About This Blog

 

I ran this blog for about five years in the early part of this millennium, and had a wide following, especially in the Arab world. However, I eventually had to quit, after the site was attacked constantly by hackers that included political gangsters, spammers, porn peddlers, and botnet operators.

 

I have now decided to give blogging another try for the following reasons:

 

  • Too much of traditional journalism has been overtaken by pundits, who spend so much time writing, appearing on television and on the public speaking circuit that they have little or no time for original research. The result has been highly-opinionated misinformation about the Middle East on a mammoth scale.
  • Too many of those journalists who still work in the field, are now padding their stories with so much colour and so many quotes, that there is little space left in their articles for thoughtful, substantive analysis.
  • Articles, whether in the daily media or in magazines have become much shorter, and, as a result, even some respected journals no longer publish material that is long enough to provide a comprehensive overview of a situation.
  • Most magazines today have a particular editorial slant, whether it be a political ideology, a belief in the mores of a particular locale such as Washington, or an academic slant such as postmodernism. As a result, too many issues that do not fit into one of those frameworks, are ignored.
  • As a fervent democrat, I am appalled that, as a result of all these factors, only those with a lot of money can afford to subscribe to professionally-run analytical services that can provide the data and analysis needed by ordinary citizens to make informed decisions about pressing political matters.

 

For all these reasons, and more, I have chosen to renew my blog, which will focus on long-form analysis of events and processes in the Middle East. I have also signed up for multiple hacker defence systems.

 

My first offerings will be updated versions of the monthly talks I have been giving to the Movement for Conservative Judaism in Jerusalem, during which I summarize some of the research I have done over the previous few months. I hope you, the reader, find the material enlightening. Any comments or critiques are most welcome. My greatest wish is that this site will become a forum for dialogue.

2 Comments

  1. J. Sheff says:

    Mr Lederman,
    Your comment “Nobody knows how much money the Keren Kayemet sends to the West Bank because its budget isn’t published. However, it has been estimated by some to be about 800 million shekels per year.”
    concerns me. As a contributor to the Jewish National Fund, I had assumed that this organization restricted its activities to land within the state of Israel, with the exception of those areas, such as the
    Gush Etzion, which were JNF land before 1948.
    Could you tell me the source for your comment.
    Thank you.

    • admin says:

      This estimate was one of several that were published in the Hebrew press and on Channel 10. These estimates were the product the recent debate within the cabinet whether the JNF should be directed to hand over most of the profits from its land sales to the government in order to reduce the budget deficit. The so-called “JNF Law” was included in the “arrangements law” for 2015.That debate on that bill, incidentally, died when new elections were called and discussions on the budget for 2015 were halted.

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