Why this site exists: against ignorance, not against people

I started this site with a simple idea. When I hear someone repeat that Israel is a European colony, that Jews always lived in peace in Arab countries or that an old text “reveals” a Jewish plan to rule the world, hatred is not the first thing I hear. I hear the gaps. Whole stretches of history nobody ever told them about.

How many people in France know that in Hebron in August 1929, nineteen years before Israel was founded, rioters killed 67 Jewish residents, and that Arab neighbours sheltered survivors whom the British later evacuated ⁴⁵? How many know that the Soviet Union voted for the partition plan in 1947 and that in 1948 Czechoslovakia armed Israel with Moscow’s consent ⁶⁷, before Soviet propaganda took up and spread, especially after 1967, the “anti-Zionist” themes we still hear today ⁸? Who has heard of the “Ryazan sugar”, that September night in 1999 when FSB officers placed sacks in the basement of an apartment block, after bombings that took place between Vladimir Putin’s appointment as prime minister and his election in March 2000 ⁹? These facts are documented. They have dates. Anyone can check them. They are simply missing from the debate.

This site asks no one to think as I do. It asks one thing: look at the facts before you judge. That is why our editorial standards require every article we publish to give its dates and sources ¹, why we distinguish reporting from opinion and why this piece carries the label “Opinion”. I believe Israel has the right to exist and to defend itself, and that Jews have the right to live safely everywhere. I also believe that defending that cause requires neither lies nor hatred. A publication that played fast and loose with the truth would prove its opponents right.

Here you will find daily reporting on Israel and the Jewish world, with sources. Our in-depth features explore things you probably never knew. And from time to time, in this section, you will hear my voice. If we get something wrong, write to us. We will correct it and tell you we have done so.

Spotted an error or a missing source? Write to us : we publish corrections in the article.