The Times they are a changing…

February 16, 2012 - 11:50 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Life, News, Technology 

Israel had an exciting addition to its English language press this week, with the launch of the new Times of Israel. Times of Israel

Founded by David Horowitz, the former editor of The Jerusalem Post, the online newspaper aims to provide an independent voice in Israel’s English language press.

It’s been eagerly anticipated. Journalists across Israel have been discussing the new publication for months, wondering what form it will take, how it will look, and who’s going to be writing it.

Now it’s actually out there, the reactions are very positive, and not just from news junkies like me and my colleagues. The site, designed by Grig Davidovitz, is clean, contemporary and good looking.

I met David last week at the newspaper’s offices in Emek Refaim and he called it a Daily Mail type lay out – and why ever not. Just a couple of weeks ago an online tracking service reported that the online version of the British tabloid had overtaken the NY Times in popularity to become the number one most-read news site worldwide – in just three years. We can all take a leaf out of the Mail’s success. Minus the bitchy celebrity stories and girls in bikinis of course.

The launch has come at an excellent time. Israel is in for a news-intense period over the coming year, and worldwide attention is likely to be on the country. The story behind the news will also be interesting. In a small, crowded market how will the rise of a popular new publication impact existing players? That’s something we’ll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, welcome to Israel’s online world Times of Israel. We’re looking forward to your daily reports.

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Lessons from The Rabin Murder

November 4, 2008 - 12:35 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

Israel can surprise you – in the most surprising ways. One thing I’ve learned in some 15 years of living here – nothing, but nothing, is what it seems on the surface. There is little, if any, black and white in Israeli life – it’s a rainbow, with lots of shades of different colors in the mix. Take my Rabin experience, for example.

I was at home with my wife and some friends, watching a movie, when I heard the news – “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Not focusing too closely on the video (men will understand why), I overheard a couple of neighbors talking outside in the courtyard. Rather rare for a Saturday night, I thought, and especially those two, who didn’t generally fraternize, going on at length. Sauntering out of the room (I think it was around the time of the second wedding), I went out to the porch to find out what was going on.

Needless to say, we turned the movie off and watched the proceedings.

At the time, I worked for a publication owned by a major Israeli newspaper in Tel Aviv. You could count on one hand the number of observant people in this organization (to their credit, the very avant garde, very politically left people at this publication were extremely respectful to my religious principles – for example, they always made sure kosher food was served at staff meetings, etc.).

But not only was I religious – I was a “settler,” too, living in a community east of the green line. This, too, had never been an issue with these people, and my views on politics and Jewish life in Judea and Samaria were well-known. But now, with Rabin killed by a Jew wearing a kippah, and his alleged connections to residents of Judea and Samaria – this was different. With all the talk of how “the right and religious” were behind Rabin’s killing, I walked into the office that Sunday morning with great trepidation, ready for anything – dirty looks, insults, verbal confrontations, or worse.

But either the folks working at this publication were exceptions to the rule, or the very yellow character of the Israeli media had reared its ugly head again, with the tiny minority of loudmouths dedicated to ruining the fabric of Israeli society trumpeting ideas about putting right-wingers in internment camps in the Negev being given a solitary platform. Even the “star” of this publication, who today is famous for his American talk-show shock-jock style radio call-in program where he argues with everybody, and who has extremely left-wing views, didn’t speak to me any differently than usual (gruffly, like he talked to everybody). Astounded, I asked one of the editors of the publication what was going. Where was all the blame, the anger, the “we will not forgive and we will not forget” I was expecting? After all, I was a pretty convenient target!

He just looked at me like I was crazy – and asked: “Why would we want to do that to you? You may be a settler, but you’re ‘our’ settler!”

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