imra.org.il

This is a terrific website. Only people who hate Israel and want it destroyed would argue with a website that presents reports from Israel, the Arab world and the international media, in perfect translations, not to mention polls performed by Palestinian Arab institutions like Bir Zeit University and the group of Khalil Shikaki. And people who hate Israel assume (naturally) that everyone who favors the human rights of Jewish people and their right to self-determination, has to be crazy. Yes, and pigs fly.

IMRA is a political organization that offers "spin points" and press analysis with an a extreme right point of view. Its not really independent in any way. But if your obsessed with the spy Pollard or if you want some cooked polling data of arabs to go along with whatever policies the extreme right is pushing, they can supply it. They also supply rather questionable translations of documents for those into paranoia and conspiracy theory. If you thought Sharon was a traitor for leaving Gaza, IMRA is the place for you. All-crazy all-the-time.

The Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) website was founded in 1992, by Dr. Aaron Lerner and Dr. Joseph Lerner, to offer ongoing analysis of developments in Arab-Israeli relations. The founders work on their own time and earn nothing from their extensive endeavor, which has nonetheless earned them Israeli government credentials to operate as a news organization. On a daily basis IMRA provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events. One can read the news on IMRA's website or subscribe to its valuable email service. One of the most helpful features of the website is its extensive inclusion of opinion polls conducted both in Israel and amongst the Palestinian Arab population. The latter are conducted by Palestinian research centers such as Bir Zeit University; in recent years these polls have indicated that the Palestinian population is are less than willing to accept Israel's sovereignty even within its pre-1967 borders. But most interesting is to see how broad the support is within the population for suicide bombing and other terror attacks. These polls tend to be ignored by the mainstream media, which refers to the "peace process" as if it were an ongoing and viable one, despite widespread Arab opposition to negotiations of any kind. It is also helpful to see summaries of news reports from the Israeli and Arab press and Arab broadcast media, including English translations of government reports and memoranda from both sides as well as translations of important unofficial documents. The website also includes analysis of treaties and agreements both between Israel and its Arab neighbors and amongst Arabs themselves. In the latter category, for example, is the full text of a draft agreement between Hamas and the Palestine National Authority as it was published in the Egyptian Al-Ahram government weekly on September 20, 1995. Article 12 requires the PA to cease all preventive security and let Hamas operate without PA interference. The agreement gives Hamas a role in the PA government, which Abu Mazen fulfilled in 2003 by naming a Hamas partisan as education minister, and continues to fulfill by calling for Hamas participation in the upcoming PA elections. "[M]easures taken by the security forces for preventive purposes must be stopped," the agreement reads, in direct violation of the Oslo agreements. The translation service alone is worth its weight in gold. Very often, Arab statements in Arabic conflict with English pronouncements, for example. IMRA deftly points out the discrepancies. It's a wonder that more mainstream media outlets do not make use of this valuable service. --Alyssa A. Lappen