News and Media

Arutz-7: http://www.jer1.co.il /media/arutz7/ - Arutz-7 is a pirate radio station run out of the Beit El settlement outside of Ramallah that has gone Internet. Always good for a few outrageous statements. Reviewed by Michael O'Neill / Added to Complete Guide: 17 May 1997

Challenge: http://www.odaction.org/challenge/ - A Jerusalem magazine on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, does just what its name suggests, it challenges. Selected articles are online. Added to Complete Guide: 21 December 1997

Ha'aretz: http://www.haaretz.co.il/eng/ - Ha'aretz may not have the widest circulation among Hebrew dailies, but it has always been considered the leading intellectual Hebrew daily. It's pages are rich with columns and articles written by Israel's foremost academics and politicians, but if you don't read Hebrew, you're out of luck. That is, until now. Ha'aretz's new website features English translations of top news stories and a handful of editorials and op-ed pieces. The unbiased news coverage is also a relief after reading the less-than-balanced pages of the Jerusalem Post (see below). Of course, a photo or two would be a nice addition to the text, but let's not be picky. A must for daily coverage of events in the region. Reviewed by Michael O'Neill / Added to Complete Guide: 17 May 1997

Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.co.il/ - Yahoo described the Jerusalem Post's site as "the most polished of the foreign news sites we saw, provid[ing] thorough and even-handed weekly news coverage of Israel and the Middle East." The site is rated the 6th most visited site world-wide and its number of hits per annum reaches the tens of millions. As a regular reader of the Post's print edition, I find this a bit disheartening. The paper could only be considered even-handed by members of the Likud Party (e.g. the weather map's political boundaries don't recognize a difference between the West Bank, Gaza or the Golan. Only the Golan and East Jerusalem have been annexed as part of Metropolitan Israel). As for polished, well... I always get a kick out of finding the rare typo or grammar error in the New York Times. With the Post, the complete lack of properly edited text gets rather tiring. But you read it because you have to. There's not much else in English here. Reviewed by Michael O'Neill / Added to Complete Guide: 17 May 1997

Jerusalem Report: http://www.jreport.virtual.co.il/ - A weekly magazine published by those who bailed out of the Jerusalem Post when it got taken over by right-wing Canadian Conrad Black. I can't put my hand on my heart and say it's vastly better than the Post, although it's certainly a little better. I think my problem is a lack of enthusiasm. Reviewed by Nigel Parry / Added to Complete Guide: 12 February 1998