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Publisher's Notebook
Editorial
The Times of Israel Website
Emerges From Media Jungle
p
artisan, bare-knuckle journalism has been
the norm in Israel since before its establish-
ment in 1948. Aside from the overstuffed
foreign media presence that places every aspect of
Israeli society under a microscope, the country's
Hebrew- and English-language news outlets are noto-
rious for their partisanship, feistiness and occasional
bouts of illegal activity.
There are three dominant
players. Entrenched on the
left side of the political spec-
trum is Haaretz, operated
by three generations of the
Schocken family and ardently
anti-settlements and anti-Bibi
Netanyahu. Occupying the
right side of the spectrum is
Israel Hayom, a mass-distrib-
uted free publication backed
by American casino mogul,
Newt Gingrich enabler and ,
Taglit-Birthright mega-bene-
factor Sheldon Adelson. It is unabashedly pro-Bibi
Netanyahu. Stuck in between is the Mozes family and
its once-dominant Yedioth Ahronoth and YNet empire.
And then there's the Jerusalem Post.
From its storied past as the pre-Israel Palestine
Post, this small English-language outlet always had
outsized influence. Because so much of its readership
is overseas, the Jerusalem Post is treated as a foreign
media outlet by the Israeli government. Over the
years, the Post moved from Socialist-celebrating left
wing to Likud-crazed right wing to something called
"center-right:' It fell upon very hard financial times
when the mogul Conrad Black acquired it, treated
it as his political plaything
and was compelled to sell it to
satisfy creditors of his failing
Hollinger International.
Though reportedly losing
upward of $5 million on a
paltry $13 million in annual
revenue, the Post possessed two
assets that didn't show on its
balance sheet when Black put
it up for sale ... its rundown
facility, which sat on one of the
most valuable pieces of real
estate in Jerusalem, and editor-
in-chief David Horovitz.
After soliciting poten-
tial buyers for the Post
(Renaissance Media, the parent company of the
Detroit Jewish News, was among those approached),
two media companies, CanWest of Canada and
Mirkaei Tikshoret of Israel, acquired it for $13.2 mil-
lion in November 2004. Horovitz, who had been the
editor and publisher of the Jerusalem Report, became
editor-in-chief of the Post shortly before the deal
closed. CanWest and Mirkaei Tikshoret soured on
each other and went to court in New York six weeks
later. A court-imposed injunction paralyzed the Post
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The homepage of the Times of Israel website
while the parties battled it out, with sideshows claim-
ing extortion and slander.
In June 2006, an arbitrator ruled in favor of the
Israelis, Mirkaei Tikshoret got the Post, the real estate
(a little more than two acres valued at the time at
more than $7 million) and Horovitz. In the London-
born Horovitz, who made aliyah to Israel in 1983,
Mirkaei Tikshoret secured much-needed credibility
and editorial legitimacy. Until its acquisition of the
Post, Mirkaei Tikshoret was better known for the
seediness of its media holdings.
David Horovitz's Credibility
During his journalistic career, Horovitz navigated the
high-road of Israeli politics and, most importantly,
understood the dynamics of the Israel-diaspora rela-
tionship. He knew what his audience, growing rapidly
via the World Wide Web, wanted and needed to see
... a clear-eyed look at Israel that the general media
in their home countries weren't presenting.
Doing anything quietly and
without fanfare in Israel is an
oddity. But that's what Horovitz
did. After leaving the Jerusalem
Post in 2011, he soft-launched the
online-only Times of Israel (www.
timesofisrael.com) in mid-Febru-
ary. The site has no affiliation to
any political figure or party. From
his introductory column, Horovitz
says:
"I happen to think that we
Jews, in this one country where
we're a majority, can be our own
worst enemies — spectacularly
intolerant of one another, in ways
we would never tolerate in Jewish
communities overseas. We under-
mined our two previous attempts
at sovereignty millennia ago,
through internal hatreds; we've
murdered our own prime min-
ister this time; we suffer streams
of Judaism furiously at odds with
each other. We argue bitterly,
David
incessantly, over the best means
to safeguard the well being of the Horovitz
The Times on page 29
March 1 • 2012
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Israel and diaspora
Jews need the
Times of Israel.
Horovitz has the
passion, knowledge,
commitment and
resources to succeed.
28
Wa11.4.4
Hamas'
Shift In
Tactics
An Exercise In Futility
amas wants to appear part of the civilized circle
of governments, but don't buy into that fantasy.
A terrorist network doesn't change its political
stripes. It may retrench and recalibrate, but it can't alter
its commitment to indoctrination, lies, demonizing and
violence. It doesn't have the heart to help and nurture, only
the will to hate and dominate.
So dismiss as a PR ploy plans for a new Palestinian
unity government that will include both Hamas, which
rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, a supposed moderate
party that governs the West Bank. The Palestinian hope
is that a united front would compel Israel to deal with the
two groups and thus bend its Quartet-supported demands
for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Arab Spring is sweeping parts of the Arab world
despite its likely failure to achieve democratization. Still,
it had to be a factor in the decision of Hamas, sworn by
its charter to destroy Israel, to "reorient" itself amid
geopolitical changes in the turbulent region. By seem-
ing to move away from Syria and Iran, and to an extent
Hezbollah, and aligning with the forces of the Arab
Spring, Hamas is acknowledging even a perceived shift in
its hard-line rule might strengthen its powerbase and nor-
malize relations with opponents.
Don't be fooled by less Hamas rocket fire raining
down on Negev towns. And don't be tricked into think-
ing Hamas' parent organization in Egypt, the Muslim
Brotherhood, has gone soft because it tickles mainstream
politics in Cairo and because its leaders have met with
U.S. officials. Hamas' seeming reorientation and flirta-
tion with Fatah is a ruse, not de facto fulfillment of the
Quartet's conditions for engagement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got it right:
The planned unity government is more about Fatah join-
ing the extremists in Gaza City than Hamas joining the
so-called moderates in Ramallah.
The international community cannot lose sight of the
fact that Fatah's teaming with Hamas would be a step
back from Palestinian peace with Israel, not an environ-
mental sea change to foster that.
Hamas has shown no desire to accept the three mini-
mal stipulations for recognition demanded by the Quartet
grouping of the United States, the United Nations, Russia
and the European Union: admitting Israel's right to
exist, giving up terrorism and honoring previous Israeli-
Palestinian accords. Further, Hamas welcomes Iranian
support to acquire smuggled weapons.
Hamas' inconsistent rhetoric is disconcerting, on the
one hand flirting with the popular resistance strategy
used in the Arab Spring, but on the other hand reiterat-
ing its fight against Israel through armed struggle (a code
phrase for terror).
Israel can't be so stoical that it ignores the remote pos-
sibility that new-look Hamas would provide an "in" to at
least try to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
But let there be no doubt: Hamas is not a legitimate
player.
If Fatah acts on partnering with Hamas, it, in effect,
would be rejecting peace in favor of embracing an enemy
of peace. 111