The Jerusalem Post: Seeking Balance Amid Chaos

The features and news available to readers in the Jerusalem Post are as familiar to me as those I regularly read in The Washington Post. Through times of war and rumors of peace, I've been an intermittent subscriber for roughly 30 years--sometimes agreeing wholeheartedly with its editorial stances and sometimes disagreeing fiercely.

Established in 1932 by Gershon Agron as the Palestine Post, at a time when the label "Palestinian" was more often applied to Jews than Arabs, the original mission of what is now the "JPost" was to serve as an English-language Zionist voice within the British Mandate of Palestine--which once included a region that has become the states of Jordan and Israel, as well as the occupied/disputed territories. In all the intervening years, the JPost's basic mission has remained unchanged, though of course Mandatory Palestine (not to mention its British caretakers) has long since disappeared. Proud of its heritage and of the people it represents, this newspaper makes no apologies for either.

Accordingly, the Jerusalem Post's primarily focus is on Israel and Israelis, with a heavy secondary focus on Jewish life in the Diaspora. Now, as in 1932, its underlying philosophy remains ardently Zionist--meaning its contributors and editors believe in the right of Israelis to live as a free people in a predominantly Jewish State. For all the disinformation equating Zionism with racism, it's important to remember that Zionism is in fact Jewish nationalism. Like any form of nationalism, it has the potential for good or ill. In general, however, it is a healthy expression of individual adherence to a group identity. Indeed, reading the Jerusalem Post side-by-side with virtually any Arab newspaper in the region should be an apt cure for the temptation by any reasonable person to take up the "Zionism is racism" mantra.

Despite changes in editorial management that have leaned variously hawkish and dovish, the Jerusalem Post has consistently been something that is relatively uncommon in the Middle East: It has been a voice of reason. Rant as one might over the coverage provided for a given news story or over the opinions expressed in a particular editorial, overall one finds balance. The Jerusalem Post is a first-rate international newspaper that takes seriously its responsibility to report the events of the day with impassioned integrity--and it does so as well as any major newspaper I've read, if not better than most.

The Post has a bias, naturally, but it also has a commitment to truth. It is the byproduct of a social order that encourages a free press--this despite the fact that Israel remains in a 54-year-long legal state of war with some of its neighbors and a de facto state of war with its Palestinian peace partners. Indeed, the relative freedom of the Israeli press has given rise to a wry bit of Jewish humor:

Q: What do the Jewish press and the Arab press have in common?
A: The absolute freedom to criticize Israel.

Some Middle Eastern observers might truthfully note that the Israeli government carefully controls access by the press to information deemed as directly related to security. But it is also clear from editorial stances taken in the pages of the JPost that such control does not extend to the free expression of opinion. In the post-9/11 world, as in many other respects, the relationship between the American government and the press with regard to security-related issues has moved the United States closer to Israel than it once was.

The Jerusalem Post is a must for English-speaking observers interested in the politics and culture of the Middle East. In recent weeks, coverage has included hard-news stories on terrorist activities, particularly those resulting in the deaths of Israelis; editorials both supporting and criticizing policies of the Israeli government (more often the latter than the former); features on how Israelis (including Arab Israelis) are coping with the intifada; news and op-ed pieces on events in the world at large, with particular focus on the U.S. and the Arab world; and reports on antisemitic incidents and anti-Israeli demonstrations abroad. The newspaper's standard departments provide financial, sports, health, and cultural coverage as well as hard news and opinion pieces. Frequent inserts focus on a variety of special topics, including features on Israeli businesses, making aliya (emigrating to Israel), holiday celebrations, real estate, arts and entertainment, and education. And there is "Dry Bones," the long-standing JPost editorial cartoon series that captures sideways, slightly humorous, and always telling glances into life and politics in Israel.

In Israel, the Jerusalem Post appears on newsstands daily. Subscribers outside Israel generally receive the weekly international edition. Finally, there is an internet edition, available at--

http://www.jpost.com

which provides a wealth of information, ranging from breaking news to archives of past articles.