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January 2, 2004
As our indefatigable editor-in-chief Ellis Shuman has reviewed the top ten events of the year for Israelis, as publisher I would like to share my perspective on Israel Insider and where we plan to go in 2004. Here are my own "top ten" New Year's resolutions for our publication. Consider it a kind of annual report to you, our readers. Please don't call it a Roadmap.
1. We will keep on keeping on. Israel Insider is a reader-supported publication which, operating on a shoestring budget, has nearly reached break-even. We will not go out of business if readers don't contribute, although we are most grateful to those of you who have supported us financially. This makes it possible for us to expand.
For the good men and women who publish our web site and for the hundreds who have contributed their opinions and articles, this is a labor of love, an act of idealism and Zionism. Even if we earned no income, publishing Israel Insider would be worth it, the best thing I have ever done in my professional life.
Israel Insider is also an expression of our belief in the free market. We survive because we offer a quality publication that readers find worth visiting. We post ads for selected Israeli products, market pro-Israel books, sell subscriptions to our exclusive daily news briefing. When you generously send contributions as "tips," we offer a recognition page enabling you to express online whatever is in you hearts.
2. We will stay free. We have resisted the temptation to require registration or to lock down our content or charge premium fees as other sites have. Please do visit our advertisers, purchase our products, subscribe to our briefing. If you are or would like to be an advertiser or vendor on Israel Insider, let us help you get your message and products across to our ever-growing, high quality readership. Please contact me personally.
We are proud Israelis, many of us immigrants honored to hail from the great United States yet committed to making our lives and raising our children in the only Jewish nation. We are honored to cover the news from an "insider" perspective, reflecting a wide diversity of views, while maintaining the objectivity of our news coverage. We are proud to have built, in less than three years, one of the most popular and attractive online Israeli news sites, publishing every day without fail--except Shabbat and holidays!
3. We will keep turning things inside out. In nearly one thousand editions we have published many thousands of original articles and views, bringing to the world's attention talented writers and pro-Israel perspectives which otherwise might never have reached the world's attention. We are regularly picked up by Google News, by Yahoo, by World Net Daily because of the consistent quality and diversity of our coverage. We are not afraid to take unpopular or controversial positions while maintaining a strict distinction between news and views.
4. Create a New "Anti-Semitism" Channel. With our limited staff, we early on decided to focus strictly on Israel. If there was no specifically Israeli angle, we ignored it. But one thing we can't ignore is the unmistakable rise of Jew-hatred worldwide, no matter where it is. Israel is the Jew of the world, hatred of Israel fuels hatred of the Jewish people. But even if Israel were not directly involved, we can't sit idly by as our coreligionists worldwide suffer assault and murder. Attacks on Jews anywhere is an attack on each of us. If we don't look out for each other, who will look out for us?
5. A New "In the Region" Channel. Recent events have shown, more than ever, the interdependence of events in the Middle East. Until now, we have shied away from coverage of our neighbors, doubting that we could do the job properly. However, we plan in 2004 -- in partnership with organizations with Arabic-translation ability and smart news aggregation systems, to provide regular digests of events relevant to Israel in neighboring nations.
6. A New Insider Blog System: We believe in blogging. For those of you who have been sleeping for the last year or two, blogs (short for "web logs") are online diaries which express a person's private thoughts and public perspectives, combining intimate commentary and links to external web sites. We know from the thousands who use and view our wildly successful Talkback system that you have strong opinions! If a blog can propel a guy like Howard Dean to national prominence, just think of what it will do for our current readers and future bloggers. Look for this interactive feature soon, free for registered Insiders.
7. Telling Israel's Story in Maps. Israel Insider has always prided itself on its unmatched Flash interactive maps and graphs of Israel. Now, in cooperation with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have created Israel's Story in Maps -- by far the greatest ever interactive collection of maps and charts showing the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel and the evolution of Israel's borders, our topography and external threats, terror attacks and our counter-measures against them, the visual saga of war and peace with our neighbors in this corner of the world. In the coming days we will make an edition of this collection available online, with an expanded edition available for purchase on a CD.
8. We will introduce you to our extended family. You may not know it, but the company which publishes Israel Insider also produces a network of other publications. These include:- Jewsweek, a provocative in-your-face webzine which covers the strange space where American Jewish life meets American pop culture.
- the interactive mega-site of birthright israel, which has sent 50,000 young Jews on first-time trips to Israel -- for free -- to taste the wonders and challenges of our country.
- The site of israel21c, a not-for-profit organization which shows the good news and contributions of Israel "beyond the conflict" in technology, health, culture and more.
- The activism site of Caravan for Democracy, a not-for-profit organization which brings pro-Israel speakers to American campuses.
- In addition, we have been contracted to redesign other leading publications like The Jerusalem Post and The Jerusalem Report and to build online infrastructure for the AVI CHAI Foundation and its grantees. We are proud to assist worthy Israeli and American causes like American Friends of Soroka Medical Center, the Melitz Institute, and the One Family Campaign. We are delighted to have designed and developed the e-commerce site of AHAVA, Israel's leading personal health products company.
We plan to intensify cooperation with our partners in the coming year, enabling them to share their quality content with our readers and benefit from increased exposure to Israel Insider's large audience. If your organization needs a higher quality website or interactive system, please contact me. We look forward to expanding the family!
9. We will increase the speed, and extend the clock. With all of this expanded activity, we will be acquiring a faster server for better performance. Already the popularity of Israel Insider is straining our servers! We apologize for the occasionally sluggish performance of the site in recent weeks, and we resolve to make it up to you in the weeks and months to come. We also seek to provide extended news coverage late into the Israeli evening.
10. We, and you, should expect the unexpected. There are one or two additional big surprises, which I will save for future announcements. We are quietly preparing a couple of "secret weapons" which may help significantly to change for the better global media coverage of Israel. Stay tuned.
My colleagues and I look forward to serving you with more and better news and views and interactive specials. Please contact me personally if you have comments and suggestions. Thank you for your continuing support.
With love of Israel, and gratitude to you, our loyal readers, I wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe 2004!
Reuven Koret
Publisher, Israel Insider
publisher@israelinsider.com
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