The Best of Israeli Blogs

Observers of Israel’s blogosphere often complain that the country’s political blogs have yet to shake up its media and political establishments like their American counterparts. But whether you prefer your blogs mixed with pink nail polish, humor, academic analysis or partisanship, there are plenty of provocative pages to bookmark and explore. —Simona Fuma Weinglass

Ya’acov Lozowick’s Ruminations, English, started 2007—yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com

This invariably thoughtful, smart blog run by Ya’acov Lozowick, the American-born former director of Yad Vashem’s archives, started as a way to “look at critics of Israel and understand what makes them tick.” He frequently lambastes Western media coverage of Israel (recently skewering The Economist in a post called, “Ignoramusi Pontificating”), and uses Jewish texts to shed light on current events. When police prevented 15 Saudi girls from escaping a burning school because their heads weren’t covered, he wrote, “The Gemarah asks what a pious fool is, and gives as an example a man who sees a woman drowning and doesn’t try to save her because she isn’t clothed decently.”

Lisa Goldman’s Blog, English, started 2004—lisagoldman.net

Lisa Goldman’s blog documents the best of lefty, young Tel Aviv culture and politics with an exuberance that is addictive. A typical week for Goldman includes attending a fundraiser at a hip music bar for Physicians for Human Rights, making a list of the best cafes in Tel Aviv, and calling her friend Musa in Gaza to find out how he is faring under Israeli constraints. “Israeli television is more focused on how the war affects us,” she wrote during the Gaza conflict. “We see very little of the moment/images from Gaza.” Goldman even infiltrated Lebanon to blog from the streets of Beirut.

The Strategic Forum, Hebrew, started 2008—www.jcpa.org.il

Middle East scholars from the center-right Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs provide original reporting and analyses in this multi-expert blog. One standout is Pinhas Inbari, an investigative journalist often one step ahead of the mainstream Israeli and American media. Inbari is convinced that Israel has made itself strategically irrelevant to the U.S. through the botched Lebanon war and repeated requests for international troops on its borders, leading to Barack Obama’s cooler stance toward the Jewish state. Another scoop-generator, retired Israeli intelligence officer Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, scrutinizes reports by human rights groups and points out glaring errors.

Gplanet, Hebrew and English, started 2008—gplanet.co.il

Arab Affairs analyst Guy Bechor, head of Middle East Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, has positioned himself as a right-wing maverick up against the left-wing media establishment, even though he is a frequent contributor to those same media outlets. “Very few young journalists would define themselves as leftist but their entire essence is just that,” he writes. His prolific and provocative posts boast headlines like “Hamas and Game Theory” and “Israel’s Brilliant Strategy and Bismarck’s Sausages.”

Promised Land, English, started 2008—promisedlandblog.com

Ma’ariv sports and culture reporter Noam Sheizaf turns a hypercritical eye on his fellow countrymen, frequently posting on racist incidents as well as on his feeling that “Israel is drifting away from the world.” In a recent post, he opined: “Israeli officials, the Jewish establishment in Washington and, most notably, Netanyahu himself, moved closer to the Republican Party, and especially to its neo-con wing, abandoning a long-lasting policy of real bipartisanship.” Sheizaf admires U.S. President Barack Obama, describing the administration’s pressure on Israel as “tough love.”

Occidental Israeli, English, started 2008—occidentalisraeli.com

Written by an anonymous young Israeli who recently finished his army service and backpacked through Asia, the blog’s title alludes to a Yehuda Halevi poem that begins, “My heart is in the east and I am at the very end of the west.” Temporarily living in Washington, DC, the homesick blogger writes about Israeli politics (his political orientation is low-key right-wing). With youthful earnestness, his posts tackle entrenched political problems in Israel. “Unlike in the U.S.,” he writes, “children in Israel are not indoctrinated…with the old adage that ‘crime doesn’t pay.’ One reason might be that, in today’s Israel, it is not true. More severe sentences need to be handed down…to those who steal from the public.”

May’s Blog, Hebrew, started 2006—blogshelmay.blogspot.com

May’s Blog is the country’s premiere household name blog, yet it is not a blog at all. Rather, it’s a skit on the Israeli hit TV show Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country), Israel’s Saturday Night Live, now conveniently available online. May (played by Alma Zak) and two girlfriends sit in front of their computers and communicate every passing thought (boys, celebrities, how to become models) in their adolescent heads while two nerdy guys constantly try to virtually chat them up. Each skit ends with May cleverly putting them down. The blog highlights teenagers’ cruelty and vapidity in an endearing, tongue-in-cheek way, but also delivers social commentary, with frequent cameos by Israeli politicians.