Trading potshots: Zelekha and journalist Nahum Barnea - Haaretz

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Tue., September 04, 2007 Elul 21, 5767

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Trading potshots: Zelekha and journalist Nahum Barnea

By Asaf Carmel

Journalist Nahum Barnea wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth last Friday that "[Accountant General] Yaron Zelekha is a clerk whose power went to his head... He is a dangerous man who lacks restraint, regardless of what he says to [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert."

"The depths to which Barnea has sunk," responded Zelekha two days later in Yisrael Hayom "in not thinking twice about dragging bereavement into the systematic smear campaign of lies he champions in the service of his masters is unprecedented."

Zelekha continued: "Last Friday he crossed ethical red lines. Now he his treading in territory that no decent journalist has walked since the days of Pravda."

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The conflict between Zelekha and Barnea, an Israel Prize laureate in journalism, has been low-key for months, but apparently hit a crescendo last weekend. Barnea reported that the accountant general denied the request from the parents of Major Nissan Shalev, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War, to give them their son's discharge grant, which he never received because he joined the Israel Police immediately after completing his army service.

The story was given front-page coverage by Yedioth, under the headline, "Yaron Zelekha and his war with the parents of the fallen pilot." The subhead stated: "An example of the behavior of the man who refuses to vacate his seat."

For some time now Zelekha has been convinced that Barnea was persecuting him because he criticized Olmert concerning the tender for the sale of Bank Leumi. From Zelekha's perspective, Barnea is a friend of Olmert's and has therefore decided to settle accounts with Zelekha via the newspaper. Zelekha also contends that Barnea, from his lofty position in journalism, feels he is exempt from the need to approach Zelekha for a response. This, according to Zelekha, is what happened last weekend, and Zelekha, who was appointed by former finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu, chose to respond to Barnea's story via Netanyahu and his supporters' preferred paper, Yisrael Hayom. Ever since it was launched, about a month ago, Yisrael Hayom has been providing overtly favorable coverage to the accountant general's various struggles.

In a long article published on Sunday, Zelekha said he actually supported the request from the bereaved parents for their son's grant, but the Finance Ministry's legal department vetoed the idea. Zelekha then sought a solution that would make it possible to transfer the funds to the family.

Zelekha, however, was not the only one angry at Barnea. Shalev's parents were very surprised to read in the newspaper about the year-long correspondence between the Finance Ministry and the accountant general. "To us," said Shalev's father, Amos, in an interview Sunday morning with Army Radio correspondent Razi Barkai, "the worst thing is that our son and this bereaved family is being used as a tool for mutual mudslinging... to get up in the morning and discover that the paper with the greatest circulation in this country has published our son's picture beside Zelekha's, with the caption, 'Bereaved parents versus the accountant general.' Can you understand that there is nothing worse than this? I phoned Barnea, who is also a bereaved parent, and told him, 'How could you do something like that without notifying the family, without asking?'

"'You have no right to tell me what I can or cannot write,' he answered me with anger and cynicism. 'I am not asking you and did not have to ask you.'"

Sources at Yedioth said yesterday that if it had been any other journalist, a little less revered, he would have been suspended, or at least sent on vacation for a few days, for not asking for Zelekha's reaction, or notifying Shalev's family. Just a few months ago Oron Meiri was sent on such a vacation, after he had not managed to obtain photographs of some people killed in a traffic accident.

Other writers at Yedioth are also angered by the prominence given to Barnea's stance against Zelekha and his allies, such as State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss. On Sunday, for example, columnist Mordechai Gilat was interviewed on the Reshet Bet radio station's "Hakol Diburim" (It's All Talk). He passionately defended Zelekha and sharply criticized the politicians who are trying, in his words, to oust the accountant general just because he is uncovering their corruption.

Meanwhile Barnea and Yedioth's editor, Shilo De-Beer, have found time to speak with Shalev's father and apologize. Barnea will also be publishing an apology in his upcoming column this Friday. When approached by Haaretz on Monday, he refused to comment.

"I spoke with the bereaved father," said De-Beer, "and I prefer to keep the content of that personal conversation between us. Yedioth Ahronoth is not pro-establishment or anti-Zelekha, but rather promotes newsworthy stories and opposes disinformation. Barnea is an excellent, in-depth, sensitive and meticulous journalist, and far be it from me to add anything."

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