About 30 years ago, after Arafat arrived in Judea and Samaria as part of the Oslo Accords, he moved from city to city in a victory campaign, and at public conferences called for jihad, a holy war, against Israel.
I recorded many of his speeches, translated them into Hebrew and tried to bring them to the attention of the public, most of whom followed the vision of peace in the Oslo Accords.
One of the people I contacted was Nahum Barnea, who refused to give publicity to this original, original and news material.
When I begged him: "But this is the truth," he replied: "There is no truth. Every knowledge must be examined according to the question of who it serves, and you (Carmon) serve the enemies of peace."
This unfortunate episode did not stop him from praising the "Mary" research institute, which I founded a few years later, and in an interview with Globes on August 9, 2006, he said: "Carmon lives on donations from well-meaning Jews, and he does a blessed job. It is a beautiful technique. "Reliable. They don't invent anything. It's a pity he's right sometimes."
But in March 2015, a few days after Benny Begin claimed that Barnea had lied in one of his articles, and also mentioned the reason for his refusal to publish Arafat's jihad tapes, Barnea began attacking the Mamri Institute, and me personally.
He did the same this week, after Gadi Taub presented him in the Haaretz newspaper as an example of a politically biased press, and repeated my story about Barnea's refusal to publish the jihad speeches and his reasons.
In his distress, Barnea did not notice that in his last article two days ago, and also in his article of March 23, 2015, he confirms most of my reports.
"Yes, I refused Carmon," he writes.
This is no small thing.
One of Israel's top journalists admits that he received information that could have shaken Israel, an important scope that a man has encountered perhaps once in his career - and that he refused to publish the things.
And he also had an explanation, not entirely convincing: reports of Arafat's crimes have more serious sources.
Is there a more serious news source than a tape of Arafat's own words in a speech to his people?
In his article this week, he claimed (contrary to his praise in 2006) that at the time I asked him to report on Arafat tapes, because that's how I get donors to the Mary Institute.
Alas, Barnea's memory is once again betraying him: when I begged him to publish Arafat's jihad speeches - there was no Mamri Institute at all.
All my occupation, he claims, is "words, words, words," a somewhat strange accusation of the Israel Prize winner for the press, that is, for words.
Barnea adds that after his attack on me in 2015, "I fell silent." What to do, here too it is inaccurate. I responded immediately in an interview with Dror Eder in "Israel Today" on March 24, 2015, in which I reiterated Barnea's refusal to publish Arafat's jihadist speeches that I offered him. I also told him that in an angry phone call with me Barnea threatened that if I hung up as I had warned him - I would have to hear from his lawyers. "If necessary - I will stand by it," I replied.
His blunt style towards me forced me to hang up the call, but the promised call from the lawyer did not come. I repeated the story on the podcast "Gatekeeper," which Gadi Taub recorded with me in those days. The Israel Prize winner could check, and would find that I was not silenced.
In his latest article on my case, he claims that he suggested that I send Arafat's recordings to Ehud Yaari.
Yaffa did when he mentioned Yaari, who is a credible journalist, who also reports on things that do not serve his political views.
I'm sorry for Barnea, who is, admittedly, a talented journalist.
It is just a pity that in his behavior he mentions what is said that SY Agnon once said of a certain person: "He is very talented;
Also capable of bad deeds. "
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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