Dialogue in A Demilitarized Zone

By Richard Zoglin

For the Middle East, it was a rare moment of restrained confrontation. There, on the stage of the Jerusalem Theater, sat Palestinian Professor Saeb Erakat and two colleagues rationally -- if grimly -- debating Arab-Israeli hatreds with four Israeli politicians. In fact, Erakat indicated that he was speaking his mind more freely than he normally felt he could in Israel. Why? "I think that here," he said, "I'm in ABC territory."

So he was. In Jerusalem last week ABC created a sort of demilitarized zone as Ted Koppel's late-night news program, Nightline, broadcast five nights of on-the-scene shows. The topics were the recent violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as other issues fueling the tragic conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. American TV once again was playing diplomat as well as journalist. And if the results were unlikely to be as dramatic as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's 1977 trip to Jerusalem (spurred by a few well-timed questions from CBS Anchorman Walter Cronkite), the venture brought U.S. audiences one of their most comprehensive and compelling looks yet at the strife in Israel. Israeli TV, on the other hand, did not carry the shows.

The Nightline formats ranged from a dry but informative 75-minute survey of Israel's history (presented in two versions: Jewish and Palestinian) to live interviews with such figures as Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and, by satellite from Tunis, Palestine Liberation Organization Spokesman Bassam Abu Sharif. The centerpiece was Tuesday night's three-hour-plus "town meeting." Four members of the Israeli Knesset and three Palestinian representatives faced off against one another, symbolically divided by a wooden wall. In the audience were 600 Israelis and 150 Palestinians, who hooted and applauded partisan comments and occasionally asked pointed questions.

When Eliahu Ben-Elissar, a member of the conservative Likud Party, charged that Palestinians in the occupied territories are "sending out children and women to the streets to cope with Israeli soldiers," cries of outrage erupted in the audience. When he claimed further that the Jewish concern for women and children is something that "is not known in, maybe, your circles," the comment was hotly denounced by the Palestinians as an "outright racist statement." In the midst of this tinderbox, Koppel handled himself with poise / and scrupulous fairness, trying his best (not always successfully) to cut short rambling speeches and keeping emotions under control by the sheer force of his calming intellect.

Bringing the unique series of shows to fruition was a prodigious task. "Our naivete helped," says Nightline Senior Producer Betsy West. "Old hands might have said, 'Don't even try.' " Plans were begun last fall, but the assassination three weeks ago of P.L.O. Leader Khalil al-Wazir increased tensions and made it more difficult to line up guests. Among those who refused to appear: P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat and Jordan's King Hussein.

The town meeting was especially delicate to organize. Palestinian audience members were bused to the theater for the 6:30 a.m. telecast only after special approval came from Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A number of potential Palestinian panelists refused to participate. Speaking for the Palestinians, they claimed, is a role that belongs only to the P.L.O. The three representatives who did appear insisted that the wall be set up and avoided even looking at the Israelis for most of the show.

To guard against disruptions, security was tight; an evacuation plan had been prepared in which the show, if necessary, would have continued in a room behind the stage without an audience. But the onlookers remained relatively calm. That alone was an accomplishment. "Nothing was said that was new," noted Koppel. "But the very fact that ((Israelis and Palestinians)) sat down, even though there was a wooden wall between them, was a step in the right direction." And, for the sovereign territory of ABC, a television coup.

With reporting by Robert Slater/Jerusalem ;