I, and others, have pointed out before how the Haredi media is, at times, pushing the agenda, instead of the rabbonim, and even instead of the askanim. Many of the recent crises, or near-crises, in the government came as a result of the Haredi media pushing a more extreme position after the Haredi MKs were willing to overlook something and remain quiet about it.

The examples that come to mind right now are the deal with the Women of the Wall and the Reform about the Kotel area. The Haredi MKs let the deal go through, and then the Haredi media learned about it and led the attack pushing for the rejection and essentially forcing the MKs to re-open the entire arrangement.

Another example is the recent agreement to transfer money, a lot of it, to Reform organizations.

Another example was the recent fight over the location of the offices of the new broadcasting authority.

Another example is a new one. Behadrei points out that Avigdor Lieberman, the Minister of Defense, has recently said some pretty serious statements (about the religious councils not really being needed and just there as a way to pay party functionaries salaries, along with his personal statrement about not keeping shabbos and eating treif) that would normally enrage the Haredi MKs and generate serious protest,but because they don't want to rock the boat and threaten the stability of the coalition they have remained quiet.

It looks like the media is once again going where the MKs don't want to go. The question that remains open at this point is whether the MKs will follow along again or not.

That really is the task of the media, and I do not fault them for it. What bothers me about it though is that in all these cases the media is forcing an extreme position that the askanim were willing to be more liberal about and overlook (due to their narrow interests - not actually out of any sense of liberal beliefs, but that would have been the result regardless of their reasons). So, while the Haredi media complains at other times of the askanim being too extreme and often against the media that is too liberal and not classic Haredi enough, in all these other instances the media is forcing the more extreme positions.

דינר ליברלי - מעורב גברים ונשים - בהשתתפות ראש ישיבת לייקווד הגאון רבי מלכיאל קוטלר שאף נושא דברים pic.twitter.com/Cp8wEO0zE5

— אברהם גרינצייג (@avigrin10) March 14, 2016

Some people are upset that Rav Malkiel Kotler, the rosh yeshiva of BMG, Lakewood Yeshiva, participated in, and spoke at, a mixed dinner. In the tweet this journalist calls it  a "liberal dinner" and points out that the crowd was mixed gender.

It seems he thinks Rav Kotler can't decide for himself what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. Maybe instead of criticizing Rav Kotler he should say something like - wait, if Rav Kotler would participate in such an event with a mixed audience, maybe it is not quite so bad as we think it is...

In  the meantime, hot off the success of the Haredi media to turn the Reform Kotel deal into such a crisis and force, by way of public pressure, the leadership to harden its stance, after the Haredi leadership was initially fine with letting the deal go through, the media is going now and telling rosh yeshivas what to do and how to act and what is right and what is wrong...

a lot of people on the Right in Israel think that the media is naturally biased against them, and actively works against the Right and for the Left.

The media and the Left regularly deny any such bias.

It looks like the media meant it (even if they do actually have a bias that they do not see, they really think they do not), but the Left did not. the Left really thinks the media works for them.

The other day Ilana Dayan and the Uvda program exposed a couple of Leftists who work to prevent Jews buying land from Palestinians. Thye were recorded talking about an incident they were involved in in which they exposed a Palestinian who was selling land to a Jew and because they exposed him the Palestinian had been killed.

This expose caused a bit of a firestorm, as they claim to work for human rights and here they were bragging about the Palestinian they caused to be murdered... For a rare couple of days the Left came under fire.

Representatives of the Left fired back accusing Uvda and Dayan of unfair treatment, of brandishing this on the entire Left when it was just a couple of people (an accusation the Left doesn't mind ignoring when they brandish the entire Right as terrorists because of their few bad apples), of joining the crusade against the Left, of adding fuel to the fire against the human rights organizations, etc.

Ilana Dayan has now given the Left a reminder. Maybe it is not a reminder, but more of a notice they weren't actually aware of. Ilana Dayan said "we do not work for you". She was actually saying it to everybody - Dayan said "to the Right, to the Center and to the Left - we have news for you:  we do not work for you.."

Now, the Right never thought the media worked for them. The message was clearly for the Left, who did think the media worked for them and owes them some extra leeway not given to the Right.

So, it actually took a rare expose against the Left, and a bit of a tongue lashing for the country to know that the media does not work for the Left.

One expose doesn't prove a lack of bias, but it is at least a good start.

PM Netanyahu fired the director of the Ministry of Communications. Over the phone.

Some people don't like the move. Some think it is some sort of payback to Gilad Erdan, for not joining the government and only remaining an MK, as Erdan had appointed this fellow to this position. Others just say it was an inappropriate way of firing someone, let alone someone senior like that.

And then MK Yitzchak Herzog, Head of the Opposition, claims it is meddling in the media. Netanyahu is showing everyone a new boss is in town (despite him not really being all that new)..

Herzog says he is going to oppose the firing of the director in every way possible, so as to prevent Netanyahu from meddling with the media, from opening a war with the media, and from causing damage to the free and public media.

Interesting. When Netanyahu makes changes it is meddling and damaging to the free press. When the opposition makes changes, such as the Israel Hayom law, it is to protect the free press.

Netanyahu's dismissal of the director might have been inappropriate or poorly advised. I don't know. I would not say it is damaging to the freedom of the press.

In a meeting with local reports, Mayor of Bet Shemesh Moshe Abutbol, among other things, asked the reporters to take a self-imposed time-out from reporting negative incidents that happen in Bet Shemesh, while only reporting on positive events. The time-out, he said, should be for a period of a year. The purpose is to change the atmosphere.



What do you think?:
a. this is a good idea, as the reporters at least hold some fault for the bad name of the city and this could work
   or
b. this is an attempt to pressure them to not fulfill their duties of reporting the news, curtailing, somewhat, freedom of the press, which would make his own job easier as he would be subject to far less criticism
   or
c. is this a deflection of responsibility. instead of pushing himself harder to actually fix the problems, make the city actually better, prevent the negative incidents from happening, he lays the blame at the door of the reporters and passes all the responsibility for the impression the public has of Bet Shemesh on them.

What's your vote?

I don't know what happened.

An Arab boy was found murdered in the forest of Jerusalem early this morning.

So far that is all I know.

I do not know who murdered the boy. I do not know why that person murdered the boy.

A young boy was murdered, and that is horrible, for whatever reason, by whomever it was done.

Another thing I do know is that the public has no idea yet who is responsible for this, or why.

Yet, many, be it politicians, media or just regular people, were very quickly jumping on the assumption that it was perpetrated by "settlers" as an act of revenge for the kidnap and murder of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali.

And many others have been assuming that the murder was committed by other Arabs, be it family in an honor killing or other Arabs as part of a family feud, or other Arabs as part of some criminal activity.

And I have even seen some assume that this is some sort of blood libel - Arabs killed the boy and made it look like a "settler" revenge plot just to turn the media and public momentum away from backing Netanyahu's efforts to dismantle Hamas, and turn the blame on the evil settlers.

The one thing in common is that nobody yet knows, yet people are making assumptions. The problem is not making assumptions - not really. he problem is that they then publicize these assumptions, logical or illogical as they may be, and throw blame and accusations around based on them.

Another thing I find interesting - in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali, so many people were writing all over the internet and in newspapers and in chat groups, about how necessary it is to avenge the deaths of the three boys, how we must wipe out Gaza, how we must flatten PA Hebron, yadda yadda yadda - and then when the accusations start coming about the murder of an innocent boy (whether the accusations are baseless or not), suddenly everybody says a Jew would never do that!

Let's let the security forces do their jobs (according to reports they responded very quickly to the information when it was first reported), find who did this, and then we will know who to blame and what to fix.

All this talk about Iran and its nuclear capabilities, if Israel should or should not attack, when Israel will, what has to happen to make Israel attack, and all the various scenarios disturbs me.

When Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor in Osirak, Iraq, it was done in utter silence. It was successful largely because of the element of surprise.

With the Iran situation, it has lost the element of surprise a long time ago. Sure, the surprise might still be which day it will happen and what time of day, but the various countries the information is relevant to are probably already prepared for the situation to not allow flyovers, to have their radars and defenses honed to perfection and whatever else they need to do. The more the government officials, whether Israeli or American, keep discussing it, the less chance it has for success.

I do not get why the officials themselves do not realize how important the element of surprise in such a sensitive situation. they should all just stop talking about it. Plan what needs to be planned, talk about it behind closed doors in top secret clearance situations and leave the media and public out of it!

There was a very interesting interview in the "BaSheva" newspaper this past Friday. The interview was with Rav Dov Povarsky, one of the co-owners of the haredi newssite/forum BeChadrei Charedim.

The interview was very interesting with the discussion focusing on the change from the traditional format for haredi media to the format used by BeChadrei, in which pretty much everything is on the table.

There were a couple of points from the interview I found particularly fascinating and would like to excerpt:
One point was made when discussing the "outing" of the Burqa Lady from bet Shemesh who had been abusing her children. The story was essentially broken in the forums of BeChadrei. From there it made its way to the general media and then to the police.

Povarsky is very proud of the process that happened, and considers it one of their defining moments the way they worked in tandem with the authorities.

Povarsky says:

The issue of opening up everything to the outside world, and to cooperate with the establishment, used to be inappropriate. The method of closing off [r.g. meaning: keeping everything quiet] everything in the haredi public did not prove itself to work. Because at the end of the day, nothing worked. The internal haredi organizations do not have teeth.They cannot put anyone in jail. At worst they can put someone in excommunication, but that too does not happen. Halevai the country would work within halachic parameters and the rabbonim would have 'teeth' to enforce things, but the reality is that it does not, and we have to be aware of what is preferred and what is the reality....

The second statement was regarding the relationship between haredim and the army. Povarsky served in the army, and did reserve duty as well.

BaSheva Q: What values in the army did you appreciate?
Povarsky A: Decency, order, discipline, relationship to the religious people. When I would come to an atheist officer, somebody not at all connected to anything, I would receive complete cooperation....
The haredi public does want to be drafted into the army. I can tell you this quietly....The problem is that they [r.g. the leadership? not sure who "they" is] don't want to deal with it.

The general press is all agog about the headline in the haredi website Kikar Shabbos about the father, Asaf Goldring, who murdered his daughter. The headline read, "Secular Leftist Murdered Daughter".

The headline is unusual for two reasons:

1. Generally the haredi press would ignore such incidents and not report on them at all. Violent crime is usually ignored by the haredi press, as they consider the topic inappropriate for its audience.
2. The sensationalist title "Secular Leftist" is perceived as an attack on the secular.

Basically, too bad. It is about time.

Every time a Haredi Jew, or even a DL Jew, is caught for a crime committed, the headlines in the general press always describe them as "Haredi thief" or "haredi abuser", etc. For other sectors, it usually drops the descriptive title, at least from the headline and often from the article as well (you often have to figure it out based on the location (e.g. city) where it took place.

Yes, there are religious people who commit crimes, violent and non-violent. Religious people are human too, and are susceptible to the same weaknesses and temptations as anyone else. Some control themselves, and some do not and commit crimes. If the secular public can smear the haredi/religious community with sensationalist and accusatory headlines, it is about time the haredi press hands it back to them.

Who knew that there was just a Gay Pride Parade in the city of Eilat? Raise your hands if you knew it was about to happen.

The city of Eilat is thought of as an Israeli version of Las Vegas - what happens in Eilat stays in Eilat. It is thought of as being ultra-liberal in lifestyle (I don't think it is like that in its politics) - pretty much anything goes.

Today in the newspaper there was an article about the Gay Pride Parade that took place in Eilat on Friday. The article was on Page 19 of the newspaper. OK, no big deal - after all Eilat is a pretty boring seaside resort vacation city. No big deal - not very exciting news.

Yet, the Gay Pride Parade of Eilat was met with violence. A group of protestors, local residents of Eilat, went out to protest against the parade. It turned violent as the protestors began throwing stones and eggs. A couple paraders were injured and needed medical attention.

And still the article only hit about 150 words on Page 19 of Yisrael Ha'Yom. I did a quick search to see if I could find any article on Haaretz or Ynet websites - I could not find one at all on Haaretz and found one way down at the bottom of the news updates of Ynetnews. Granted, I only did a quick search - maybe a more thourough search would result in more scathing headlining articles, but even a quick search should bring up an article on the front page.

Why is it that when the religious, specifically Haredi, protest against the Gay Pride Parades, it makes page 1, it is discussed for days on end, threats of violence, assumptions of violence, etc. are all played up and the whole thing is made into a lot of noise. One time a couple of years ago a haredi man violently protested, stabbing a parader, and it was talked about in the news for days. The next year the news media went on discussing whether it would be repeated. To no end.

Yet here we had, on Friday, a Gay Pride Parade that was protested, with violence, by secular (traditional perhaps) residents. And you can hardly find a word about it in the media - and to find even a bit you have to look hard.

Makes you wonder what the media outrage was really about the other times....

The media are jumping all over the "settler riots" on Shabbos by a group of people from Yitzhar who went into an Arab village and attacked a bunch of people. The left wing activists have come out in defense of the poor afflicted palestinians and condemning the settlers from Yitzhar and calling for the security forces to take a heavier hand with them.

According to the articles, all they did was enter the village, break some windows, spray some graffiti, and flip a car. They did not personally attack the body of any specific Arab resident.

Why did they do this? While the residents of Yitzhar are known as being tough and do not take anything sitting down, it also seems out of place to just randomly riot one day. So why did they do this?

If you read the various articles in the mainstream media, you wil notice that they give attention to the cause by writing about 2 lines worth of information. A Palestinian came into their village, torched a home, which was thankfully empty, stabbed a 9 year old kid (thankfully he only sustained light injuries), and tried to torch another home. He then ran back into that Arab village that was later attacked by the residents of Yitzhar.

Are the left wing activists going out defending the poor settlers who were attacked by the Palestinians? Is the media blasting the PA and the Arab residents for starting the mess, or only the Yitzhar residents for retaliating?

It is not a matter of condoning their behavior, but when they have been attacked, they simply retaliated. This is what we call in Israel "Ko-ach Harta'a".

"Ko-ach Harta'a" was a big word arounf the time of the Lebanon War. Do we have it or do we not? Have we lost it and have we re-achieved it?

Ko-ach Harta'a is the power of deterrence. The current political leadership, along with the governments of the recent past, has done nothing but destroy our power of deterrence. Our Arab neighbors are no longer afraid to attack us, because they know we will not, we cannot retaliate. Our government and our activists will prosecute anybody who lifts a hand against the Arabs, while nothing will be done to the Arabs who started the incident.

This is a small scale example. The larger scale example is the situation of Israel visa vie its neighbors and whether or not they are scared to start with us or do they know that we will always make goodwill gestures and refrain from retaliating?

It is reprehensible that our people and our media are out there defending the Palestinians who start the incidents against the jews. Stop defending them and defend our own people once in a while. Especially when the Palestinians started the violence.

(and note the lack of "left wing Palestinians" blasting the act of a violent Palestinian attacking the poor Jews in a nearby village)

In anticipation of the Annapolis conference in which Ehud Olmert is expected to offer much of the Land of Israel to the lowest bidder, the Association of Rabbis for the People and Land of Israel (I have never before heard of this association, which means nothing) held a conference yesterday to come out with a joint decision and statement of position regarding what Olmert is expected to effect in Annapolis.

Rabbi Dov Lior said, according to Ynet, "We must cleanse the country of Arabs and resettle them in the countries where they came from, If this means we have to pay them, we will. Without doing so, we will never enjoy peace in our land."

This statement of his is coming under the usual criticism. He is a racist. He is guilty of incitement. he should be investigated. etc.

Statements put out by this and any other right wing organization can and will be largely ignored. They will only be used as fodder for accusing the right wing public of being racist. No statement they can ever put out will ever be taken seriously or considered seriously, and therefore such conferences and association are pretty much worthless.

I am not sure what the appropriate arena for right wing activism is. We have already seen the ineffectiveness of any and all groups to thwart or derail or even just draw away support for left wing policy. No amount or type of protest swayed Ariel Sharon, none will sway Olmert, and the general public continues to imbibe the press statements put out by Olmert's spin doctors and media advisers as of they were holy writ and everything else should be ignored.

The country has become one that is controlled by Public Relations experts and actual policy debate with content is abandoned. As a result we had Ehud Olmert putting out conflicting statements in the weeks leading up to Annapolis.

According to one Annapolis is just a simple meeting - nothing more than that and nothing will happen. Then he puts out a statement how this is the most exciting breakthrough in recent past giving us a true chance for peace.

Then he puts out statements how Ramon's plan to divide Jerusalem is just that - Ramon's plan; Ramon has no authority and his plan has not been accepted by the government and when Ramon talks about it he represents nobody but himself. Then he puts out a statement saying we can and should split Jerusalem for reasons x, y and z.

Then he puts out statements how Annapolis is really nothing big and nobody should be concerned, it is just a way to get talks going... etc.

Olmert gives out nothing of substance and no real information. He only says things his media people allow him to say considering how it will affect his standing in public opinion, world opinion, his image, his investigations, how coalition, etc.

Do we really have any idea what Olmert is planning to do in Annapolis? No, because he has put out so many conflicting statements we really have no idea. he probably does not even know. When it happens he will decide what is best and then he will tell us what he wants to tell us. And his media advisers will formulate exactly what needs to be said and how it should be said, and they will sell it based on their decision.

So right wing debate and trying to deal with the actual issues is pointless because the public buys what Olmert's media advisers sell them. After that anybody who wants to disagree is either an unrealistic right wing fanatic or somebody who is racist and borderline treasonous.

Bar Rafaeli, the Israeli supermodel who lives abroad and recently chose to malign Israel in a couple of interviews in the foreign press, has come out swinging.

In reaction to her interviews in which she spoke harshly against Israel, the local papers wrote articles describing the interviews. Yediot Acharonot, Israel's largest paper, wrote such an article with the headline stating, "Bar Rafaeli against the State of Israel".

Rafaeli decided to sue the paper for damages claiming that such an inflammatory headline set off a fury of hate and animosity towards her.

I think Israel should counter sue her right back for the way she maligned Israel in the world press.

I am sure that her statements against Israel in major newspapers in Europe received much more exposure than a local Israeli papers reaction did. She probably did much more damage than the newspaper did.

This morning I heard on the radio a discussion about the report that two months ago there was an explosion while scientists were supposedly attempting to fit a warhead with chemical weapons. The discussion was focusing on how this report was leaked.

The reporter said that there is an expression (regarding Syria) that there is a (government) censor in every newsroom (deciding what info to let be publicized). The reporter said that this expression is inaccurate and really it should say there is a reporter in every censorship office.

In other words, the censorship is so pervasive and is much more dominant than the actual news reporting.

I find it ironic that he was criticizing the Syrians in this fashion. Considering it is coming in the wake of the recent incident of a supposed Israeli flyover in which nothing has been reported in Israel about it aside from rumors garnered from the world press. One day we hear it was blowing up a shipment of arms to Hezbollah. Another day - blowing up a nuclear arsenal. Another day - just a flyover. Another day - a syrian bunker. Etc.

But we have no confirmation from Israeli officials.

In other words, we are having censorship at a similar level as that of the Syrians (in this affair at least).

Let me make it clear though - I think it is good it is being kept silent. Sure I am curious like everyone else. But it is good to keep sensitive things like this quiet until more appropriate times. Zahava Galon (MK Meretz) has gone way too far demanding all that happened be revealed. While she does have a point that this government has not earned and does not deserve our trust to perform such activities on its own discretion without public oversight, I still think she is wrong and this is something that should be kept quiet. Not all our laundry needs to be washed in public.

But despite that, it is funny to hear the criticism of Syrian censorship when we have similar censorship.

Last night I heard on the radio on the TV news program (isn't that amazing how you can hear the TV news program on the radio??!!) an interesting piece of news.

They reported that Amir Peretz is being investigated for allegations that he bought votes in the recent Labor Party primaries using government money. I did not hear the whole report, but what I did hear was about how he promised money to the northern communities for "pikud ha'oref" - wartime preparation (Home Front) - for preparing bomb shelters and the like, if they would vote for him. Somehow the city of Tzfat was involved. It seems the jurisdiction for Pikud Ha'Oref up north is in the Tzfat region.

The mayor of Tzfat pushed people to vote and openly supported Amir Peretz. I do not recall the numbers, but Peretz received like triple the amount of votes in Tzfat than the other candidates.

Peretz, of course, denies it. He says he would love to give them money, but can't. He has to fix up the bomb shelters anyway, he said, so why would he promise that as an incentive to vote for him. Etc.

I do not know if he did it or did not do it. I want to know something else. I want to know why I have not heard anything since that initial report. Has the story been suppressed? Where is the reporting? I can't find any mention of this on Ha'aretz or Ynet or any other news source I have looked at.

Is this another example of the media pushing a specific agenda? Just yesterday Arutz 7 reported from the Haifa Radio Conference that IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) broadcasters admitted to having slanted the news reporting in order to push their personal agendas.

It seems a number of them had children serving in the IDF in Lebanon, at the time, and they wanted their children to be safe and out of Lebanon. So they slanted the news reporting to push an agenda so their kids would be home safe.

That is not even a national agenda of peace with Palestinians or whatever that they usually push. That was a personal agenda of some broadcasters. And they were proud of it (not admitting to it with an apology, but bragging about how they set the agenda!).

That is unbiased and objective news reporting?

A big story like possible corruption by the Defense Minister in internal party politics, using government for vote buying, and it is not mentioned in the major news sources? Is this another example of the same - some agenda being pushed? Does Amir Peretz now have some quasi-Etrog status?

Today was the last day the Yisraeli" newspaper was printed. They have closed their doors.

It seems there have been fights between the owners and the investors, along with possible embezzlement and skimming.

It is a shame because the "Yisraeli" newspaper, aside from being free, was a very good paper. They had tidbits of news that the other outlets don't bother with, and it had right wing leanings, which is rare in the newspaper industry in Israel.

Recently, distribution of the "Yisraeli" has been highly erratic. They have not had the paper at our train station in BS since the beginning of January. At the station in Tel Aviv it has been spotty, some days they had it and some days not.

Oh well, another one bites the dust.

Maybe someone will buy it out and re-open...

A British newspaper, The Sunday Times, published information today saying that they have leaked information that Israel is planning a nuclear strike on the Iranian nuclear facility.

Needless to say, this information made waves and spread like wildfire. The PM refused to deny it or confirm it. Some think the information was leaked for the specific purpose of being a veiled threat against the Iranians, so they should realize "we are serious" and prompt them to back off their plans.

This has been all over the news today and is splashed all over the front of all the newspapers.

I consider this media irresponsibility. The media, in an attempt to sell newspapers (and advertising) look for the splashiest, most provocative information and publish it. We constantly read about "secret" meetings between enemy countries (specifically Israel and various Arab countries, but also other warring states) that are no longer secret because of the newspaper and his leaking source.

There is an issue of national responsibility and that should be preserved. If the national representative feels the need to meet secretly with the rep of another country, it is because he feels that the publicity will only harm his efforts. Yet the next day that meeting is frequently no longer secret and all gains are washed away because of a leak (granted, sometimes it is media spin and is intentional for the purpose of letting people think you are actually doing something like holding secret meetings).

In this case we have a similar situation. I read in the newspaper today a glaring headline saying that a source says Israel is already practicing a nuclear strike in test sites in preparation of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Because we successfully destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in an amazingly successful strike, everyone is just assuming that it is no problem to take out the Iranian problem.

They forget that a large part of the success in Osirak was the element of surprise (aside from the element of G-d). Nobody had ever heard of such plans and the attack was executed with such precision that the whole world was shocked and surprised, not just the Iraqis.

Yet ,because of that, we have no element of surprise today in the case of Iran, yet everyone expects a similar attack, despite the more difficult conditions. All the media can do is talk about it. Does the press think that the Iranians do not read Israeli newspapers? Maybe they do not read the Sunday Times in the U.K.?

Such leaked information only harms the cause and there are times where it would be more prudent for people to keep the information secret.

I only hope that it really was leaked for the sole purpose of scaring the Iranians. If Israel really is planning and practicing an attack, that leak will likely be at fault if such an attack takes place and fails.