The Times of Israel

History

The Times of Israel was launched in February 2012. Its co-founders are journalist David Horovitz, and American billionaire Seth Klarman, founder of the Baupost Group and chairman of The David Project. Klarman is the chairman of the website.

Several Times of Israel editors had previously worked for the Haaretz English edition, including Joshua Davidovich and Raphael Ahren, and former Haaretz Arab affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoffco-creator of the popular Israeli television series Faudajoined as its Middle East analyst. Amanda Borschel-Dan, who was the Magazine Editor of The Jerusalem Post, is currently The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor, responsible for the Jewish world and archaeology. She also hosts the paper's weekly podcast.

The Times of Israel launched its Arabic edition, edited by Suha Halifa, on 4 February 2014; its French edition, edited by Stephanie Bitan, on 25 February 2014; and its Persian edition, edited by Avi Davidi, on 7 October 2015. It launched its Hebrew site, Zman Yisael, on 1 May 2019, edited by Biranit Goren.

Both the Arabic and French editions combine translations of English content with original material in their respective languages, and also host a blog platform. In announcing the Arabic edition, Horovitz suggested, The Times of Israel may have created the first Arabic blog platform that "draw[s] articles from across the spectrum of opinion. We're inviting those of our Arabic readers with something of value that they want to say to blog on our pages, respecting the parameters of legitimate debate, joining our marketplace of ideas." "[T]o avoid the kind of anonymous comments that can reduce discussion to toxic lows", comments on news articles and features in all of the site's editions can only be posted by readers identified through their Facebook profiles or equivalent.

In February 2014, two years after its launch, The Times of Israel claimed a readership of 2 million. In 2017, readership increased to 3.5 million. By 2021, the paper had on average over 9 million unique users each month and over 35 million monthly page views. It also maintains a blog platform, on which some 9,000 bloggers post.

In November 2023, the site saw web visits increase 604% year-on-year to 64.2 million and entered the Press Gazette's top-50 ranking for the first time in 42nd place, according to digital intelligence platform, Similarweb. The increase is likely linked to the increase in demand for news about the Middle East following the outbreak of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023.

Since 2016, The Times of Israel has hosted the websites of Jewish newspapers in several countries, known as "local partners". In March 2016, it began hosting New York's The Jewish Week. It also hosts Britain's Jewish News, the New Jersey Jewish Standard, The Atlanta Jewish Times, and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. In October 2019, The Australian Jewish News became the seventh local partner.

On 2 November 2017, hackers in Turkey took down the website of The Times of Israel for three hours, replacing the homepage with anti-Israel propaganda. Responding to the attack, Horovitz said: "We constantly work to improve security on the site, which is subjected to relentless attacks by hackers. How unfortunate, and how badly it reflects on them that the hackers seek to prevent people from reading responsible, independent journalism on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world."

In 2020, Reuters reported that The Times of Israel, along with The Jerusalem Post, Algemeiner, and Arutz Sheva, published op-eds sent to them by someone using a falsified identity. The op-eds were removed as soon as the problem was discovered. Opinion editor Miriam Herschlag said that she regretted the scam because it distorted the public discourse and might lead to "barriers that prevent new voices from being heard".

Editorial orientation

Most sources describe The Times of Israel as "centrist".

According to editor David Horovitz, The Times of Israel is intended to be independent, without any political leanings. Horovitz said in 2012: "We are independent; we're not attached or affiliated with any political party."

Third-party blogging

The Times of Israel has offered a third-party blogging platform since 2012 which allows writers who are not affiliated with the news site to publish online. The articles on this platform are clearly marked as such, and Times of Israel staff does not oversee or edit the content from outside users published on the blogging platform. The Times of Israel has at times removed content that has violated the site's policies. This platform has occasionally brought about controversy for the newspaper with inflammatory and controversial blog pieces that were later removed. These pieces written by third-party users have sometimes been confused for or misrepresented as the endorsed original work of The Times of Israel, leading to criticism of the newspaper itself. As of 2013, it was estimated that The Times of Israel hired more than 1,500 bloggers.

In May 2023, Jeffrey Camras wrote a blog in which he stated "Palestine must be obliterated" because its existence is "an afront to society, morality, humanity... It represents lies and antisemitism, oppression and terror. Nothing more." He also claimed that Palestinian nationality was "a lie". Genocide scholar Raz Segal cited this as an example of genocidal rhetoric in the Israeli discourse. The blog was subsequently removed.

Additional media

In addition to written journalism, The Times of Israel produces and publishes three podcasts; it also produces video content:

• The Daily Briefing, a daily news podcast.
• Times Will Tell, a long-form weekly revue.
• Paralyzed Nation, a deep look into the Israeli political system.

Notable writers

Analysts and journalists

• Haviv Rettig Gur
• David Horovitz
• Avi Issacharoff

Competition

The Times of Israel competes for readership with The Jerusalem Post, Arutz Shevas Israel National News, Haaretz daily English edition, Israel Hayom, and The Forward.

References

References

1. (11 July 2023). "The U.S. Reassessment of Netanyahu's Government Has Begun". [[The New York Times]].
2. (21 November 2023). "Is American media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war biased?". [[Religion News Service]].
3. (22 March 2013). "Israeli media laud Obama 'bear hug'". [[Politico]].
4. (19 October 2016). "U.N. rewrites history; Jews look on bright side". [[The Japan Times]].
5. (8 February 2017). "Israel just crossed a line it has never crossed before". [[The World from PRX]].
6. (14 April 2013). "Shul Axes Pamela Geller, and 2 Others Invite Her". [[The Forward]].
7. (28 May 2020). "Migrant workers and refugees affected in the MENA region". [[BBC Monitoring]].
8. [https://www.forbes.com/profile/seth-klarman/ Forbes: The World's Billionaires: Seth Klarman]. {{Webarchive. link. (1 April 2019 . April 2014.)
9. "About The Times of Israel {{!}} The Times of Israel".
10. Grunzweig, Emilie. (16 February 2012). "New English-Language Israeli Website Launched". [[Haaretz]].
11. (11 January 2017). "New York Jewish Week, the Times of Israel's new local partner, launches its new website". The Times of Israel.
12. (6 November 2019). "Introducing: The Times of Israel Community". [[Times of Israel]].
13. "Advertise with the Times of Israel". The Times of Israel.
14. "Similarweb PRO - Times of Israel".
15. Jodi Rudoren and Michael R. Gordon. (30 June 2013). "Kerry Sees Progress in Effort to Revive Mideast Talks". [[The New York Times]].
16. Rudoren, Jodi. (20 July 2013). "Palestinian Prisoner Release Is Critical Hurdle in Resuming Peace Talks". [[The New York Times]].
17. Klarman, Seth. (12 February 2012). "A note from the chairman". The Times of Israel.
18. (11 April 2014). "The (Possible) Triumph of Common Sense". The Times of Israel.
19. Wiener, Julie. (4 February 2014). "Translating Israel, from English to Arabic". [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]].
20. Horovitz, David. (4 February 2014). "From Today, The Times of Israel Is Also in Arabic". The Times of Israel.
21. Horovitz, David. (25 February 2014). "Bonjour and Welcome to The Times of Israel in French". The Times of Israel.
22. "Khosh Amadid! Welcome to The Times of Israel Persian". The Times of Israel.
23. Horovitz, David. (1 May 2019). "Clear-headed journalism, this time in Hebrew: Introducing Zman Yisrael". The Times of Israel.
24. (25 February 2014). "Times of Israel Adds French Edition". [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]].
25. Majid, Aisha. (November 17, 2023). "Top 50 biggest news websites in the world: Times of Israel sees biggest growth as Gaza conflict leads to traffic surge for many".
26. (22 March 2016). "Jewish Week To Partner With Times Of Israel".
27. (2 November 2017). "News Brief Times of Israel website hacked by Turkish group". JYA.
28. (3 November 2017). "Times of Israel Hack Reveals Major Vulnerability in Jewish Media Infrastructure—and Not Just in Israel".
29. (22 March 2016). "Jewish Week To Partner With Times Of Israel". The Jewish Week.
30. (15 October 2019). "Australian Jewish News becomes Times of Israel's seventh local partner".
31. (2 November 2017). "Times of Israel hit by hack attack". The Times of Israel.
32. (15 July 2020). "Deepfake used to attack activist couple shows new disinformation frontier". [[Reuters]].
33. (17 July 2020). "News outlets covering Israel found, again, to have run fake op-eds". [[J. The Jewish News of Northern California]].
34. "Tycoons Turning Israeli Media into Hasbara Tools". [[Haaretz]].
35. Rosner, Shmuel. (21 February 2012). "More of the News That's Fit to Print!".
36. "The Times of Israel and its bloggers". The Times of Israel.
37. "Blog Post Advocating 'Gaza Genocide' Removed From Times of Israel Website". [[Haaretz.com]].
38. "Times of Israel removes an unacceptable blog post". The Times of Israel.
39. Marshall, Sarah. (October 9, 2013). "How The Times of Israel created a blogging community".
40. (5 March 2024). "Gaza as Twilight of Israel Exceptionalism: Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Unprecedented Crisis to Unprecedented Change". Journal of Genocide Research.
41. (May 19, 2023). "'Palestine Must Be Obliterated': 'Times of Israel' Publishes, Deletes Article Calling for Genocide". [[Palestine Chronicle]].
42. "Podcasts {{!}} The Times of Israel".
43. "Writer: Haviv Rettig Gur". The Times of Israel.
44. (10 June 2014). "Peres, at 90, Is Ready to Leave the Israeli Presidency, but Not to Retire". [[The New York Times]].
45. (16 May 2014). "Abbas Meets in London with Israeli Negotiator". [[The New York Times]].
46. Nathan-Kazis, Josh. (29 February 2012). "The Softspoken Man Behind Times of Israel". [[The Forward]].