The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s long-standing English-language newspaper, has a print circulation of only about 30,000. Yet it has an extensive international reach.
David Horovitz, the paper’s British-born editor-in-chief, told The Chronicle Tuesday that the Post’s Web site received 45 million hits this past July. Moreover, a look at the replies to its articles on the site shows that people read it all over the globe.
“We are a small newspaper that has disproportionate resonance” in the world, said Horovitz, who has held the post for the past two years.
Horovitz was in Milwaukee Tuesday to speak at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Major Gifts Dinner.
This was one stop in a weeklong national tour that brought him to California and Texas, among other places, in speaking engagements for United Jewish Communities, Hillel Foundation and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
War coming?
His paper’s Web site has carried opinion articles from columnists contending that a new Arab-Israel war could be on the near horizon. Caroline Glick’s Oct. 6 column warned that Russia was increasing its aid to Hezbollah; and Michael Freund’s column on Oct. 18 warned, “The conflict may be just weeks or even months away, or perhaps a bit longer.”
But Horovitz himself said, “I don’t think most Israelis anticipate another war in the near future.”
Moreover, even though most Israelis do not believe Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s claim that the recent war in Lebanon was an Israeli victory, the overall national mood “is incredibly resilient,” said Horovitz. “That is the most astonishing quality about Israelis.”
In fact, polls show that most Israelis are happy and believe Israel is “a good place to live,” said Horovitz, who himself has lived in Israel for more than 20 years.
However, there is in the Israeli public a “yearning for leadership” and a “search for panaceas” for the country’s problems, he said. That explains the volatility of Israeli politics for the last decade-and-a-half, as the government lurched from right to left and back, Horovitz said.
And there has been a “battering of public trust” in the national political leaders, Horovitz said. The scandal around President Moshe Katsav is a prominent example.
Israeli police on Monday recommended that Katsav be charged with raping two women and with fraud. Horovitz pointed out that it is now up to Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to decide whether or not to file the charges.
This affair has good and bad news aspects, said Horovitz. On the positive side, the seriousness of the investigation means that Israel “has internalized first world [standards for] sexual propriety,” he said.
However, it is “very depressing” that “somebody who seemed to be decent” is alleged to be a predator, Horovitz said. Moreover, Mazuz’s decision on the case will have potentially serious consequences.
If Mazuz declines to prosecute — and in “case after case” involving political leaders, the attorney general’s office has decided not to — then the Israeli public will need an explanation why, Horovitz said. The quality of that explanation could cause Israelis to lose faith in either the police or in the prosecution system, he said.
When asked how Israelis view the U.S. involvement in Iraq, Horovitz said they view it “through the filter of Iran” with its efforts to develop nuclear power and and the verbal threats that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made against Israel.
For Israel, much will depend on the outcome of the U.S. effort, Horovitz said. If the U.S. leaves behind a stable and democratic government in Iraq, that will send a message to such nations as Iran that is “positive for Israel,” he said.
But if the U.S. “does not achieve its goals” and “leaves with its tail between its legs,” then Iran will be strengthened and that will be “terrible for Israel,” Horovitz said.
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