The Mike Wallace Interview
Abba Eban
4/12/58
As Israel celebrates its tenth anniversary, Abba Eban, Israel's ambassador to the United States, talks to Wallace about Arab nations, the Arab refugee problem, Egypt's President Nasser, Jews in America, and the charge that Israel threatens world peace with a policy of territorial expansion.
Thanks to the New Media Department at Universidad Francisco Marroquín: Transcription & Sync: Maria Lucia Aldana, Regina de De la Vega, Claudia Leiva, Jennifer Mills, Evelyn Orantes, Katty Schellenger; Index: Lucía Bahr, Christiaan Ketelaar, Daphne Ortiz; Text Revisers: Barbara de Koose, Michiel Glaudemans; GML/Tech Support: Pedro David España, Mario Pivaral; Content Analysis coordinator: Rebeca Zuñiga; Cataloguing: Nora Domínguez; Glifos: Rodrigo Arias, Niky Arroyave, Matthías Reichenbach.
Once you get by the cigarette commercial, which is a real blast from yesteryear, you will see in the interview, an antisemitic interviewer intent on repeating on national television, in the most watched show in the US, every charge against Israel that the most scurrilous people make, and the brilliant responses from the incomparable Abba Eban, Israel's Ambassador to the UN.
Eban's responses were deftly and will delicately stated. They succeeded in turning all the horrific charges Wallace made into Israel's favour, with dignity and irony, and in so doing showed Wallace up for the antisemite he was.
Wallace continued in his venomous ways and 40 years later broadcasted a one hour program on violence at the Temple Mount which CAMERA covered in Mike Wallace’s Middle East Problem.
In late 1990, Wallace reported on Arab riots on the Temple Mount, in which several thousand people stoned Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall before beleaguered Israeli police shot some rioters in regaining control. He based his report almost exclusively on Palestinian sources, choosing Palestine Liberation Organization mouthpiece Daoud Kuttab as main production consultant, ignored key Israeli sources, took then-Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek’s comments out of context, and spliced in a pre-riot tape of then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Benjamin Netanyahu rather than tape a post-riot interview. Essentially, Wallace’s report reversed the order of events, making it appear that the stone-throwing riot followed the police shooting rather than led to it.
The same mentality Wallace represented is now ensconced in the Whitehouse.
Ted Belman
Jerusalem
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