Some of you may know of a very interesting blog aggregator called Global Voices Online. It divides up the blogosphere by country and aggregates some of the best national blogs. Each day, a country editor does a roundup which summarizes particular blog posts. Here’s how the website describes its mission:
Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project.
A growing number of bloggers around the world are emerging as “bridge bloggers:” people who are talking about their country or region to a global audience. Global Voices is your guide to the most interesting conversations, information, and ideas appearing around the world on various forms of participatory media such as blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, and videoblogs.
I think this is a terrific and much needed resource for bloggers interested in world affairs. In this day and age, when our nation in particular seems more closed off than ever from voices and perspectives beyond our shores, GVO is a welcome addition.
But I’m slightly flummoxed by the decision to exclude the Israeli-Palestinian category of this blog from GVO’s Israel section. To be fair, the idea of our exclusion isn’t entirely outside the bounds of reason. As managing editor Rachel Rawlins wrote to me:
She [Israel editor Lisa Goldman] concentrates on blogs written by people living in Israel since one of our objectives is to curate conversations generally taking place outside the already very well represented regions of North America and Western Europe.
But the way Goldman explained my exclusion rankled:
I do not include your blog in my roundups on the Israeli blogosphere because you are American, not Israeli…My GVO posts are about the Israeli blogosphere, not the Jewish blogosphere. While blogs about Israel by non-Israelis are often interesting and valuable, they do not, by definition, belong to the Israeli blogosphere
While all this is well and good, it is a false dichotomy in the context of GVO’s Israel section. The reason is that GVO covers only English-language blogs, which means in the case of Israel that the blogs are largely written by Israelis of the English-language Diaspora (U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, etc.) origin. I’m sure that’s not entirely the case, but I know that it is largely the case. And I’m not saying that these blogs are not ‘Israeli.’ But I am saying that they are not nearly as politically or culturally diverse as the Hebrew-language native Israeli blog world.
It’s for that reason that I think it’s critical to include voices like Tikun Olam. After all, my Israeli-Palestinian section is solely about Israel and its relations with its enemy-neighbor much like the blogs Lisa Goldman reviews for GVO (though to be fair, she does review blogs focussed on non-political issues). But I bring a slightly more independent, disinterested viewpoint to the conversation. If you look at Lisa Goldman’s roundups you’ll see that the politics of the blogs she covers are mostly (though not exclusively) right of center, sometimes far to the right. And when she does include progressive voices she’ll invariably use terms like “leftist” (as she’s done twice in her most recent report) to characterize the blog’s viewpoint. She doesn’t even realize the judgmental nature of the term (and certainly wasn’t intending to offend). But as someone whose views of this conflict have been disparaged numerous times by hardline pro-Israel readers, I know how the term is used and how it feels to have someone spit it at you (not that this was by any means Lisa’s intent).
It’s ironic that Haitham Sabbah, editor of the Palestine Global Voices section does periodically include links to my blog posts about the conflict; but Goldman, a fellow lover of Zion refuses to consider doing so as well. Haitham, my supposed enemy embraces me and she views me as treif.
I disagree with her contention that non-Israeli blogs about Israel do not “belong to the Israeli blogosphere.” It is critical that there be more interaction between these two groups and that those interested in Israel and this conflict should have as broad a representation of opinion as possible. Goldman’s own roundups portray this problem through the relative lack of political diversity in them and her own slight awkwardness in covering blogs she sees as “leftist.” Calling a blogger you don’t agree with a “leftist,” as she’s done twice in her most recent roundup is insulting. I don’t believe she intended this as an insult. But it is condescending and judgmental nonetheless. Has she ever called any bloggers in her roundup “rightist?” I didn’t see that term or even “conservative” used in describing bloggers she covers who are right of center.
In fact, a problem with the English language Israeli blog world is that it is largely (though not entirely) shut off from the progressive end of the political spectrum. That’s why I think letting in ‘outside’ voices (though I do not consider myself outside this sphere) would only expand the dialogue. In addition, within Israeli society voices like mine are not heard clearly because the issue of security seems to put a lid on wide-ranging political discussion. This is something the Global Voices should be willing to address & promote.
My GVO roundups include links to blogs by non-Jewish residents of Israel; some of them are citizens and others are not. My goal is to give a voice to Israel’s complex, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. I hope that, as a progressive Zionist, you will understand and support my effort to highlight the concerns of Israel’s non-Jewish minority bloggers over those of non-Israelis.
It is good to know that Goldman does not limit her coverage to Jewish Israelis. But if she did this would be discriminatory. So she’s doing a good thing; but it is something I would expect from any competent editor. And why does she make it appear that the decision to include non-Jewish Israeli bloggers in the roundups precludes including folks like me? She’s linking apples & oranges in this case. I say let 1,000 flowers bloom. I would certainly agree if she said she wished to be very careful in terms of the non-Israeli blogs you included because as Rachel wrote to me, you do want to include as much as possible an authentic Israeli voice in this section. But adding my voice will not prevent an authentic Israeli voice from being heard.
By the way, I’m curious how many Israeli Arab bloggers Goldman includes. There may not be many for all I know. But it’d be very valuable to find and include them to the greatest extent possible.
Hi Richard – I see that you have blogged about our initial correspondence without waiting for my response, which I emailed just a few minutes ago. For your readers, it is below:
Dear Richard,
I think you are assuming that I exclude your blog from my GVO roundups on the Israeli blogosphere because of its content. If so, then your assumption is erroneous. As I wrote in my previous email, I define the Israeli blogosphere as blogs written by Israelis and/or people who live in Israel. Since you are not Israeli and do not live in Israel, Tikkun Olam does not fit that definition. There are many blogs written about Israel by non-Israelis; if I were to include them all, I would be forced to sacrifice space that would otherwise be devoted to Israeli bloggers. I am not willing to do that.
In my previous GVO roundups I have mentioned Fayrouz, a Palestinian-Israeli woman who is my friend and whom I encouraged to blog. Unfortunately she has stopped writing – temporarily, I hope – but if you look at her posts thus far you will see that she is highly critical of Israel. (I am working on recruiting another Palestinian-Israeli to the blogging world as well.) I have also mentioned a Jewish-Israeli woman who works for a Palestinian NGO in East Jerusalem; she has blogged about her personal political evolution from right-wing Zionist to pro-Palestinian activist. In addition, I have linked to a non-Jewish gay man who lives with his Jewish-Israeli partner in Jerusalem; to a non-Jewish Englishman who is married to an Israeli woman and has lived in the Tel Aviv area for 15 years; and to a Phillipine Catholic diplomat who lives in Tel Aviv. I also link to Jewish Israelis with centrist political views and Jewish Israelis who support the religious settler movement. These are the diverse, authentic voices of the Israeli blogosphere.
My goal is to give voice to the thoughts and opinions of Israelis without commenting on or critcize their views. I do not agree with the opinions of all the bloggers I include in my roundup; I am simply trying to give a diverse picture and to be as objective as possible. In my personal blog I express opinions that are not particularly popular with Israeli Jewish bloggers who advocate the Greater Israel position, for example. Some of them have criticized me rather strongly for what they perceive as my pro-Palestinian bias. I rarely respond to those criticisms and continue to include their blogs in my roundups when relevant.
While you may not agree that Yonathan is a leftist blogger, that is how he defines himself and that is why I characterized him as such in one of my roundups. The opinion he expressed in the specific post I mentioned in my last roundup does fall into the centre-left category. I have also characterized certain bloggers as rightist, but only if they define themselves as such. I do not impose labels; in fact, I dislike them and try to avoid using them.
I would like to emphasize again that my decision to exclude non-Israeli bloggers is based entirely on their nationality and not on their content or political views. Yes, you are Jewish. But you are not Israeli. As a non-Israeli your blog does not fall into the category of the Israeli blogosphere any more than a blog about Israel by a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu who writes about Israel but does not live in the country.
My own views are usually considered leftist, although as I wrote above I really do not like labels. On my personal blog I have written about attending conferences with Palestinian and Israeli journalists in Jordan, my visits to the West Bank and Gaza as a professional journalist, my close relationships with Palestinian journalists and my interest in the Arab blogosphere. I link frequently to blogs from all over the Arab world; as a result, Israeli and Arab bloggers are now engaged in a very encouraging dialogue that has garnered quite a lot of positive attention in the international blogosphere and in the mainstream media. Recently an Egyptian blogger contacted me about the idea of sending Arab bloggers to Israel and Israeli bloggers to Arab countries.
Again, as a progressive Zionist I hope you will support my efforts to highlight diverse Israeli voices on GVO, whether you agree with all the opinions expressed or not, as well as my attempts to create dialogue between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East via my personal blog.
I hope, too, that you will understand and accept my decision to exclude blogs about Israel by non-Israelis, whatever their nationality, religion, ethnicity or provenance, for the reasons outlined above.
Yours,
Lisa
Not at all. And I never said that. Never even implied it. And in believing this perhaps you’re reacting too defensively to what I’ve written. There is a difference bet. criticizing the diversity of the blogs you choose to feature in yr roundup and believing that you’ve deliberately excluded me for ideological or whatever reasons. I am fairly certain that the content of my blog is such that you personally don’t feel very comfortable with it. But that’s diff. than believing you’ve transposed your personal feelings to yr editorial decisions.
I think you’re being disingenuous here. Of course, there are many blogs written about Israel by non-Israelis. No one is saying you have to include every one of those blogs in every roundup. But what would be the problem w. including a single non-Israeli blog in every roundup? Or every other roundup?
Regarding yr 2nd paragraph in which you highlight some of the blogs which you’ve cultivated which are not conventional Anglo-Israeli blogs, I think what you’ve done is great. All those bloggers you mention (and many more) should appear in your roundups & I commend you for including them. But you’ve just told me that you currently have NO Israeli-Arab blogs. Yes, there was one and that’s great & I’m glad you’re encouraging the author to resume writing. But Israeli-Arabs are 20% of the Israeli population & 0% of your section.
I don’t mean this as a hostile criticism of you or your work. I mean it to challenge you to come up w. ways to expand yr coverage so the perspectives of Israeli-Arabs might be included even if you cannot find the genuine article. I’ve dialogued with many Israeli Jewish, Palestinian & Arab American bloggers over the past few yrs. I know there aren’t as many Palestinian bloggers as I’d like to see. So I imagine the same might be true of Israeli Arab bloggers. But that doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook in terms of finding diversity. If you don’t have enough Israeli Arabs in your coverage then perhaps there are other ways you can expand yr diversity. One of them would be to include Diaspora or non-Israeli blogs like mine which are more sympathetic than the average Anglo-Israeli blog to the views of Israeli Arabs & Palestinians. There may be other ways to do this as well.
I read Yonathan’s blog periodically & I’ve never heard him call himself “a leftist.” I’m not saying he hasn’t. But I’d find it quite peculiar if he had. Since you are not “a leftist” your usage sounds a bit shrill to this “leftist” who doesn’t like the term when used by non-leftists to describe him. In case you’re interested, the word “progressive” is a much more respectful term to use to describe such a political perspective. But that’s certainly just a suggestion which you may ignore if you choose.
In the post you covered, Yonathan was attacking the British academic boycott proposal. How is that a “leftist” perspective? A “leftist” perspective might support the boycott. I support the boycott conditionally. Have you linked to any blogs which do support it? There are Israelis who do. I don’t know if there are bloggers who do (I would bet that Aaron Trauring does though I haven’t checked his Israel Peace Blog). This is yet another example of what I see as the lack of political diversity in your coverage. I believe intentionally or unintentionally you included Yonathan’s perspective because as a “leftist” one might expect him to support the boycott yet he opposed it. I also believe you probably oppose the boycott and found his views in consonance w. your own. I don’t know what went through your mind when you wrote about his post and perhaps I’m dead wrong regarding your thoughts or motivations. I’m just telling you how it appeared to me when I read it.
Again, I think you’re being perhaps unintentionally disingenuous here. I am not a Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim. I am a Diaspora Jew and progressive Zionist for whom Israel is at the center of my ethnic, religious and cultural identity. I have lived in Israel, I speak, read & write Hebrew fluently. I have advanced academic degrees in Hebrew Literature. I read the Israeli press in English and Hebrew daily. I write about Israel almost daily. Yet I am not Israeli. Doesn’t yours become a somewhat artificial distinction in my case?
Israel and the Diaspora have related to each other intimately for over 1,000 years. Yet you feel comfortable somehow shutting out this relationship. To me, it just doesn’t make sense unless you’re adopting a conventional Zionist approach which disparages the contribution of Diaspora Jews to Israel and claims that only Israelis are creating our people’s fate & destiny. I wouldn’t want to presume that this is part of your thinking. I hope it isn’t. But by noting that I am Jewish but not Israeli you are paralleling this argument precisely.
I didn’t mean to put you in a position in which you felt you had to defend your personal progressive political views. I accept that you view yourself as liberal regarding Israeli politics (though I probably wouldn’t define your views that way). But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about your editing of the Israel section of Global Voices. Fr. my reading, you don’t include a diverse enough set of voices. I’m not saying it would be easy to do so or that you’re refusing to do so. I’m saying that there must be ways to expand the dialogue & I’ve made a suggestion or two. It’s up to you what you choose to do w. my suggestions. But in excluding me, you certainly don’t improve your diversity quotient.
It is of course your decision to make along with that of Global Voices editorial management. I neither understand nor accept it.
Dear Richard,
Being one of the bloggers who has been labeled ‘leftist’ here – nothing wrong with that, I definitely identify with many traditional leftwing causes, although I often feel anger and embarrassment when I see what many Western so-called leftists say and do these days: my frustration about the diverse boycotts is prompted more by my being a leftist than by anything else – I am afraid that I have to agree with Lisa on this.
The place for a progressive Zionist to raise his family and express his views is Haifa, Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv, not Seattle.
Pack up your stuff, bring your wife and your three beautiful kids and make aliyah. It would be good for the political balance in Israel in general, and for the political balance among ‘Anglo-Israeli bloggers’ in particular. I can assure you that when you come and join us over here Tikun Olam will immediately become one of the blogs covered by Lisa for GVO.
Don’t get me wrong, I very well understand that not everyone – especially not if he/she has a young family – is able to start a whole new life in this country, but you have to understand that – just like choosing to come over and join us – staying abroad has a price. Unfortunately not being considered an Israeli blogger is part of that price, apparently.
Thanks for that kind invitation, Yonathan. I’m pleased you think my making aliyah would be “good” for Israel and Israeli bloggers.
I have lived in Israel in two previous academic years at the Hebrew University during which I considered making aliyah. I did not do so for many reasons, some political and some personal. At that time (the 1970s & 80s) Israel was quite insular both culturally and politically. At least that’s the way I felt. I tried my hand at encouraging a progressive political dialogue about the “conflict.” But it was deeply lonely and frustrating work then. In addition, I felt the war with the Palestinian was murderous (for both sides) and I couldn’t see myself living in a nation facing constant war. This was a personal and psychological observation as much as a political one. I also would’ve felt deeply ambivalent serving in Tzahal. That certainly wouldn’t have started me off on a good footing as an oleh chadash.
By the way, there are many progressive Zionists who live outside of Israel and I think that’s rather a good thing. It is very important here to combat the odious political machinations of Aipac for one thing.
But beyond that, I’m not just a progressive Zionist; I also believe in the Diaspora. Many Israeli Zionists don’t. I’m not sure where you come down on this question, Yonathan. Personally, I believe it’s very important for Zion and Diaspora to live in intimate, symbiotic contact with each other. I believe if Zion died (God forbid) Diaspora might too and vice versa. This is a hard concept for some conventional Zionists to grasp. Indeed, many utterly reject it. But that’s just the way I feel.
And that’s also why I feel I belong in the Israel section of Global Voices.