Free Republic

Less than a day after it was revealed that 20-year-old TikTok star and head of the "Youth on Fire" party, Hadar Muchtar, owns a residential apartment in Haifa, which she claims belongs to her parents, the chairman of the "Youth on Fire" party announced this morning that she will no longer give interviews to members of the media "until further notice." Following a series of unflattering TV appearances, Muchtar wrote on her social media page: "I'm not doing anymore interviews. I don't believe in the established media. I am here to make a change, but the media is constantly trying...

In Sderot, a correspondent summarized the concerns of residents that the government would agree to a cease-fire too soon, without definitively crippling the militant group Hamas' ability to fire rockets. The people of Sderot, he said, "would rather the [army] continue and finish this story once and for all." Israeli public opinion overwhelmingly supports the Gaza campaign, buttressed by frustration over years of rocket attacks on southern communities and by the widespread belief that Hamas has brought the bloodshed on its own people. Israeli media coverage has largely reflected that sentiment. "This is something we needed to do for a...

Day of Judgement for Israel's Pollsters At 10 PM last night, you could hear the glee in their voices on TV and Radio: The exit polls predict that Tzippi Livni is the new leader of Kadima! Channel 10's Poll - 49% Channel 1's Poll - 47% Channel 2's Poll - 48% It's becoming almost routine for Israel's pollsters and media pundits to get it wrong time after time. True, Tzippy Livni did win, but by 341 votes. The margin of error for a win by 341 votes makes it statistically impossible to have accurately predicted that Livni would win --...

Israel's Left has always hated "talkbacks". Those are the little responses that people can write to articles on the web versions of newspapers. In Israel, where the newspapers are largely under the hegemony of the Left, and especially at Haaretz, whose concept of political pluralism resembles that of Pravda back in the happy days of Brezhnev, "talkbacks" are the main or only venue in which non-leftists get to have a say. But in Israel talkbacks - a bit like radio phone-in shows in the US (and in Israel) are dominated by the non-Left. Even at Haaretz, which almost never allows...