Israel Today has a brief piece about the possible start of an independent Israeli global news channel. Let us pray this is done properly and works. It will give 'hasbara' a much needed boost.
To stay informed, it is possible to register for email updates here: http://www.i24news.tv/
For those who haven't come across the term 'hasbara', and I needed to check it out, it's to Israel what 'Apologia' is to Christianity; to wit, an explanation of your beliefs, deeds, actions etc. It is not necessarily propaganda, although some will call it such. Like the word 'apologia' does not mean 'sorry', so 'hasbara' does not mean making excuses.
It is to be hoped that i24news will have good, well-briefed English language presenters and reporters. Too often Israel has fielded heavily-accented spokespeople struggling with English and slow to respond to biased questioning.
I would like to see people of the calibre of Binyamin Netanyahu, when he did this sort of thing, and Danny Ayalon in more recent years.
There have from time to time been proposals and rumours of proposals for such a station. A couple of years or so ago it seemed that this dream was about to materialise, but, alas, it was a case of "big in talk, pitiable in action". The monetary cost would be enormous, but the cost of not having such a channel is inestimably greater.
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