Makor Rishon

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Makor Rishon is an Israeli weekly newspaper, identified with conservative national and religious values. It was launched in 1997 to counter the dominance of secular and left-wing media. Because the newspaper was driven by ideology rather than business, it was both a quality high brow paper and an economic failure.

After a financial collapse the paper was resurrected in 1999, and an effort was made to obtain financial stability and more readers. The paper is published as a tabloid with two added sections, one for political analysis and one for features. Most of its readers are part of the nationalist religious community.

The editor-in-chief is Amnon Lord, an experienced Israeli journalist and writer, who started his career in the left-wing Peace Now movement, editing the now defunct weekly "Koteret Rashit" which expressed its opinions, and changed his views following the Oslo Accords. Lord was one of a group of "former leftist intellectuals" who became close to Binyamin Netanyahu during his term as Prime Minister (1996-1999), and sought to model themselves on the Neo-Conservatives in the US, some of whom also started out as leftists and liberals. In Lord's editorials and op-ed articles there are still frequent expressions of support for Netanyahu, evident especially during and folliwing the 2006 elections - displeasing to some of Lord's colleagues on the nationalist right-wing, who strongly criticise Netanyahu for what they consider a very lukewarm opposition to Ariel Sharon's evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

Lord's former allegiance is still very evident in his writing, when he frequently mentions events of his past and people and institutions which he knew in his previous career - usually, to condemn them and their works all the more sharply for having intimately known them in the past.

The weekly is published in Tel Aviv and most of its readersip is based on paying subscribers. In an effort to get to wider audiences, the literary supplement - where the political positions are far less evident and outspoken then in the other parts - is distributed free in large quantitites.

The newspaper is owned by Hirsch media, controlled by Shlomo Ben Tzvi.

[edit] External links

• Makor Rishon online edition (Hebrew)