Newspapers websites are easily accessible online.

Some contain articles that have superb insight, some have political slants, ideological outlooks and are intentionally inciteful! Filtering accuracy in analyses and news reporting from invention and fiction in a world of blogs and websites can be a difficult task.  Each reader should establish criteria for which outlets or authors seem authentic, accurate, and without polemical viewpoint, unless one is seeking just that. There are news agencies, newspapers, and places that aggregate articles.   Most Israeli newspapers have particular political outlooks, as do subscription services from and about Israel; some feature particular writers or come in the form of a translation service. Many readers wish to have their ideas and viewpoints reinforced, so they choose to read only a specific outlet, paper, pundit, or  writer.  For the newcomer, it is easy to be driven into an ideological corner. And for the experienced reader, there is joy of reading only the viewpoint that coincides with one’s own preferences.

Israeli English language newspapers (some articles translated from Hebrew) can be easily found at:

Click here for a listing of all Israeli online newspaper publications and access to their individual websites.

There are many daily digests of articles dealing with Israel. Three are suggested. For a daily synopsis of issues effecting Israel domestically or regionally, try Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA).  IMRA remains an excellent daily round up/digest of articles, polls, interviews, press reports, and agreements that deal with a variety of issues affecting Israel and its people and the Middle East at large. Titles of articles cited are linked to their contents with sources. IMRA is an Israeli based service that culls its items from Israeli and Middle Eastern language outlets. It often provides useful polling data regarding Israeli and Palestinian political attitudes, and otherwise unreported speeches and interviews with news-makers. IMRA closely follows remarks and speeches made by Palestinian leaders wherever they may be.  IMRA was founded in 1992 by Dr. Aaron Lerner and Dr. Joseph Lerner.

Four other digests of daily articles are easily accessible and worthy of mention. The Daily Alert, which is published by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, presents articles on a daily basis that pertain to Israel in one way or other. The Daily Alert breaks down its daily offerings into news items, observations, and analyses. The articles deal with Israel’s internal settings and external relations. The second, MEMRI is a uniquely valuable asset for anyone interested in reading what is written, said, and debated in the languages and media of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Its home page is superbly organized according to topic, country, issue, and language. Besides translating materials into English, MEMRI provides translations in nine other languages. Both of these digests offer free subscriptions.  Third, The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace  publishes five days a week, its Israel and the Middle East Update. It is a daily news update that includes excerpts from a variety of news sources – including Israeli press translated from Hebrew, respected American and Arab news outlets, and analysis/reports from reputable thinktanks. Each newsletter also includes two full-length articles that illuminate some of the most pressing issues facing the region.  Fourth, Palestinian Media Watch is an Israeli research institute that studies Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives by monitoring and analyzing the Palestinian Authority and Hamas through its media and schoolbooks. PMW’s major focus is on the messages that the Palestinian leaders send to the population through the broad range of institutions and infrastructures they control.

If you only have time to read one weekly assemblage of Middle Eastern newspapers, whether you are a sophisticated observer or a beginning analyst, try the Dayan Center website at Tel Aviv University.  The Center publishes a weekly compilaton of five to ten articles from the region under its Middle East News Brief. Each brief contains English language articles from the Arab, Turkish, or Iranian press. Some of these articles were originally published in English; some were translated by individuals or by a translation service. Once you identify a newspaper or author that is substantial and even trustworthy,  bookmark them as favorites. We still recommended that you continue to catch the weekly Middle East News Brief from the Dayan Center to learn from a variety of outlets and authors that the Dayan Center considers reputable in analysis, but may not agree with the conclusions presented.

There are a large number of newspapers that cover the Middle East with some depth and appear in English or with English translations. Many (if not most) of their writers, analysts, and reporters have historically been angry and bitter toward Jews and toward Israel (its people and leadership). If you can get past some of the vile descriptions of Israel, we recommend reading the Middle Eastern press to understand better a whole host of important issues, including local Arab politics, inter-Arab affairs, attitudes toward Iran, toward radical Islam, and topics that Israelis (as neighbors) and others are concerned about— such as the future and nature of political change in Arab states.  It is most illuminating to read Arab analyses of their governmental systems, ethnic issues, sectarianism, oil politics, and relationships with foreign countries, economic and social issues.  Some of the better and more analytical writers may be found in the following newspapers (here again the reader will have to create their own filters for which writers, writing on which topics are reputable):

There are newspaper outlets, like al-Jazeera and others, that provide overarching services but blur distinctions between covering events and putting a political bias or coloring to them (even though their reporting is often penetrating). The Middle Eastern media in general blurs this distinction— but so do reporters at many English and other language outlets, as well. Many of the outlets mentioned above often cover social, religious, and economic issues which affect the region (and therefore Israel’s place in it).

The Historical Jewish Press offers a compilation for the archive enthusiast who seeks historical information about Israel’s earlier years or from the pre-state period. Browse this website and you will be taken to almost three dozen Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and English newspapers that were published in Palestine and Europe, tracing the early rumblings of Zionism— its organization, leadership, and philosophical differences.
Finally, there are Israeli news broadcasts and telecasts that can be secured over the internet. The Israel Broadcast Authority provides Israel news in dozens of languages and also produces a useful home page with current issues on Israel’s national agenda. This is a very good source for up-to-date information about the most contemporary issues affecting Israel. Conveniently, English language news can be secured on demand without waiting for a broadcast to come at a particular time of day.