Although many critics claim the J14 movement failed by not challenging the occupation or achieving sufficient results for Israeli workers and the middle class, a wave of revived labor organizing indicates new potential for worker power -- a May Day update. One thing is certain: personally, it's been a hell of a ride. About 18 months ago the new Union of Journalists in Israel (UJI) was set up and I quickly joined. It took us a couple of months of hard work until April 22, 2012 when the UJI announced it was officially representing journalists in 10 media organizations; I…

Two of the three leading veteran papers in Israel are in deep trouble: Several hundreds workers of the Maariv daily – the 3rd largest in Israel – held a protest this afternoon, occasionally blocking traffic on one of Tel Aviv's busiest highways. Maariv was reported to have been sold by its owner, business tycoon Nochi Dankner, to rightwing publisher Shlomo Ben-Zvi. It was made public yesterday that the 2,000 people working at the paper will be fired, and only several hundred may be re-hired under the new ownership. The newly formed union of Maariv workers has also discovered that there aren't…

Israel's 3rd largest daily is expected to merge with Makor Rishon, a conservative paper especially popular among settlements, and edited by Netanyahu's former chief of staff. The Hebrew media is reporting today (Friday) that Maariv, the 3rd largest daily paper in Israel, will be sold to Shlomo Ben-Zvi, the publisher of the rightwing broadsheet Makor Rishon. Maariv has been losing money for a decade. The paper's financial troubles got worse after the introduction of Sheldon Adelson's Israel Hayom – a daily paper distributed for free at considerable loss. Maariv was recently under immediately threat of shutting down. Employees were notified this week…

The top stories in all Israeli dailies this weekend discuss a coming strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Thirty-seven percent of Israelis think President Obama would stop Iran from developing a bomb, while only 29 percent doubt it. The front page headlines in all major daily papers in Israel deal with the increased likelihood of a war with Iran. Yedioth Aharonoth has an important expose: the paper's diplomatic correspondents, Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer, report that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has gathered senior army generals twice (the latest meeting took place at Mossad headquarters) in order to obtain their support for…

Just a few thoughts on stuff that’s been "bothering" me... to say the least 1. My tax shekels pay too many idiots I read a column today by Ofer Shelach [Heb], who writes for the daily Ma’ariv, and pounded my desk rather hard. Shelach was angry, rightfully so, for the words spewed by Army Radio talk-show host Avri Gilad on his morning show with Jacky Levi, called “The Last Word.” Unfortunately, they won’t be his last words on that show (no, I'm not calling for his death, for Christ's sake). Shelach brings an excerpt: Levy said that the fact that Israel…

The weekend supplement of Ma'ariv ran an exhaustive investigation of the effect the Palestinian rocket threat has on Israeli children living within their range. On the left is the "illustration" by one Ophir Bagon, which opened the story. On the right is the original photo. See the difference? And here is the pic as it first appeared, on Ma'ariv's front page just two months ago: h/t John Brown 

Yair Lapid left his position in Channel 2 News and announced his intention to enter politics. He is likely to split the secular vote in a way that won't allow anyone but the Likud to form the next government One of the questions that has dominated the political landscape in Israel in the last couple of years received an (almost) definite answer this week, when the most popular journalist in Israel, Yair Lapid, resigned from his post as Channel 2's Friday evening anchorman in order to enter politics. If he had it his way, Lapid would have waited for new…

300,000 is a dizzying number. It was thrilling to see so many citizens on the streets suffused with hope.  But I still grapple with uncertainty amid all the excitement, unsure of what connects me to them to make an ‘us.’ Beyond some increasingly specific policy demands, in the big scheme, are we hoping for the same things? Pressed between a quarter-million bodies in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, awash in euphoria and humidity, I searched hard for points of convergence, and confronted my fears about future divisions. Here are the ones I identified: Convergence The protests are pan-Israeli, and this…

According to government sources, the army doesn't have any evidence that the flotilla activists are planning violent resistance, yet it publicly accuses them of conspiring to murder soldiers The top story in two of Israel's leading daily papers yesterday was a bombshell: The IDF unveiled plans by flotilla passengers to kill soldiers trying to stop the ships from getting to Gaza. Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's most widely read paper, ran a headline declaring "Flotilla activists set to kill," which was attributed to military sources (but only in the fine print). The story declared, "Intelligence information revealed violent plans." In the inside…

According to Maariv's poll, 57 percent of Israelis accept the principles outlined in president Obama's Middle East speech. By being more pro-Israeli than the Knesset, the US Congress indicates that the road to peace and justice in the region cannot pass through Washington In the morning following Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech before a joint session of Congress, a poll published by the Israeli daily Maariv indicates that while Netanyahu enjoys considerable support among Israelis, the public is far more inclined than its prime minister to make concessions to the Palestinians. According to a Teleseker-Maariv poll, conducted last night, a clear…

The settler's blog "The Muqata" pulled out this old Maariv piece from the days of the first Intifada to condemn Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who apparently got too soft with the years, at least for the blog's taste. It reads: Netanyahu: Shoot to Kill the Stone Throwers | According to Netanyahu, the Intifada's leaders should be deported, and the West Bank sealed to foreign media Still, I guess Netanyahu should be considered a moderate compared to his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who in his youth joined Rabbi Kahane's Kach movement, later to be outlawed for its racist activities. [The Muqata's…

Ma'ariv today launches a full-front personal attack on Thomas Friedman, going after the NYT columnist for his recent (too recent, but highly welcome) move to the moderate left on Israel-Palestine, and most especially for his criticism of Netanyahu. The high-pitched article, which gets a front-page lead and a two-page spread in the first pages of the print edition, is mouth-frothing set in print. Author Avi Ratzon - a veteran sports commentator - has a rather fine choice of words he wants to hurl in Friedman's "rotund, self-satisfied face." He calls Friedman an "escort boy", accuses him of pulling the old "concerned,…