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Friday, March 29, 2024

Taking the GPO to Task – Re:  Jewish Media Summit 2016 

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Recently, it came to the attention of the Jewish Voice editorial staff that the Israeli Foreign Ministry in conjunction with the Disapora Affairs Ministry and the Government Press Office convened yet another “Jewish Media Summit” in Jerusalem. The four day event, which was the first held since June of 2014, brought together 50 publishers, bureau chiefs, editors and a variety of op-ed writers from Jewish publications and media outlets from such places as the United States, Europe, South America, and Turkey among others. It was there that they discussed major topics facing Israel and Jews in the Diaspora.   

Not that you have the background, we would be remiss in informing our readers that The Jewish Voice (which had previously been invited to and attended the 2014 summit) was somehow left off the invited guest list for this 2016 summit.

To say that we, at the Jewish Voice, are more than a bit shocked at this exclusion in a colossal understatement. At the last summit two years ago, many in the left wing Jewish media bashed the summit as “right wing” Israeli hasbara (propaganda) while The Jewish Voice remained true to its core values as America’s “Most Zionistic” newspaper and hailed the summit for the monumental gathering as it was.

Most importantly, however, is the role that the Jewish Voice has played to prodigiously confronting the BDS movement, stripping them of their veneer of legitimacy and exposing them for the virulent anti-Semitic movement that they are.  This fact seems to have eluded those at the helm of the Jewish Media Summit.  An illustrative example would be Nitzan Chen from the Government Press Office. He is quite cognizant of the stellar journalistic work that the Jewish Voice has been consistently producing and even offered his own plaudits to the publication when he spoke with the Jewish Voice contingent in 2014. 

We are still in a quandary as to precisely what the Israeli government is really doing to battle the BDS scourge. We scratch our collective heads and ask why in the world it gives respectability to Jewish publications that are failing miserably in the hasbara department. Perhaps the Israeli government press office and Mr. Chen enjoy shooting themselves in the foot by inviting Jewish media reps whose agendas are totally incongruous with their own to summits to chew just to chew the fat and then do nothing. 

The Israeli government should seriously reconsider their decision to hold Jewish media summits without the real and vibrant Jewish media present. 

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