The H Word, and Other News

  • Avi Issacharoff looks at why Israeli media is so unconcerned about Palestinians killing Palestinians. (Haaretz)
  • The haredi in Israel are split over public opposition to the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem: “Prominent ultra-Orthodox media are doing their best to ignore the subject altogether. Radio Kol Hai and the daily newspaper Hamodia, for example, are applying self-censorship and refraining from mentioning the issue.â€? It is a smaller faction, Edah Haredit, that is attempting to publicize the issue. (Haaretz)
  • And indeed, “None of the ultra-Orthodox newspapers has ever printed the H-word [homosexual]. Indeed, some of them are under strict orders to not even mention the event that is causing such strife; the others simply refer to it as ‘the abomination.’ â€? And that’s just the start of a list of taboo topics, mostly sexual. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Micha Odenheimer reports that Mishpacha, a Haredi weekly magazine published in both Hebrew and English, “has successfully redrawn the borders of public discourse for this tightly disciplined community… serves as a filter, allowing features of contemporary society deemed worthy to enter haredi consciousness, while keeping other aspects far away.â€? (Foreign Policy)
  • A former Israel Broadcasting Authority news editor Dr. Chanan Naveh admits: “We slanted the news towards a withdrawal from Lebanon – because we had sons there… I am very proud that we had a part in getting of our sons out of Lebanon.” (Israel National News)
  • Anshel Pfeffer bemoans the fact labor primary winner Ehud Barak was able to “thumb his nose at the local media and get away with it.â€? (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Appreciations for the recently deceased Ze’ev Schiff, the “paragon of Israeli military correspondentsâ€?: Martin Indyk, Shimon Peres, Israel Tal, Itamar Rabinovich, and Eitan Haber (Haaretz).

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