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Our (Israel) Newspapers Fail Us - (UPDATED) September 28, 2003 Editorial - Israel News Agency "Over at the Jerusalem Post, Israel's venerable English language daily newspaper, rumblings of publisher/staff dissatisfaction are being heard loud and clear. Long-time managing editor, Avi Hoffman was fired last week after he recommended pulling an ad that included language he felt would expose Israel to charges of war crimes. New Post editor Bret Stephens apparently agreed. Publisher Tom Rose was furious and ordered Hoffman fired. The full page ad appeared last Friday. According to Aviv Lavie writing in the rival Haaretz English edition, senior staff...

Exclusive: IDF training software to go to US forces in Iraq By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN The US military has asked the Israeli army to translate its special educational software program that teaches soldiers how to behave in occupied territories, so US forces can apply it in Iraq, senior Israeli officers said Wednesday. The newly completed completed software teaches the IDF's code of conduct, which is based on 11 principles. These deal with such issues as how to behave at roadblocks, during arrests and searches and with rioters. All are common events soldiers face in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The...

Our Newspapers Fail Us Editorial - Israel News Agency There is no public relations or public affairs without a carrier. The most established carrier is called a newspaper. And in Israel the only newspapers which enjoy abundant readership and wealth are the Hebrew dailies – Yediot, Maariv and Haaertz. As for the English newspapers here in Israel – one is a mere translation of the Hebrew edition and the other is fifty percent wire service copy. Yes – there are some brilliant writers on these papers but their voices become deluded when you have a lack of proper leadership integrated...

9-11 transcripts illustrate bravery, fatal mistakes By JOEL LEYDEN Digging crews worked constantly for months after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. (Photo: Joel Leyden) For some it was reliving a nightmare, for others closure, but for most the release of the September 11 transcripts provided glimpses of bravery and fatal mistakes. The transcripts were created from tapes of Port Authority emergency calls and radio transmissions that day and released Thursday after The New York Times won a court order for their release. The documents illustrate the utter disorientation, shock, disbelief and human courage produced...

IDF expands humanitarian officers program By JOEL LEYDEN It's 2 p.m. at the Kalandia checkpost on a boiling summer's day. A long, crowded line of Palestinians wait to enter Ramallah. Young Israeli combat soldiers are positioned in front of them, standing behind grey concrete barriers and above on a dusty hilltop sweating inside guard towers. The 18-year-old troops appear ready for anything. They have been trained for terrorism and war and keep a watchful eye out for the unusual. It could be a car with a sniper, a young boy holding a package or a women suicide bomber just waiting...

Muhammad Abbas, the PLO official who is believed to be the mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, was forced to leave Egypt Friday after The Jerusalem Post disclosed that he had arrived in Cairo for talks on a cease-fire with Israel. US officials said they learned about Abbas's visit to Egypt from the Post, adding that Washington has asked the Egyptian authorities if the report was true. The Egyptians have refused to comment on the issue. "We've been in touch with senior levels of the governments involved, the Egyptian government and others," State Department...

Jerusalem Post printing employees arrived at work on Tuesday morning, only to find the gates locked - and most of them out of a job. Danny Ben-Sheetrit, chairman of the Jerusalem region of the Histadrut Labor Union, told Arutz-7 that the paper has decided to transfer most of its printing operations to two new locations - and that one of them is Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority "capital" in Judea/Samaria. The 40 workers were told on Tuesday that most of them were fired, and that the management was interested in keeping only nine (20, according to other reports). After two days...