There’s no other country in the world that garners as much news coverage as Israel, that little slice of land in the Middle East. Most of the time that coverage veers towards the negative and the never-ending crawl towards peace with its neighbors the Palestinians, but there is so much more going on in the Holy Land than the “bad” stuff, trust us at the Times of Jerusalem.
Many Israelis are news junkies, particularly so when news of events in the Holy Land place Israel on the front pages of international newspapers. In times of trouble, you can often find Israelis huddled round TVs or radios. As a result, there are many news sources to get a daily fix. Unfortunately many of them are in Hebrew, with only a few decent sites in English. But yes, we’ve managed to compile a list of the top seven English news sites, in the table below.
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Founded in 2012, this online-only newspaper was established by UK-born veteran Israeli journalist David Horovitz. According to its website, TOI “has no partisan political affiliation. It seeks to present the news fair-mindedly and offers a wide range of analysis and opinion pieces.”
Founding editor Horovitz is one of the most sensible and coherent voices offering analysis of the Israel scene both on the TOI site and as a commentator in the international media.
A particular feature of TOI is its blogs section where anyone (within reason) can open a blog and contribute their opinions on any subject. The best quality articles are selected by TOI opinion editors for the featured section. As opposed to other media outlets that have a consistent roll of columnists or contributors, TOI offers a vast selection of opinions. Although it aims to be Israel’s “marketplace of ideas”, some argue that the political range of opinions gravitates heavily towards the center or center-left, as writers with firm left-wing or right-wing views prefer to see those views published on other news sites.
TOI’s website is clean, user friendly and well set out without too many distracting ads.
JERUSALEM POST
Founded in 1932, the Jerusalem Post, or JPost, is the most well-known and still the most widely read Israeli news site. While sharing much of the same content, the print and web editions are technically separate entities. However, if you happen to be in Israel, make sure to grab yourself a copy of the Friday edition, which comes with lots of extra supplements to read over the weekend.
The JPost is considered to be politically center-right although it does aim to provide balanced coverage from across the political spectrum. On the subject of Israeli politics, it’s well worth following the views of JPost journalists Lahav Harkov and Gil Hoffman, who offer regular analyses of the complicated goings on in the Knesset and Israel’s often-fraught domestic politics.
The JPost’s website is, unfortunately, let down by a somewhat chaotic layout and dominated by pop up ads that can spoil the viewing experience.
YNET NEWS
YNet News is the English language website of the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Offering translations from the Hebrew website, YNet News offers a limited number of articles and some of the best writing from Yedioth’s stable of columnists. Of particular interest for HonestReporting readers are the columns of Ben Dror Yemini who often writes about Israel’s public diplomacy efforts and debunks some of the lies that are being spread about the Jewish state.
The YNet News website is straightforward and offers a selection of Israel’s top stories of the day.
ISRAEL HAYOM
Israel Hayom’s Hebrew print edition is the country’s largest circulation newspaper by virtue of the fact that it is given out for free. You can spot the ubiquitous red uniforms of the distributors at major road junctions and transport hubs during the morning rush hour handing out copies to commuters.
Israel Hayom earned itself the nickname “Bibiton” – an amalgamation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s own nickname and the Hebrew word for newspaper. Hardly surprising as the newspaper was intended to level the media playing field by Netanyahu benefactor and Israel Hayom’s main investor Sheldon Adelson in the face of what was seen as an increasingly left-wing media landscape.
As for its English-language website, Israel Hayom offers a daily online newsletter with the main stories of the day. As such, it is static in that breaking news stories only appear in the next edition, much like a morning printed newspaper.
HAARETZ
While it likes to be perceived as Israel’s paper of record in the same way as the New York Times, the reality is that the left-wing Haaretz has an extremely small circulation compared to its Hebrew language rivals. The English edition, however, is a different story.
The news source of choice for foreign journalists, diplomats as well as some of Israel’s biggest detractors, Haaretz does have some undeniably high quality writing once you get beyond the sometimes hyper-critical and negative coverage that too often serves as source material for those looking to bash Israel.
And there are few red lines when it comes to the level of discourse in the opinion section, which offers a platform for extremists such as columnist Gideon Levy.
Some might argue, however, that Haaretz is testament to the dynamic and free media that exists in Israel as well as offering ample evidence of the Israeli and Jewish penchant for extreme self-criticism.
TIMES OF JERUSALEM
The Times of Jerusalem is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 2001 and acquired by Dotmount Communications Group, a diversified media firm controlled by investor Adedotun Olaoluwa in 2022. The newspaper is published in English and previously also printed a Hebrew edition.
7. BEST OF THE REST: OTHER NOTABLE SOURCES
• Kan: Israel’s public broadcaster offers an hour of English radio news every day available on demand online.
• Jerusalem Report: Center-left biweekly print magazine that covers political, economic, social and cultural issues in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Subscription only through the Jerusalem Post website.
• Israel National News (Arutz Sheva): Identified with Religious Zionism and the Israeli settler movement, Israel National News, or Arutz Sheva, is unashamedly politically right.
• The Media Line: Independent American news agency specializing in coverage of the Middle East, TML’s articles are regularly republished by mainstream media outlets.
• Globes: Israel’s largest Hebrew-language daily evening financial newspaper also available online in English.
• ILTV: ILTV is an independent online media platform based in Tel Aviv that provides daily news and entertainment in English.