Over the past few days, I’ve had a dialogue of the deaf with Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli journalist who edits the Israel section of the Global Voices website. I’ve criticized the lack of diversity in Goldman’s choices of blogs she covers in her regular roundups of Israeli blogs. I’ve also criticized her narrow definition of what her section accepts. For example, this blog is not eligible because I am not Israeli, even though I blog about Israel every day.
Robert Rosenberg, who IS an Israeli and the author of Ariga.com a blog cum daily briefing on Israeli politics, informs me that his site is not considered eligible by Ms. Goldman because it is not a blog (or so she claims). [Correction: Though Goldman does not include Ariga in her roundup, Robert corrects my misinterpretation of something he wrote in a e-mail. She has never explictily explained to him why he is not included. I stand corrected.] The only thing Ariga.com lacks that other blogs have is a comment feature (and there are many blogs which turn off their comment feature, yet they’re still considered blogs). Interestingly, Goldman includes in her coverage Karen Alkalay-Gut‘s website that calls itself a “diary” but is clearly not a conventional blog. The reason I raise Ariga as an example of Goldman’s narrow-mindedness is that Robert’s views of the Israeli-Arab conflict are similarly progressive to my own.
A search of Goldman’s roundups at the site turns up no mention of Aron Trauring’s Israel Peace Blog, another progressive voice among the Israeli blogging community. Ran Hacohen’s Letter from Israel at Antiwar.com also apparently doesn’t rate as a blog and so is deemed ineligible by Goldman.
I’ve already mentioned in my last post about Global Voices that there are no current Israeli-Arab bloggers featured there (though Goldman had recruited one who stopped writing). This means that Global Voices is not hearing from 20% of the Israeli population.
So who is she covering? In her current roundup she features Dutchblog Israel criticizing the British academic boycott of Israel. She calls him a “leftist” even though his position in the post in question can’t remotely be called leftist. I get the distinct impression that Goldman was pleased to feature a “leftist” who attacked the academic boycott. Next, she featured Olegirl who is “utterly disgusted” by the boycott. Hmm, do we start to see an ideological pattern here?
She also features a post from Treppenwitz about the story of a Palestinian girl suffering from cancer who was treated at an Israeli hospital. It seems the Palestinian minister of health refused to contribute toward the operation because Hamas does not wish to cooperate with such Israeli endeavors. The clear political motivation of the blog post was to stick it to Hamas and the (anti-Israel) world media for allegedly not covering the story:
Yet to these people [journalists] who drool over even the smallest news story the way a starving man drools over a steak, the willingness of the Palestinian Minister of Health… a Medical Doctor for whom politics should come second (if at all)… to let a little Palestinian girl die rather than cooperate with the Israelis, isn’t considered newsworthy.
And secondarily, he seeks to show how magnanimous Israel was to provide the medical treatment to begin with.
Goldman cites Sharvul for a non-political post and calls him “politically leftist.” After searching through his blog I could find hardly any material with overt political content except one post which criticized Israeli peace activists demonstrating outside chief of staff Dan Halutz’s home for calling him a “murderer.” Even if one agrees with his sentiment I’d hardly call it “politically leftist.”
To her credit, Goldman does feature one blog, which she again cites as “leftist” (what is it with the phrase that she uses it so much?), whose owner recounts her personal journey from a Land of Israel supporter to a human rights activist on behalf of the Palestinians. She also features a blog post by Karen Alkalay-Gut about a popular Israeli-Arab writer, one by a gay non-Israeli living in Israel about Gay Pride Day and one by a Lebanese tourist visiting Israel. I’m glad she included these posts (though only the first deals with the Israeli-Palestinian issue I’m raising here).
I have not yet heard from Global Voices editorial management about whether they see a need to expand the political voices in their Israel section. Goldman certainly doesn’t see a need as she dismissively ended our conversation about this saying she was merely writing to explain her position but not to listen to mine. She’s already spent too much time dealing with me as it was, etc.,etc. That’s why I call it a dialogue of the deaf. So unless and until anything changes at Global Voices, you’ll largely be hearing there but a single side of that critical conflict that hovers over Israel and Palestine (and the world) like a 900 lb. elephant. ‘Tis a pity.
I also want to make clear that while I am critical of the way Lisa Goldman is editing her section, I admire Global Voices’ mission overall and wish it only the best. My comments are meant to challenge the site to do better and are not meant at all destructively.
Dear Richard,
Thanks for replying to my previous comment. On many issues we agree, I am sure, but when it comes to the question Who’s a Zionist? we do not really see eye to eye, I am afraid. In my opinion one can be sympathetic to a certain version of Zionism or to the Jewish state, but a Jew who for whatever reason chooses to live outside Israel should refrain from calling himself a Zionist, because he is preaching towards other Jews and to the outside world something that he cannot realize or does not believe in himself: that Jews should live in Israel.
I certainly believe in a very important role for the Diaspora and, do not get me wrong, I do not blame anyone for not making aliyah, on the contrary: Israel would be weaker without the Diaspora. Still, there is a significant difference – again, in my opinion, I know you will disagree with me on this – between the opinion of someone who more or less lives the Zionist dream/nightmare and someone who provides commentary from the sidelines, no matter how true, insight- and helpful his comments sometimes are. Lisa’s work on her blog and in international fora has a different impact from your weblog, in particular because she shows the very human, vulnerable and nuanced face of (Anglo-)Israelis and Israeli journalists.
Aron Trauring was one of the first bloggers to whose blogs I put a link on my weblog ( I call that list ‘Israel-related weblogs’, which is a broad enough definition ), and he gave me some valuable advice when I just started DBI. Yet, he does not live in Israel, he lives in New York, so there is no reason to include him in the list you so much want to be a part of, and I am almost positive that he would not want to be included. There is a case for including Ariga, maybe, but Ran HaCohen’s writings have hardly anything to do with a weblog.
You are right when you say that most Israeli-Anglo bloggers seem to be right of center politically, although I think that yours truly, OlehGirl, Lisa G., Savtadotty, Not a Fish, the View from Here ‘prove’ that being a real – fairly progressive – Zionist, blogging in Israel and not being an honorary member of Kach can be combined in one and the same person. That there are not more leftwing/liberal/not-rightwing-extremist Anglo-bloggers in Israel is something that, unlike you, we cannot really do anything about. In other words, it is up to you, not us.
In short, I think that while I disagree on many points with most of the Israeli bloggers I think that they do belong on GVO/Lisa’s list, and that you do not, even though I agree with you on more than one political point. The list is about living in and writing from/about Israel, not about having an opinion on what is going on in and around the Jewish State.
I can see how quickly our conversation moves from friendly to contentious as soon as I reveal that I don’t intend to make aliyah. Why do you speak in such a friendly fashion when trying to convert me to the idea of making aliyah, but once you discover that I will not, then the intellectual gloves come off?
I strenuously & even vehemently disagree with your narrow definition of Zionism. There has been a thriving, intimate relationship between Diaspora & Zion ever since the Romans expelled the Jews from Israel in the first century CE. And ever since the modern Zionist movement began there have been Zionists who lived in the Diaspora and never made aliyah. I’m afraid that if we followed your lead we’d have to dismantle the entire structure of the World Zionist Congress since by yr definition Zionists cannot live in the Diaspora & call themselves such. It’s a wrong-headed notion & thankfully reality intercedes when idealists go to extremes.
You may wish for the cow to jump over the moon but it simply won’t happen. You must know in your heart that not all Jews will make aliyah. And that many of these Jews will love Zion & call themselves Zionists (even if you find this treif). Why deliberately alienate them by telling them they’re beyond the pale?
Further, I do believe that Jews should live in Israel. I just don’t believe that ALL Jews should live there. And I don’t believe that I should either.
Indeed, I couldn’t disagree more. There may be a difference in your mind but not in that of the vast majority of the remainder of world Jewry (& even many Israelis). And I might add that Zionism itself is changing within Israel (as it has since 1967) & that your notion will linger for some time, but it will eventually, I hope, morph into a recognition that Zionism and the Diaspora are co-equal partners in forging the identity of the Jewish people.
Again, it’s not “either/or.” Lisa presents a valuable slice of life image of Israel. And I have quite a different goal in mind. We fill different niches. As I wrote to her, why can’t we let 1,000 flowers bloom? Why must only one flower dominate the garden?
My problem isn’t with what Lisa covers in Global Voices. What she does write about it worthwhile. It’s what she DOESN’T COVER that distresses me.
Regarding Aron Trauring. I think you know that he only recently moved to New York. Why wasn’t he included by Lisa when he lived in Israel (which has been almost the entire time he’s written his blog)? And so you want to exclude Ran Hacohen & Aron Trauring and me. How do you propose that Lisa present to her readers a political perspective that is a major (though not majority) element of Israeli political life? Or is your idea that she has no responsibility to include that voice unless it fulfills her artificial notion of what is a blog and what is an Israeli blog?
Lisa determines what’s in the Israel section. But Haitham Sabbah determines what’s in the Palestine section and he sets his rules entirely differently than hers. There is no reason why Lisa couldn’t show more flexibility. Unless that is, she is adhering to your conventional Zionist notion of what is a kosher blog to include in this section. And if this is the case it is most unfortunate & I’m relatively sure that the Global Voices management would not agree with this notion.
If there is a case for including Ariga.com you should make it to Lisa. It clearly fell on deaf ears when Robert talked w. her about it; and she didn’t reply to my suggestion that he be included.
Just to clarify, Richard — Lisa and I, though we know each other, never discussed her mentioning Ariga at her blog. I actually wasn’t aware of her having a blog until you pointed it out to me. My comment about bloggers either looking down on Ariga as not being a blog because it is doesn’t use the I word or looking up at it as a veteran journalist’s site, was a general reference, and not something resulting from a conversation with Lisa.
Best
Robert Rosenberg
Robert: I must’ve misunderstood a phrase you wrote in your e mail to me. My mistake & I stand corrected.
But regardless of whether or not she communicated to you the reasons you are not incluced…the fact of the matter is that she doesn’t include you in her roundup. Either she doesn’t like yr politics or she doesn’t consider you a blog. Either way, it’s too bad & hurts the representativeness of Global Voices Israel section.