Note (Aug 2000) - Click here for more/updated Middle East Links.

Israeli cyberspace is a large and eclectic place, including Israel government sites, sites of political parties and movements, on-line editions of Israeli and Jewish newspapers and magazines such as Ha’aretz, Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Report, personal pages, and Jewish organizations in the United States and around the world, as well as a number of email services providing news and views. These present the "Israeli Side" and the "Jewish Side" in the broadest sense, covering religion, history, business and tourism in Israel, antisemitism, the Holocaust and Holocaust denial, the workings of the Israeli government, Zionism, peace efforts and the Palestine-Israel conflict, and spanning opinion from the extreme right to the extreme left. This review focuses on the presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace issues. The sites reviewed here and many others are summarized in the Concise Guide.

Reality in the Mid-East is generally grim and populated by hypocrisy and fanaticism, punctuated by quixotic idealism. The presentation of the Israeli side of the Palestine-Israel conflict on the Internet reflects this reality in a distorted way. It includes the glib materials prepared by the government, the well-funded, slick but often shrill arguments of the Israeli Right, and also the persistent voice of the Israeli peace camp, joined, in some cases by Palestinians. The Labor-Zionist Center is barely heard from at all. The case for Israel, in terms of positive achievements is covered rather briefly in histories of Zionism. The positive case for Greater Israel is presented by only a few organizations, but they do so in revealing and nakedly chauvinistic texts. Terror is featured widely as the major, if not the only, Israeli security issue.

The most effective propaganda in the battle of the Government and Greater Israel groups against the peace process is documentation of Palestinian extremist statements and acts, taken from PNA controlled media. The Palestinian Covenant (original version including clauses about the destruction of Israel) and the Hamas Charter are featured prominently. PNA television shows and Fateh summer camps where children are urged to be Shaheed Martyrs and taught to reconquer Beersheba and Haifa are major attractions at more than one Israeli or Zionist Web site. These items are used with devastating effect to portray the Palestinian people as a group as bloodthirsty terrorists, and to hammer home the ideas that peace is impossible because the Palestinians do not want it, and that the Palestinians will use any land returned to them as the base for a staged plan to destroy Israel.

The only way to make peace is to make peace. The most effective counter-weapon may be the small, but growing efforts at Israel-Palestinian cooperation and dialog.

Israel Government Sites

At the Israel Foreign Office site you can find a guide to the Middle East Peace Process (significantly, it was last updated in October 1997), a rather detailed, if not exhaustive official list of Israeli Web sites , and news about Israel under Updates. When there is good news (for Israel) Updates is updated. There is also an extensive history of Zionism, detailing the beginnings of Zionist movement, the holocaust, the struggle for independence, the ingathering of the exiles, the achievements of the fifty-year old state, and the various wars. There is a Web page devoted to the memory of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, with touching quotes from youths who visited the grave site, but with no mention of why he was assassinated. The history of the War of Independence manages to avoid the refugee issue entirely.

At the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Web site,  you can learn about the workings and history of the Knesset, send e-mail to members of the Knesset (you will probably not get an answer) and view the Beilin-Eitan agreement concerning the conduct of the peace process. All Israel government sites also provide links to sites of the other government offices.

These sites are intended to give an impression of an open democracy at work, pursuing peace and constructive goals, but some items might seem out of place. For example, in the guidelines of the government, we read that the State of Israel is the State of the Jewish people, whose democratic government guarantees equality for all its citizens. However, under the Government Press Releases Media section, there is an article by Nadav Ha’etzni entitled "Another Ticking Bomb," reprinted from Ma’ariv, suggesting that Arab and particularly Bedouin citizens of Israel are becoming increasingly disloyal under the influence of Islamic fundamentalism. Some visitors may wonder why a democratic government posts an article that casts aspersion on large segments of its own citizenry.

We can also read in the government guidelines that Freedom of worship and access to the holy places will be guaranteed to members of all faiths. However, the guidelines continue: The Law of Conversion shall be changed so that conversions to Judaism in Israel will be recognized only if approved by the Chief Rabbinate. Apparently, Reform and Conservative Judaism are not included in "all faiths," and do not come under the protection of "freedom of worship."

The Israel foreign office site, the Zionist Organization of America and various press services relate in detail the inflammatory contents of PNA television programs, newspaper articles and official pronouncements, reminding us that all of these are violations of the Oslo accords. In the many pages devoted to this topic at the Israel Foreign office site, we can find quotes such as the following:

Political Parties

Several of the Israeli political parties maintain Web sites, though they do not always update them. You can view the platforms of the Likud and Labor parties in English. If you understand Hebrew, you should also visit the sites of Meretz   and Chadash, the Israel Communist Party. The differences in platforms are instructive, particularly for those who believe there aren’t any differences between the Likud and Labor. The Likud platform does not discuss returning any land to the Palestinians and specifically rules out a Palestinian state. Moving leftward, the Labor party mentions a Palestinian state, and extending Israeli sovereignty over 10-15% of the West Bank. Meretz favors a state and withdrawal from "most or all" of the West Bank and Gaza, while Chadash favors withdrawal from all of the territories occupied since 1967.

Right and Center

Mainstream opinion usually echoes the opinion of the government in power. In current circumstances, Jewish and Israeli political opinions are usually those associated with the right. "Virtual Jerusalem" and its links features everything to do with the "mainstream" and Right Wing Judaism and Zionism, including, among others, the Web news service of the settler’s radio station, Arutz-7. A good site for links is The Complete Guide to Israeli Internet. Politics and Peace pages at this site provide a wide variety of opinion from different political parties and movements, as will as links to numerous memorial pages honoring the late Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin.

Do not miss the Web site of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). The titles of successive ZOA press releases taken at random show a remarkable tendency to focus on the same issues - PNA violations of the Oslo Agreements and terror, even though they are supposedly not devoted exclusively to the peace process or PNA activities:

While you are at the ZOA site, you will not want to miss the study by President Mortimer Klein, that proports to show that the Deir Yassin massacre never took place, and was largely an invention of the Israeli Left.

Several sites deal with "security" issues. IRIS (Information Regarding Israel’s Security) presents size comparison maps of Israel, including one that shows Israel floating in Lake Michigan. It also includes the inevitable damaging quotes from PNA officials and newspapers, a series of "peace or terror" charts, background documents on the PLO, and a discussion of the threat posed by Katyusha rockets to Israeli cities. Notably missing from this discussion of Israeli "security" issues are the threat posed by Iranian rockets and a discussion of the strengths of the armies of neighboring countries such as Syria.

The more extreme sites are more outspoken in their advocacy of the cause of Greater Israel. The following quote from Professors for a Strong Israel shows their idea of what constitutes a strong Israel:

They are joined by many others, including the Organization of Rabbis for the People of Israel , where one can learn that:

The people of Israel are the Chosen People... The land of Israel, blessed with a unique sanctity, was given by God to the Jewish people for all generations... It is a Torah commandment for all generations to conquer the Land of Israel, to settle it and to preserve it.

Lest anyone mistake which part of Israel is intended, they have on display a halachic ruling regarding return of territories:

....in the area held and controlled by the I.D.F. the commandment to settle the Land of Israel... is being fulfilled. The areas abandoned by the I.D.F. fall under the yoke of the non- Jews and this is an arrogation of a positive commandment.

The Rabbis may be unaware that their statements exactly parallel similar statements concerning Palestine and Islam in the Charter of the Hamas movement.

The site of the Amana settlement organization offers little ideology. Instead, it boasts a cutesy-cosy applet of a house that you can click on to choose a town to settle in Judea and Samaria. Presumably this offer is limited to members of the Chosen People.

A number of sites, some with considerable resources, specialize in gathering and presents newspaper and media reports, and there are several e-mail news services including JTA and Arutz 7 (Settler’s Radio) that can be accessed from the Virtual Jerusalem site. Without exception, all of these represent the Right to extreme Right wing portion of the political spectrum. The Freeman Center presents articles underlining PLO non-compliance with Oslo agreements and similar materials. Media Watch takes aim at U.S. and Israeli media that do not fulfill their notions of objectivity. Titles of sample reports:

The IMRA service run by Likud stalwart Aaron Lerner provides excerpts from the El-Ahram English weekly newspaper, as well as interviews with Israeli and PNA officials and public figures. The service is available by e-mail and other media.

The Camera Media review seems to believe that nearly all U.S. and European newsmedia and reporters are pro-Arab, including writers like Anthony Lewis, generally considered a friend of Israel, and presents what they consider to be evidence to prove it.

Barry Chamish's Inside Israel Newsletter skirts the far fringe of Israeli public opinion, with articles suggesting that Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by order of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

The Fringe

Two sites deserve special attention because they represent the extreme of right-wing political opinion, that is beyond the pale of respectability in Israel. One is the site of the Kahana Hai (Kahana Lives) organization, successor to the party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahana. Civil Libertarians take note: they have an electronic petition asking that their party, currently outlawed as racist, be allowed to participate in Israeli elections. Women in Green ("Women for Israel’s Future) also has an impressive site. The highlight is a fantasy by founder Nadia Matar about Israel in the year 2048, relating that after the Israeli peace movement advised the PNA to use terror to advance his cause, the Israeli government arrested and executed Yasser Arafat and jailed Shimon Peres for life.

Peace and Cooperation

Israeli cyberspace is not completely devoted to the government line and occupied by Right wing organizations. There is a large and varied selection of sites devoted to peace, including sites of Israeli peace organizations, cooperative Palestinian - Israeli efforts. The Ariga site  is devoted to "Business, Pleasure and Peace" in Israel. Robert Rosenberg has placed selections of his own writings on view, hosts a number of Israeli and joint Israeli-Palestinian peace pages with titles such as ‘"A Settler for Peace", and has assembled links to sites of virtually every group in the Israeli peace movement and joint Israeli-Palestinian efforts, to personal Web pages devoted to peace, Palestinian and Arab sites, a variety of joint Jewish-Arab and Israel-Palestinian ventures, important documents such as the Oslo accords at the Herzog center and the Copenhagen Declaration, and to different peace foundations. In these sites you will find information and statistics, scholarly articles, dialog, political action initiatives and petitions, documentation of land expropriation, house demolition, the plight of the refugees.

When I visited the main Ariga Peace Page, the featured items were an invitation to join in Gush Shalom’s petition for sharing Jerusalem, and links to BibiWatch (an incisive commentary on the government, now discontinued) and PeaceWatch (successor to BibiWatch, produced by the PEACE dialog group).

Ever since his son fell in the 1982 Lebanon war, Yehoshua Zamir has worked to comfort other families and to try to bring peace. His writings are collected in Survival is Not Enough.

Academia, Organizations and Institutes

Several Israeli and Jewish Organizations devoted to promoting peace and dialog are represented on the internet. These include, among others, the Shimon Peres Peace Center, the Givat Haviva Center, the Re’ut Tzadaka Arab-Israeli youth group   and Newe Shalom/Wahat el Salaam.

The Israel-Palestine Research Institute (IPCRI) run by Prof. Gershon Baskin and Dr. Zakaria el Qaq researches issues related to the peace process and economic cooperation. Their site features position papers and results of research about the refugee problem, attitudes concerning a final settlement and Jerusalem. MERIA (Mid-East Review of International Affairs) edited by Prof. Barry Rubin, is a scholarly review devoted to economics and peace, and also provides free online books.

The Palestine-Israel Journal is in a class of its own. It is a joint publication founded in 1994 by two journalists, Victor Cygielman and Ziad Abu Zayyad.  It provides a platform for dialogue and discussion of issues related to the peace process and the Palestine-Israel conflict, and it is 'must reading' for anyone interested in these issues; it is also an important contribution to the process of building a common understanding and intellectual experience that is vital to the success of the peace process.

Peace Movements

You can view the pages of the several Israeli and Joint Israeli - Palestinian peace movements from links at Ariga, or directly. These include Btselem, Bat-Shalom, Dor-Shalom, GushShalom, Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) and others. Peace Now is the oldest Israeli peace movement and claims to be the largest. Their Settlement Watch reports give details of new settlement construction and expenditures on the settlements. Other postings deal with the issues of Jerusalem and Har Choma.

Dor-Shalom (Generation of Peace) was set up after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin and is headed by his son Yuval. Their presentation of the classic Labor-Zionist ideals at their site, www.dorshalom.org.il, appeals to the Israeli center. It reminds us that there are still positive goals to be attained, and that Zionism is not synonymous with the Greater Israel Movement. Excerpt from their statement of mission:

Dor Shalom strives to create a change in Israeli society, breathing new life into the values of peace, tolerance, democracy and social justice, so that the citizens of Israel will be able to live in peace, among themselves and with their neighbors.

Notably absent from the Dor-Shalom site, however, was any mention of the considerable efforts of Dor Shalom for peace.

Mishmarot Hashalom (Peace Watch) is a unique organization that maintains weekly vigils at the site of the Rabin assassination in Rabin Square. They are there each Friday afternoon, and anyone is invited to attend. Their site is devoted to their vigil meetings and activities on behalf of peace. They also urge people to call Israeli radio talk shows and voice opinions in favor of peace.

The Gush Shalom group, founded by Uri Avnery, publicizes activities such as their boycott of products made in the settlements and their campaign against house demolitions, which includes rebuilding demolished houses again and again and again, as well as letter-writing and demonstrations.

The Oz Veshalom - Netivot Shalom group deserves special attention. It is a Jewish religious group dedicated to peace and dialog. The Oz ve Shalom Web pages feature peace-oriented weekly torah commentaries as well as an account of an overnight dialog meeting in Gaza.

Two progressive Jewish magazines that often deal with the Palestinian conflict have internet sites: TIKKUN, the magazine of the Progressive Jewish Religious Movement edited by Rabbi Michael Lerner and PS magazine. PS is also available in an email edition.

Dialog Groups

A visit to the peace camp side of cyberspace should include the Web pages devoted to dialog in Israel and throughout the world. Len and Libby Traubman, founders of the California Living Room Dialog group have assembled an impressive set of documents, press releases and links. Some of these materials relate to the inception of the Oslo process, in which they played an active part. The Jewish-Palestinian dialog in Basle, Switzerland has a site that includes a jointly prepared declaration regarding principles of a final settlement that visitors can sign. The PEACE Dialog co-founded by Ameen Hannoun in Jordan and Ami Isseroff in Israel, has sister Web sites maintained from Jordan (PEACE) and Israel (View Points) ; in a manner of speaking, "Israeli" cyberspace has invaded Jordan, and "Arab" cyberspace has invaded Israel.

There is also at least one Web Forum, the Jewish Palestinian Encounter devoted to dialog between Palestinians. It has had better and worse periods, but it still supports a reasonable level of civility and reason and reason on better days.

Parting Thoughts