Haaretz
Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper in print in Israel, is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner format; the English edition is sold together with the International New York Times. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet. In North America, it is published as a weekly newspaper, combining articles from the Friday edition with a roundup from the rest of the week, it is known for its liberal stances on domestic and foreign issues. As of 2016, the newspaper had a weekday exposure rate of 3.9% in Israel. According to the Center for Research Libraries, among Israel's daily newspapers, "Haaretz is considered the most influential and respected for both its news coverage and its commentary." Haaretz was first published in 1918 as a newspaper sponsored by the British military government in Palestine. In 1919, it was taken over by a group of socialist-oriented Zionists from Russia; the newspaper was established on 18 June 1919 by a group of businessmen including the philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg, it was called Hadashot Ha'aretz.
The name was shortened to Haaretz. The literary section of the paper attracted leading Hebrew writers of the time; the newspaper was published in Jerusalem. From 1919 to 1922, the paper was headed among them Leib Yaffe, it was closed due to a budgetary shortfall and reopened in Tel Aviv at the beginning of 1923 under the editorship of Moshe Glickson, who held the post for 15 years. The Tel Aviv municipality granted the paper financial support by paying in advance for future advertisements. Salman Schocken, a Jewish businessman who left Germany in 1934 after the Nazis had come to power, bought the paper in December 1935. Schocken was active in Brit Shalom known as the Jewish–Palestinian Peace Alliance, a body supporting co-existence between Jews and Arabs, sympathetic to a homeland for both peoples, his son, Gershom Schocken, became the chief editor in 1939 and held that position until his death in 1990. The Schocken family were the sole owners of the Haaretz Group until August 2006, when they sold a 25% stake to German publisher M. DuMont Schauberg.
The deal was negotiated with the help of the former Israeli ambassador to Avi Primor. This deal was seen as controversial in Israel as DuMont Schauberg's father, Kurt Neven DuMont, was member of the Nazi party and his publishing house promoted Nazi ideology. On 12 June 2011, it was announced that Russian-Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin had purchased a 20% stake in the Haaretz Group, buying 15% from the family and 5% from M. DuMont Schauberg. In October 2012, a union strike mobilized to protest planned layoffs by the Haaretz management, causing a one-day interruption of Haaretz and its TheMarker business supplement. According to Israel Radio, it was the first time since 1965 that a newspaper did not go to press on account of a strike; the newspaper's editorial policy was defined by Gershom Schocken, editor-in-chief from 1939 to 1990. Schocken was succeeded as editor-in-chief by Hanoch Marmari. In 2004 David Landau replaced Marmari and was succeeded by Dov Alfon in 2008; the current editor-in-chief of the newspaper is Aluf Benn, who replaced Alfon in August 2011.
Charlotte Halle became editor of the English print edition in February 2008. Haaretz describes itself as having "a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and on international affairs". Others describe it alternatively centre-left, or left-wing; the newspaper opposes retaining control of the territories and supports peace initiatives. The Haaretz editorial line is supportive of weaker elements in Israeli society, such as sex workers, foreign laborers, Israeli Arabs, Ethiopian immigrants, Russian immigrants. In 2006, the BBC said that Haaretz takes a moderate stance on foreign security. David Remnick in The New Yorker described Haaretz as "easily the most liberal newspaper in Israel", its ideology as left-wing and its temper as "insistently oppositional". According to Ira Sharkansky, Haaretz's op-ed pages are open to a variety of opinions. J. J. Goldberg, the editor of the American The Jewish Daily Forward, describes Haaretz as "Israel's most vehemently anti-settlement daily paper". Stephen Glain of The Nation described Haaretz as "Israel's liberal beacon", citing its editorials voicing opposition to the occupation, the discriminatory treatment of Arab citizens, the mindset that led to the Second Lebanon War.
A 2003 study in The International Journal of Press/Politics concluded that Haaretz's reporting of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict was more favorable to Israelis than to Palestinians, but less so than that of The New York Times. In 2016, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote "I like a lot of the people at Haaretz, many of its positions, but the cartoonish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism can be grating". In 2016, the newspaper's readership fell to an all-time low of 3.9% on weekdays, far behind other national newspapers in Israel: Israel Hayom had an exposure rate of 39.7%, Yedioth Ahronoth 34.9%, Israel Post 7.2%, Globes 4.6%. Haaretz uses smaller headlines and print than other mass circulation papers in Israel. Less space is devoted to pictures, more to political analysis. Opinion columns are written by regular commentators rather than guest writers, its editorial pages are considered influential among government leaders. Apart from the news, Haaretz publishes feature articles on social and environmental issues, as well as book reviews, investigat
Ronen Bergman
Ronen Bergman is an Israeli investigative journalist and author. He is a senior political and military analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulation daily. Bergman has written for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek in the United States, for The Times, The Guardian, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Europe, he is interviewed by the media in the United States and Europe, his work is quoted in Middle Eastern newspapers in Arabic and Persian. He has published four books in Hebrew, which were all well received, which topped Israeli non-fiction best-seller lists, his books cover corruption in the Palestinian Authority, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Iranian nuclear project, Israeli POWs and MIAs. A translation of his third book, The Secret War with Iran, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2008; the book appeared in the Boston Globe’s recommended reading list for summer 2009. He is a regular co-anchor of a daytime news and current affairs magazine on Israeli TV.
He appears on major U. S. broadcasting networks and the BBC, is a frequent guest on Al-Jazeera. Bergman lectures to academic and military audiences, as well as to the general public, he has been a guest lecturer at academic forums at major universities in Israel and abroad, including Princeton, Columbia, New York University and Cambridge, at military and intelligence forums in Israel, the United States and England. Bergman was born in 1972, grew up in Kiryat Bialik, his mother was a teacher and his father was an accountant. He is the youngest of three children; as a boy, he was a reporter for a youth television show. His parents were both Holocaust survivors, he did his military service in the Israel Defense Forces in the intelligence unit of the Military Police Corps. After his military service, he studied law at the University of Haifa, graduated cum laude, was admitted to the Israel Bar Association, he studied history and international relations at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom, was awarded an M.
Phil. degree in international relations and a PhD by the University of Cambridge. He is a member of the Körber Foundation "Munich Young Leaders 2010" and participated in the 46th Munich Security Conference, he is a former senior staff feature writer for Haaretz. Bergman is the recipient of the 1995 Bnai Brith Worlds Center Award for Journalism and the 1996 Ha’aretz award for Best Story. In 2017 he won the Sokolov Prize. At the same year he won the Rotary Paul Harris prize. Bergman's articles are based on classified military and intelligence material to which he has been granted exclusive access. Over the years, he has brought to light numerous issues of considerable public interest, including: the diversion of Palestinian tax revenues to the personal bank account of Yassir Arafat. S.-Israeli efforts to develop a vaccine against anthrax. Throughout his journalistic career, Bergman has championed the causes of freedom of information and freedom of the press taking his battles with the Israeli security establishment to the courts in order to protect the public's right to know, his right to publish reports that are of public interest.
Authority Granted Moment of Truth Point Of No Return The Secret War With Iran By Any Means Necessary Ha-Bor with Dan Margalit writing special chapters for the Hebrew edition of State Enemy WikiLeaks by Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark. Operation Red Falcon Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations Official website Ronen Bergman, The Secret War with Iran Ronen Bergman, Living to Bomb Another Day, The New York Times, September 9, 2008
Middle East
The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest Middle Eastern nation; the corresponding adjective is Middle Eastern and the derived noun is Middle Easterner. The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Persians and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the region by a clear margin. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians, Copts, Lurs, Samaritans, Shabaks and Zazas. European ethnic groups that form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines, Italo-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Pashtuns and sub-Saharan Africans; the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Several major religions have their origins in the Middle East, including Judaism and Islam.
The Middle East has a hot, arid climate, with several major rivers providing irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas such as the Nile Delta in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates watersheds of Mesopotamia, most of what is known as the Fertile Crescent. Most of the countries that border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil, with monarchs of the Arabian Peninsula in particular benefiting economically from petroleum exports; the term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office. However, it became more known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to "designate the area between Arabia and India". During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry which would become known as The Great Game. Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but of its center, the Persian Gulf, he labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East, said that after Egypt's Suez Canal, it was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards British India.
Mahan first used the term in his article "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar. Naval force has the quality of mobility; the British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden and the Persian Gulf. Mahan's article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled "The Middle Eastern Question," written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include "those regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India." After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term. Until World War II, it was customary to refer to areas centered around Turkey and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean as the "Near East", while the "Far East" centered on China, the Middle East meant the area from Mesopotamia to Burma, namely the area between the Near East and the Far East.
In the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States, with the Middle East Institute founded in Washington, D. C. in 1946, among other usage. The description Middle has led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, "Near East" was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while "Middle East" referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Turkestan. In contrast, "Far East" referred to the countries of East Asia With the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, "Near East" fell out of common use in English, while "Middle East" came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Islamic world. However, the usage "Near East" was retained by a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology and ancient history, where it describes an area identical to the term Middle East, not used by these disciplines.
The first official use of the term "Middle East" by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, which pertained to the Suez Crisis. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east and Iraq on the North and the Arabian peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia." In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable, defined the region as including only Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The Associated Press Styleboo
Mentha
Mentha is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae. It is estimated that 13 to 18 species exist, the exact distinction between species is still unclear. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally. Many other hybrids, as well as numerous cultivars, are known; the genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution across Europe, Asia and North America. Mints are aromatic exclusively perennial herbs, they have wide-spreading underground and overground stolons and erect, branched stems. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, from oblong to lanceolate downy, with a serrated margin. Leaf colors range from dark green and gray-green to purple and sometimes pale yellow; the flowers are white to purple and produced in false whorls called verticillasters. The corolla is two-lipped with four subequal lobes, the upper lobe the largest; the fruit is a nutlet. While the species that makes up the genus Mentha is distributed and can be found in many environments, most grow best in wet environments and moist soils.
Mints can spread over an indeterminate area. Due to their tendency to spread unchecked, some mints are considered invasive; the list below includes all of the taxa recognized as species in recent works on Mentha. No author has recognized all of them; as with all biological classifications of plants, this list can go out of date at a moment's notice. Common names are given for species that have them. Synonyms, along with varieties, are given in articles on the species. Mentha is a member of the tribe Mentheae in the subfamily Nepetoideae; the tribe contains about 65 genera, relationships within it remain obscure. Authors have disagreed on the circumscription of Mentha; some authors have excluded M. cervina from the genus. M. cunninghamii has been excluded by some authors in some recent treatments of the genus. In 2004, a molecular phylogenetic study indicated both of these species should be included in Mentha; the mint genus has a large grouping of recognized hybrids. Synonyms, along with cultivars and varieties where available, are included within the specific species.
All mints thrive near pools of water, lakes and cool moist spots in partial shade. In general, mints tolerate a wide range of conditions, can be grown in full sun. Mint grows all year round, they are fast-growing. Due to their speedy growth, one plant of each desired mint, along with a little care, will provide more than enough mint for home use; some mint species are more invasive than others. With the less invasive mints, care should be taken when mixing any mint with any other plants, lest the mint take over. To control mints in an open environment, they should be planted in deep, bottomless containers sunk in the ground, or planted above ground in tubs and barrels; some mints can be propagated by seed, but growth from seed can be an unreliable method for raising mint for two reasons: mint seeds are variable — one might not end up with what one supposed was planted — and some mint varieties are sterile. It is more effective to plant cuttings from the runners of healthy mints; the most common and popular mints for commercial cultivation are peppermint, native spearmint, Scotch spearmint, cornmint.
Mints are supposed to make good companion plants, repelling pesty insects and attracting beneficial ones. They are susceptible to whitefly and aphids. Harvesting of mint leaves can be done at any time. Fresh leaves should be used or stored up to a few days in plastic bags in a refrigerator. Optionally, leaves can be frozen in ice cube trays. Dried mint leaves should be stored in an airtight container placed in a cool, dry area; the leaf, fresh or dried, is the culinary source of mint. Fresh mint is preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem; the leaves have a warm, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste, are used in teas, jellies, syrups and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine, mint is used on lamb dishes, while in British cuisine and American cuisine, mint sauce and mint jelly are used, respectively. Mint is a necessary ingredient in a popular tea in northern African and Arab countries. Tea in Arab countries is popularly drunk this way. Alcoholic drinks sometimes feature mint for flavor or garnish, such as the mint julep and the mojito.
Crème de menthe is a mint-flavored liqueur used in drinks such as the grasshopper. Mint essential oil and menthol are extensively used as flavorings in breath fresheners, antiseptic mouth rinses, chewing gum and candies, such as mint and mint chocolate; the substances that give the mints their characteristic aromas and flavors are pulegone. The compound responsible for the aroma and flavor of spearmint is L-carvone. Mints are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including buff ermine moths. Mint was used as a medicinal herb to treat stomach ache and chest pains. There are several uses in traditional medicine and preliminary research for possible use in treating irritable bowel syndrome. Menthol from mint essential oil is an ingredient of some perfumes. Menthol and mint essential oil are used in aromatherapy which may have clinical use to alleviate post-surgery nausea. Although it is used in many con
News
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, postal systems, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. Common topics for news reports include war, politics, health, the environment, business and entertainment, as well as athletic events, quirky or unusual events. Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies, taxes, public health, criminals, have been dubbed news since ancient times. Humans exhibit a nearly universal desire to learn and share news, which they satisfy by talking to each other and sharing information. Technological and social developments driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased the speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content; the genre of news as we know it today is associated with the newspaper, which originated in China as a court bulletin and spread, with paper and printing press, to Europe. The English word "news" developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of "new".
In Middle English, the equivalent word was newes, like the German Neues. Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages the Czech and Slovak noviny, the cognate Polish nowiny, the Bulgarian novini, Russian novosti – and in the Celtic languages: the Welsh newyddion and the Cornish nowodhow. Jessica Garretson Finch is credited with coining the phrase "current events" while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s; as its name implies, "news" connotes the presentation of new information. The newness of news gives it an uncertain quality which distinguishes it from the more careful investigations of history or other scholarly disciplines. Whereas historians tend to view events as causally related manifestations of underlying processes, news stories tend to describe events in isolation, to exclude discussion of the relationships between them. News conspicuously describes the world in the present or immediate past when the most important aspects of a news story have occurred long in the past—or are expected to occur in the future.
To make the news, an ongoing process must have some "peg", an event in time which anchors it to the present moment. Relatedly, news addresses aspects of reality which seem unusual, deviant, or out of the ordinary. Hence the famous dictum that "Dog Bites Man" is not news. Another corollary of the newness of news is that, as new technology enables new media to disseminate news more quickly,'slower' forms of communication may move away from'news' towards'analysis'. According to some theories, "news" is. Journalism, broadly understood along the same lines, is the act or occupation of collecting and providing news. From a commercial perspective, news is one input, along with paper necessary to prepare a final product for distribution. A news agency supplies this resource "wholesale" and publishers enhance it for retail. Most purveyors of news value impartiality and objectivity, despite the inherent difficulty of reporting without political bias. Perception of these values has changed over time as sensationalized'tabloid journalism' has risen in popularity.
Michael Schudson has argued that before the era of World War I and the concomitant rise of propaganda, journalists were not aware of the concept of bias in reporting, let alone correcting for it. News is sometimes said to portray the truth, but this relationship is elusive and qualified. Paradoxically, another property attributed to news is sensationalism, the disproportionate focus on, exaggeration of, emotive stories for public consumption; this news is not unrelated to gossip, the human practice of sharing information about other humans of mutual interest. A common sensational topic is violence. Newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage. Journalists apply news values to identify a news story. News values determine how much attention a news story is given by a media outlet, the attention it is given by its audience or readers. In some countries and at some points in history, what news media and the public have considered "newsworthy" has met different definitions, such as the notion of news values.
Many news values seem to be common across cultures. People seem to be interested in news to the extent which it has a big impact, describes conflicts, happens nearby, involves well-known people, deviates from the norms of everyday happenings. War is a common news topic because it involves unknown events that could pose personal danger. Evidence suggests that cultures around the world have found a place for people to share stories about interesting new information. Among Zulus, Mongolians and American Southerners, anthropologists have documented the practice of questioning travelers for news as a matter of priority. Sufficiently important news would be repeated and and could spread by word of mouth over a large geographic area; as printing presses came into use in Europe, news for the general public travelled orally via monks, town criers, etc. The news is transmitted in public gathering places, such as the Greek forum and the Roman baths. Starting in England, coffeehouses served as important sites for the spread of news after telecommunications became available.
The history of the coffee houses is traced from Arab countries, introduced in England in 16th century. In th
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946; as head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces. Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father". Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Minister of Defense; as Prime Minister, he helped build the state institutions, presiding over various national projects aimed at the development of the country.
He oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world. A centerpiece of his foreign policy was improving relationships with the West Germans, he worked well with Konrad Adenauer's government in Bonn, West Germany provided large sums in compensation for Nazi Germany's confiscation of Jewish property during the Holocaust. In 1954 he resigned as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, although he remained a member of the Knesset. However, he returned as Minister of Defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair resulted in the resignation of Pinhas Lavon. In the year he became Prime Minister again, following the 1955 elections. Under his leadership, Israel responded aggressively to Arab guerrilla attacks, in 1956, invaded Egypt along with British and French forces after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal during what became known as the Suez Crisis, he stepped down from office in 1963, retired from political life in 1970. He moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, where he lived until his death.
Posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. David Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk in Congress Poland – part of the Russian Empire, his father, Avigdor Grün, was a leader in the Hovevei Zion movement. His mother, died when he was 11 years old. Ben-Gurion's birth certificate, when rediscovered in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. At the age of 14 he and two friends formed a youth club, promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. In 1905, as a student at the University of Warsaw, he joined the Social-Democratic Jewish Workers' Party – Poalei Zion, he was arrested twice during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying: "For many of us, anti-Semitic feeling had little to do with our dedication. I never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk was remarkably free of it... And I think this significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size.
We emigrated not for negative reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland... Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough. There were three main communities: Russians and Poles.... The number of Jews and Poles in the city were equal, about five thousand each; the Jews, formed a compact, centralized group occupying the innermost districts whilst the Poles were more scattered, living in outlying areas and shading off into the peasantry. When a gang of Jewish boys met a Polish gang the latter would inevitably represent a single suburb and thus be poorer in fighting potential than the Jews who if their numbers were fewer could call on reinforcements from the entire quarter. Far from being afraid of them, they were rather afraid of us. In general, relations were amicable, though distant." In 1906 he immigrated to Ottoman Palestine. A month after his arrival, he was elected to the central committee of the newly formed branch of Poalei Zion in Jaffa, becoming chairman of the party's platform committee.
He advocated a more nationalist program than other more leftist or Marxist committee members. The following year he complained about the Russian domination of the group. At the time the Jewish population in Palestine was around 55,000 – of whom 40,000 held Russian citizenship. Ben-Gurion worked picking oranges in Petah Tikva, in 1907 he moved to the kibbutzim in Galilee, where he worked as an agricultural laborer and withdrew from politics; the following year, he joined an armed group acting as a watchmen. On 12 April 1909, following an attempted robbery in which an Arab from Kafr Kanna was killed, Ben-Gurion was involved in fighting during which one guard and a farmer from Sejera were killed. On 7 November 1911, Ben-Gurion arrived in Thessaloniki in order to learn Turkish for his law studies; the city, which had a large Jewish community, impressed Ben-Gurion, who called it "a Jewish city that has no equal in the world". He realized there that "the Jews were capable of all types of work"; some of the city's Jews were rich businessmen and professors, while others were merchants and porters.
In 1912, he moved to Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, to study law at Istanbul University together with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, adopted the Hebrew name Ben-Gurion, after the Jewish leading figure Yose
