U.S. anchor discusses his Judaism

By JENNA ROSMAN
CJN Intern


TORONTO - When former CNN anchor Aaron Brown was 13 years old, his rabbi in Minneapolis, Minn., told him that a reporter’s job is “to give voice to the voiceless.”

“Think of our history and all of those centuries when no one heard us,” said the rabbi, whom Brown counts as a significant figure in his life. “Think of how different Jewish history would be if in all the times we had been stifled, someone heard us.”

It’s a principle the veteran U.S. journalist said has guided him throughout his career – and particularly as he’s covered the Middle East, even if it’s sometimes alienated him from his fellow Jews.

Both Palestinians and Israelis are entitled to a voice, he told the annual UJA Federation donor dinner, May 4 at the Four Seasons Hotel.

“I’ve done that knowing that neither side would embrace me, and that the rejection of one side, particularly, would be especially painful,” he said in a 30-minute speech to 450 guests. “In the end, we all want the love of our families, and I’m no exception. I want to be embraced by my people, because I’m one of them.”

Brown – who was once CNN’s lead anchor and host of Newsnight with Aaron Brown, but was replaced last year by Anderson Cooper – said he has often felt pressured by other Jews to stifle what could be seen as criticism of Israel.
“There is no tougher issue to report on than the Middle East,” he said.

Brown recalled doing a story about checkpoints in Israel that examined both the Israeli and the Palestinian positions.
Soon afterward, he received two e-mails almost simultaneously. The first was from “someone of Arab descent,” who wrote, “You are a Zionist pig. Just another tool of the Israelis.”

The second came from a Jewish doctor, in Denver, Colo. “‘You are,’ he said to me, ‘not better than a concentration camp kapo, selling out his people for money.’”

Brown wrote back: “‘At worst, what we have here is an editorial disagreement about the decision I made. That’s the worst thing that we have here, and your words were offensive beyond the pale.’ And to his credit, he wrote back and apologized, and we remain in touch today.”

Brown also spoke of growing up in Hopkins, Minn., near Minneapolis, as one of only a few Jews. “We weren’t particularly theologically Jewish, but we understood what it meant.”

His maternal grandparents came to the United States from Ukraine and settled in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
He said he’s made it a tradition to take his 17-year-old daughter each year to Ellis Island in New York City, where they sit in the Great Hall and talk about how his grandparents “came here, how they lived, how they made their lives, what it must’ve been like, the courage that they had, the fierceness it must have taken.”

He added, “Someday, I hope, she will take her children there and tell the story of her great-grandparents that she never knew.”

Referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Brown said that “the Israeli side is easier to understand,” since Israelis “see their future not in a pipe dream of a greater Israel, but in a two-state solution that will ultimately provide the security that they need and that they deserve.”

He said Hamas’ victory in recent Palestinian elections was not about most Palestinians favouring Israel’s obliteration, but rather about a desire for change in the Palestinian Authority, which was “rife with corruption, slow to deliver social services, health care, education… and had no security.”

Brown said the Palestinians voted for Hamas because of their situation, which they felt could not be worse.
“Of course, Hamas could be worse. And they turned out to be worse,” he said.

“How can it be that young Arabs find more hope in a suicide belt than in democracy?” he asked. “Hamas understands really well what it means not to be in power. Now all of a sudden, they own a store – they have keys to the store. They don’t know how to run foreign policy and they don’t know how to run a country either. They do know how to run social services, however, and they certainly know how to run suicide bombers.”

Speaking of the anti-Americanism, that is rampant in the Middle East, Brown said the Arab world hates the West because of its foreign policy, but not because of its freedom.

He noted that the United States has supported corrupt governments that have denied citizens basic rights.
“And that has to change,” he said.

Brown added that Iran has become further radicalized since 9/11, and “whacking Iran will make attacking Iraq seem like child’s play.”

In an interview after his speech, Brown said both Palestinians and Israelis have a common desire for peace, but “no one is quite willing to start the process.”

He added: “The end is quite clear. The Palestinians will get most of the West Bank and it will be less contiguous than it probably ought to be, certainly than they want. East Jerusalem needs to be dealt with. But by and large, I think both sides know what the final map will look like.

“It’s totally backwards to how every negotiation works. In every negotiation, starting is easy and ending is hard. This one, you know the end and you can’t start it.”

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