A guide to Israel's multi-language news media
To understand what Israelis think about the war in Gaza and its political dimensions, it is necessary to look at Israeli news in Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian. It is a complex mosaic.
A question that the international media rarely asks is what Israelis think about the war in Gaza. The press is too busy condemning Israel and gloating about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unpopularity. Yet, Israel is a democracy, so what its people think matters greatly to government policy.
The answer is complicated. Like any country, Israel is not monolithic. Israel is also a nation of polyglots and the political discourse differs greatly depending on whether you consume news in English, Hebrew, Arabic, or Russian, to name the four most widely spoken languages.
Without looking at news in these languages, it is easy to miss different perspectives on the conflict. Israeli and Palestinian politicians are adept at giving different messages in different languages for different audiences.
Language is our window on the world, but it is also our prison. It confines us to one culture’s take on what is the most prominent and important narrative. This is something I have probably meditated on too much over the years. Too often people forget that no matter what language they speak, most of the world speaks something else.
Here is an overview, far from complete, of the major titles in different languages in Israel and what their general editorial takes on the war have been. Most of these mastheads have versions or some material in English, or in Hebrew if you do not mind working through a third language. In any case, in the age of AI translation, never has foreign language media been so accessible.
Let me begin with English language media because it provides the news that most of the Diaspora and foreign critics read. The number of foreign correspondents who can speak Hebrew is laughably small, and it is not much better in the diaspora if you do not count prayers even though it is Israel’s national language and they have made it one of the world’s biggest news stories.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MEDIA
The Times of Israel is the most widely read among the Anglophone diaspora and its website boasts of tens of millions of monthly visits with a US-centric readership. Its editorial slant has become progressively more critical of Netanyahu’s management of the war, arguing that he should resign or face the voters in an election. My issue with the Times is not its tone, to which I am indifferent, but that increasingly it reads like international news coverage of Israel so it is not really offering a distinct Israeli perspective.
The Jerusalem Post (formerly the Palestine Post back when the world was not brainwashed and being Palestinian was synonymous with being Jewish) is a broadly center-right publication. It has large North American and Israeli readerships. Its focus has been on the Israeli hostages’ plight and a general scepticism of war crimes allegations against Israel. It is generally pro-government but has at times been critical of Israel’s war strategy and the international blowback it has caused.
Israel National News/Arutz Sheva, which (full disclosure) has published some of my work, is read mainly by religious Zionists in Israel and conservatives in the diaspora. It has a religious nationalist outlook and a pro-settlement editorial line. It has been hawkish on the war and security issues in general.
+972 Magazine is a non-profit outlet that Israeli and Palestinian journalists run jointly. It is influential in progressive circles among academics, lobbyists, non-governmental organizations, and left-leaning readers globally. Its primary editorial position has been that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and its policies more broadly, have undermined efforts to achieve a political solution. It publishes sustained investigations into cases of civilian harm, displacement, and impunity.
HEBREW-LANGUAGE MEDIA
Ynet/Yedioth Ahronoth is Israel’s largest news portal and legacy daily newspaper with a mainstream audience. Full disclosure again, as it has published my work. It has a broad spectrum of reporting including sharp watchdog coverage of home-front failures and cost-of-living issues, with a hawkish take on national security. I like Ynet because I think it breaks more news than any other title.
Israel Hayom is a free right-leaning daily with a mass readership, especially among commuters. Anyone familiar with London’s Evening Standard will get the idea. Editorially, it is highly supportive of the government’s war aims. It emphasizes the Israeli Defense Forces’ operational success and lambasts foreign critics for applying a double or even triple standard to Israel. It breaks news in the government and security spheres.
Haaretz, which publishes in Hebrew and English, is Israel’s leading left-wing masthead, popular with highly educated urban elites. Haaretz means The Land (of Israel), so it is easily the country’s best-named newspaper. It is highly critical of Israel’s war conduct with a focus on investigations into alleged military wrongdoings, civil-military accountability, and human rights concerns. Its editorial slant is strongly against Netanyahu’s government and Israel having indefinite control of Gaza. It has always been left-wing, but in recent years has become self-loathing. It publishes garbage largely indistinguishable from The Guardian or the BBC. It is a reminder that Israel is just as entwined the the culture wars as the wider Western world.
Maariv is a center-right daily with a broad Israeli readership. It supports Israel’s war aims and is hawkish on national security. Its take on the war in Gaza is pro-government but it has become noticeably more critical of the government’s competence as the war has progressed.
RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE NEWS
NEWSru.co.il is Israel’s largest Russian-language Israeli news site, whose readership is Israeli immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other former Soviet republics. Incidentally, such immigrants were my precise friend group in secondary school, some 65 million years ago.
Its war reporting has been mainly factual and pragmatic and its focus is on immigrant issues. This is a salient reminder that Israelis have more than foreign policy on their minds when they cast their vote, even though such issues get no coverage in the foreign press. Viewing Israelis is as single-issue voters is probably the biggest gap in foreign news coverage of Israeli.
Vesty is Ynet’s Russian-language brand, with a similar pro-government pro-security framing of the war in Gaza. It has a strong focus on human interest stories that illustrate home-front hardships such as internally displaced Israelis in the country’s north, and the burdens military service is placing on families.
Detaly is fast-growing independent Russian news site with a largely professional readership. It is something of an outlier in the Russian-language press because of its strong criticism of Netanyahu and his government.
ARABIC-LANGUAGE NEWS
Panet (panet.co.il) is the largest news portal serving Arab Israeli citizens. It focuses heavily on local community issues such as crime, and safety and services under rocket fire. It takes a careful tone on politics.
Kul al-Arab is a Nazareth-based weekly with a large and popular website. It covers local politics intensely with a focus on social issues. It is critical of the government’s handling of the war and of Arab sector issues, but its gives space for Arab-Israeli debates.
Bokra.net is a community-focused service read among Arab Israelis in the north and its coverage reflects this. Issues such as rocket fire from Hezbollah and issues on the Syrian border are prominent. It does not editorialize much on national issues. Its coverage of Gaza has focused on humanitarian issues.
Israel’s public broadcasting Arabic service Makan/KAN Arabic has a wide audience across all digital mediums but does not publish metrics of its audience breakdown. It covers straight news and does not editorialize.