WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg:  WHAT OBAMA SHOULD DO IN ISRAEL

I have a suggestion for President Obama when he visits Israel March 20, including a brief stop in the West Bank. The West Bank of the Jordan River, that is, occupied by Israel after its capture from Jordan during the six-day war in 1967.

While in the West Bank, President Obama should request a map. His hosts may even give him one. If so, he’ll be better informed than I was when an Israeli guide drove me extensively around the West Bank during my visit there in 1971.

As we drove, I was curious about whether we were in pre-war Israel or in newly captured territory. The only maps I could locate showed all of the West Bank to be part of Israel. Even my well-informed guide could not, or would not, tell me where Israel stopped and previous Arab-owned territory began.

I left Israel believing that the West Bank, with millions of Arabs, would be a liability for Israel, which would be better off trading the land for peace. When I mentioned that to Israelis, a fair number seemed to agree. Since then, opinion has hardened, and the usual response when I suggest that Israel leave the West Bank is, “Since when do countries give back land they capture in war?” The correct answer: Since at least the end of World War II, when the Allies quickly got out of occupied Germany and the U.S. left Japan and the Philippines and much of the rest of what it captured during the war in the Pacific.

The Land of Israel is invested with so much emotion and history it’s almost pointless to talk about precedents elsewhere. Except it is not pointless to talk about revising Israel’s map of the West Bank. That is a concrete reality that can be discussed and bargained over. While in the region, Obama should break through the stalemate, pore over both Israeli maps of the area and Palestinan Authority maps and initiate discussion about what it would take to develop a common map.

That would turn a ceremonial visit into an historic achievement.

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