The Israeli press is a complex mosaic reflecting a full spectrum of opinion in a country perennially on the verge of war.

It is characterized by a high level of independence and of reliability of sources and by a strain of investigative journalism that seeks to expose corruption and poor business management. According to William Frankel, a famous British journalist and Jew, the media in Israel are a sort of “extra-parliamentary” opposition. Some statistics from the ’90s show that over 75% of Israeli adults read at least one daily and that around 11% read two.

Strongly focused on events in the Gaza strip, the press is mainly Hebrew. But there are other languages addressing immigrants. Some of the nation’s dailies, such as the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/), were founded by the Zionist party before the State of Israel was created in 1948.

Today, the Jerusalem Post has a Christian edition, a French edition and a website which is the most widely used source of information on Israel, with 2.5 million unique visitors a month. Strongly linked to politics, the Israeli press has continued over the years to try to free itself of political parties and develop an independent editorial and management structure. This phenomenon led to the development of several major papers such as the moderate afternoon Ma'ariv (http://www.nrg.co.il ), the highly popular Yediot Aharonot (selling nearly 400,000 a day; http://www.ynet.co.il ), Hadashot (www.hadashot.com ) and the influential left-wing Ha'aretz (around 75,000 copies, www.haaretz.com ).

There are also Arabic papers, notably Al Ittihad (www.alittihadaliktissadi.com), which is also sold in various Arab countries.