Stan

A more recent post asked what (perhaps 5) Pro-Israel sites or contributing bloggers we would be interested in seeing here. I would have no inclination, one way or the other. I like the guest-blogger format and the links to other’s sites, but admire the irreverence that lends a plucky flavor. Sure, Wal-Mart gets a lot of traffic, but I don’t stop by Wal-Mart each day and probably for that reason.

I’m neither Jewish, nor particularly Zionist, but I like the idea of Israel. Were I to have my ‘druthers, Israel would include Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and all of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, we all have governments and pressures. Most Israeli leaders of late seem anxious to give away territory; Pro-Israel hardly includes supporting that nonsense. The past three U.S. Administrations and all of our State Department career people seem anxious to have Israel carved up, but being Pro-American doesn’t mean I support those positions. The U.S. needs to get its energy house in order, long before the U.S. can have a sensible policy with respect to Israel and the Mid-East.

In the meantime, it’s nice to stop by and peek through a window from a different place.

But, hey, if there are more than one such sites, the better off we are. For instance, there is room for both Pajamas Media and Hot Air – both these sites get a lot of traffic.

My vision is a specific set of, say, ten pre-vetted pro-Israel blogs in one section of the site, with the first 5 or 10 lines printed for some of them and only the headlines for others, with hyperlinks to the original websites. Only articles tagged with specific keywords would be published in the Israel section; and perhaps other sections can be created in a similar way (slice-of-life Israel, Judaism, Torah) based on specific tags, so the author has control over which postings get published. The same keyword mechanism can be used to decide if a full article would be reproduced at the news site or if it will only be a hyperlink.

Either way, whether it is here or in my mythical site, the format would need to change radically from a blog format to a news format. As more people come on board there needs to be a mechanism to see only headlines and decide which to read, otherwise posts will just get pushed down the chain and get lost.

My 2 cents, for what it’s worth….

I am not really into the notion of “J-blogging.” One of the results of my starting the JIBs and seeing the ensuing pettiness was a realization that the so-called J-blogosphere doesn’t mean much in itself. What do I mean? Well, a J-blogger can be pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro-Judaism, anti-Judaism. Somehow grouping them all together because they are Jewish is a bit pointless in my humble opinion.

As for Israel blogging, I would prefer to think of it as “pro-Israel” blogging. After all, someone like Richard Silverstein blogs much about Israel, and would claim he is “Israel blogging.”

As for the idea itself, it is actually similar to what I aiming to do with Israellycool! Except not as an RSS reader. More like Hot Air, with original posts.

In any event, this has the makings of a great thread. Let’s hear from more of you on this!

Aussie Dave Says:
November 14th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Just to clarify: this isn’t about whether or not Elder is fine. I know he is. But rather whether or not you prefer Israellycool to have multiple contributors or not.

Precisely what I intended by my trailing words “over here”.