Yediot and the FPZ
Yediot
Aharonot published a long
commentary on Jan. 8 about Free Processing Zones, which was really a classified
ad for the paper: If you are functionally illiterate and have no interest in
current events as they actually are, there may be a job for you at Yediot.
Underneath a
news article reporting that Ariel Sharon has pledged to revive the FPZ project
for Likit in the Negev – which article reported correctly that one of the
reasons the Finance Ministry gave for opposing the FPZ was that its financial
institutions would be used as a money laundering site; and though the reporter
did not bother pointing out the absurdity of the government of a country that
until a few weeks ago was on the United States’ list of country’s whose
regular banks (which in Israel are state owned, by the way) allow money
laundering, worrying about an FPZ that would be under Bank of Israel supervision
getting into the laundry business, but at least the report of this absurd
opposition was correct – underneath this report was a commentary by Gidon
Eshet.
Eshet charged
among other things that Israel already has a free trade zone in Eilat and does
not need more such “nonsense” further north; that this new FPZ wants state
subsidies; that it was supposed to be exempt from laws protecting the
environment; and that it wanted land to build the zone on, practically free.
All of which
Eshet would know is false, had he bothered to read the FPZ law as passed by the
Knesset or the FPZ concession or had he talked to any of the potential
investors. The concessionaire was going to pay for the land; absolutely no state
money would be accepted in the form of subsidies or otherwise; the environment
protection laws in the Zone were to be stricter than those in effect in Israel
proper; and there is absolutely no similarity between a free trade zone as
operating in Eilat or elsewhere and a free processing zone as planned for the
Negev.
One can
understand Eshet’s desire to publish his imaginary findings, and Yediot’s
desire to publish them, if we recall that the Economics editor of the paper was
quoted a couple of years back saying he and his fellow journalists would
“chase” or “persecute” the FPZ proposal more ferociously than they had
ever done to anything previously.
So, if you are
unable to read the existing literature or do not have the reading comprehension
skills of an eighth grader, if you have no interest in investigating what the
real facts are, but you seek a career as a journalist, perhaps this is the time
to call Yediot.
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