal, Dan said Olmert was planning to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, "only in order to curry favor with voters who have been misled to believe that another unilateral withdrawal will increase our security."
During the fallout of the Lebanon war, when accusations were flung at Israel's military chief, Dan Halutz (who was appointed by Sharon when the former Chief of Staff opposed the withdrawal), Dan picked up his pen and rose to the defense of the top general.
Writing specifically in response to the widespread media criticism directed at Halutz, who sold his stock portfolio hours before the war began, Dan intoned that "once again journalists, connected by an umbilical cord to worthless politicians, are helping them to cover their tracks and escape the punishment they deserve."
Although the Dan-Sharon umbilical connection was damaged by the illness of the leader, and finally severed by the death of the writer, it is unlikely that the connective structure that mixes politics and reporting in Israel will cease to serve its beneficiaries with the nutrients needed to get ahead in Israel's difficult political arena.
Sharon was widely called an "etrog" -- the citron at the center of the Sukkot festival ritual that is protected from damage -- because his "disengagement" policy was consistent with the views of Israel's left-leaning media, and they defended Sharon so that his controversial policy would be carried out.
Now, with Sharon himself a medical vegetable, journalists are beginning to ask the question as to why the brain-dead leader is being kept alive by machines with no chance for a return to human functioning. A recent report on Channel Two quantified that cost to the Israeli taxpayer and raised the uncomfortable point that the elder's vegetative state may just be a device to keep his wayward sons -- each facing various corruption allegations -- out of prison.
That the gloves which protected Sharon are beginning to come off, and the fact that Olmert is not enjoying etrog status may suggest that things are beginning to change.
But those who are critical of this network of connections, described in Israel as the 'branja' (the entrenched elite), still are doubtful the next generation of journalists and politicians will be able to take difficult and bold steps in order to develop the professionally-distanced and adversarial relationship familiar in the American context instead of one of sicophantic collaboration of writers underwriting failing leaders so as to curry favor and influence.
The final severing of the Dan-Sharon relationship, as endearing and enduring as their personal connection was, may yet be a sign of a healthier and more normative professional relationship between leaders and journalists. |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
