I received an email yesterday from Jarad, the Press Officer for the Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco, alerting me to the fact that I was published in the Sacbee (registration required). It is part of this post, which I am happy about, because if I could choose a post of mine from the last week that I would like to be exposed to as many people as possible, it is that one.
I haven’t let the coolness factor of being published in the Sacramento Bee overshadow what is to me even cooler – namely that somone at the Consulate General of Israel reads this blog.
Which reminds me…I have always wondered whether the Israeli government is aware of the plethora of blogs out there doing the good hasbara (Israel PR) work, free of charge, and to great effect. I am sure they are, but do they realize that in the blogosphere, many of the very top blogs are pro-Israel? Consider the top 10 blogs (ranked by traffic) in the TLB ecosystem:
1) Daily Kos: State of the Nation 549906 visits/day (3)
2) Gizmodo: The Gadgets Weblog 220468 visits/day (83)
3) Defamer 154775 visits/day (353)
4) Gawker 139536 visits/day (165)
5) Instapundit.com 127741 visits/day (2)
6) Eschaton 117194 visits/day (9)
7) lgf: those who are tardy do not get fruit cup 88227 visits/day (7)
3) Defamer 154775 visits/day (353)
4) Gawker 139536 visits/day (165)
5) Instapundit.com 127741 visits/day (2)
6) Eschaton 117194 visits/day (9)
7) lgf: those who are tardy do not get fruit cup 88227 visits/day (7)
8) Michelle Malkin 82989 visits/day (1)
The blogs marked in red are all pro-Israel. The level of “pro-Israel” sentiment ranges from Instapundit’s understanding of Israel’s situation, to LGF’s more overt support.
Of course, this is just a snapshot of the top blogs. If you consider all of the blogs in the blogosphere, you will find no small quantity explaining Israel’s situation, and undoing much of the damage wrought by the mainstream media.
I heard from someone in the know a while ago that the Israeli government were toying with the idea of inviting some of these bloggers to Israel. I think it is high time they did so. I would even extend the idea: invite some of the most popular bloggers to Israel, and have them see for themselves many things – such as how Arabs live in Israel, how the army does what it can to alleviate the hardships of the PLO Arabs, and how holy the city of Jerusalem is to the Jewish people.
