It should have surprised no one when Tariq Aziz, at a press
conference last Friday in Rome, refused to answer a question from
an Israeli reporter. The big news would have been if he
had answered the question. Recognizing, even indirectly,
the existence of the Jewish state would have meant kicking a major
ideological prop out from under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Where surprise and disappointment are in order is at what
happened next. Or rather, what didn’t happen. But before that, a
bit of background.
Aziz was in Rome for a meeting, and more to the point a photo
opportunity, with the Pope, who as everyone knows opposes waging
war on Iraq — a position that swings a vast segment of Western
public opinion Saddam’s way. (I know a number of well-intentioned,
thoughtful Italians, by no means anti-American, who have taken up
the rainbow standard of peace on the Pontiff’s say-so.)
So when somebody suggested that Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, a
Chaldean Catholic and thus a member of John Paul’s flock, visit the
Pope and make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi
(“Where there is hatred, let me sow love,”), Aziz and his
boss grabbed the chance for a propaganda coup.
The “somebody” who came up with the idea was Father Jean-Marie
Benjamin, a French Roman Catholic priest and long-time
campaigner against the United Nations sanctions on Iraq. Father
Benjamin is an author (Objective Iraq: In Washington’s
Sights) and a singer-songwriter (click here to watch the
video of “Mr. President,” addressed to George W. Bush). He also
runs the Beato
Angelico Foundation, which, in his words, “promotes
international communication based on the cultural patrimony of the
monotheistic religions.”
Father Benjamin accompanied Aziz on his visits to the Vatican
and Assisi, and introduced him Friday evening at the press
conference, where he noted that Iraq is a country where Christians
and Muslims enjoy “optimal relations” — relations now endangered
by threats of war. Eyes blazing with anger, practically spitting
out his words, he dismissed accusations of Saddam’s terrorist links
by noting that “Osama bin Laden would not come to pray at the tomb
of Saint Francis of Assisi.” (Which is pretty hard to dispute.
Think how that would play with the al Qaeda ranks.)
Sitting in the audience a few feet away from him, I found Father
Benjamin almost as scary as Aziz’s bodyguards (even the one about
seven feet tall, who looked like a swarthier version of Saddam
himself). The Deputy Prime Minister, speaking almost-flawless
English in a Kissingerian accent, was much smoother and
self-possessed than the clergyman. His disarming smallness and
mild, grandfatherly appearance also worked to his advantage. I
could see how someone determined to believe him would find it
possible to do so, at least while in the same room.
If Aziz was surprised when the Rome correspondent of the Tel
Aviv daily Maariv stood up to ask him a question (about
whether Iraq would answer a U.S. attack with attacks on Israel and
America’s Arab allies), he didn’t seem flustered. He let the
reporter finish, then declared: “When I came to this press
conference it was not in my agenda to answer questions from the
Israeli media. Sorry.”
That might have been a moment of truth, an unmistakable betrayal
of the “peace mission” pretense of Aziz’s visit to Italy. What sort
of peacemaker refuses even to speak to his enemies?
Aziz’s refusal drew hisses and boos. As the moderator asked the
Iraqi to reconsider, some of us headed for the doors. But once
outside, we found that only a dozen reporters had left. Among us
were a couple of Dutchmen, two Italians, a French woman, a
Bulgarian, a Canadian, a Colombian and several Germans. The Germans
were especially upset, and immediately announced that they would be
quitting the Foreign Press Association, the organization hosting
the event.
“We look to the foreign press to set an example,” the
correspondent for a distinguished Italian daily told me, “but this
time you failed.”
Walking out was easy for me; no editor was going to fire me for
missing the conference, whereas it might have cost others their
jobs. But most of them probably didn’t even consider it: leaving
the scene of a news story is exactly the opposite of what
journalists train themselves to do. Think of the photographers who
keep shooting, and the reporters who keep scribbling or taping, in
the thick of battle or natural disaster.
Reporters are also supposed to be neutral, and not take sides in
political or international disputes, such as that between Israel
and Iraq. Yet surely one issue on which journalists must not be
neutral is the autonomy of the press. Journalists should report the
words and actions of politicians while subjecting them to critical
scrutiny. We should not be those politicians’ props or mouthpieces.
In this case, Aziz was permitted to make a political point by
excluding a member of the press from an event held on the press’s
own turf.
So this is about journalistic standards, not Israel. And yet it
is about Israel too. “What would have happened if Sharon had
refused to respond to an Arab journalist?” asked the snubbed
reporter, Menachem Gantz. Answer: the same thing that would happen
if President Bush refused to answer a reporter from the New
York Times or Le Monde. If not a boycott, then a
series of outraged editorials in every paper in the world.
The reason that didn’t happen this time is that most journalists
take Arab hatred of Israel for granted, which is in practice
awfully like condoning it. And journalists aren’t the only
ones.
“Certainly to you and to me and to everyone in the West it seems
quite shocking,” says Father Benjamin of Aziz’s refusal to answer
Gantz, “but seen from the point of view of people in these
countries — it’s against the law there even to pronounce the name
of Israel. … Maybe if there were a different policy toward
the Palestinians and toward Iraq, then there would be less
aggressivity on their part.”
Still, the priest (a lot more affable on the phone than he was
on the dais) admits that it would have been better if the Iraqi
official, visiting Italy on a mission of peace, had taken the
chance to make a gesture toward “openness and dialogue” at the
press conference.
“At one moment I wanted to intervene,” Father Benjamin says,
“but I thought that as a priest I couldn’t insert myself in a
political matter between two countries.” God forbid.
