Why Beyond Images?
Frequently Asked Questions
Summary: Beyond Images is a London-based
website which provides facts and resources to help people to
argue Israel’s case in an informed and coherent way, and
to explain the context for Israel’s actions. |
QUESTION: Why another website about Israel? Here are some
features of Beyond Images which we think make us different….
We convert raw facts about Israel into sophisticated,
user-friendly resources |
There is huge amount of information about Israel on the Internet.
But people need sophisticated and user-friendly resources derived
from that information. According to a recent survey, 66% of people
basically favourable to Israel felt that they lacked information
about the country.
On the Beyond Images website we condense hundreds of news stories,
official statements, opinion pieces, and magazine articles into
concise, high-quality Briefings. These save our users time sifting
through masses of material, by distillng key points and making them
available at the click of a button.
Our Briefings are written in bullet-point, non-academic,
clear English style |
Our users are typically very busy people. So we write in bullet-point
style. We avoid detailed academic analysis, but favour clear messages
in clear English. Our content is set out in “chunks”
and is therefore well-suited to being translated into other languages.
We are non-partisan and dispassionate |
Beyond Images is neither right-wing nor left-wing, religious nor
secular. We take a non-partisan and non-ideological approach, aiming
to provide resources which the massive majority of Jewish and non-Jewish
supporters of Israel can use. We avoid a strident, aggressive or
emotional tone.
We are completely independent |
We are independent of any communal, religious or governmental organisation.
We are not an “Israel right or wrong”
website |
We do not leap to defend every Israeli action, but aim to help
people understand the context for Israel’s actions, even if
they disagree with them. We believe that right-wing advocates for
Israel need to be able to make the left-wing arguments; and vice
versa.
We don’t ‘reinvent the wheel’ but
direct users to the best existing resources |
We direct users to the best websites on Israel: MEMRI on the Arab
world; columnists on the Jerusalem Post, the Jerusalem Report, and
Haaretz; Israeli science and technology via Israel21c; Myths and
Facts via Mitchell Bard’s Virtual Jewish Library etc. We refer
often to Alan Dershowitz’s book ‘The Case for Israel’,
and highlight email news round-ups from the US. We are frustrated
by organisations launching projects which match resources which
are already available
We do not make the accusation that the media is anti-semitic
|
We do not use the argument that the media is anti-semitic. This
accusation is serious but often backfires. We are interested in
the impact of media coverage in demonising Israel, not the prejudices
of the individual journalists or media organisations involved.
We do not denigrate Islam or the Palestinian people
collectively |
We publish material which is critical of the Palestinian leadership,
but do not denigrate the Palestinians collectively, or deny the
reality of their national aspirations. Likewise, while we highlight
how Israel is demonised in the Arab world, we do not denigrate Islam.
We are not a media monitoring service like Honest
Reporting |
We do not monitor media coverage of Israel. Firstly, groups such
as Honest Reporting, BBC Watch and Camera do this already (we link
to them from Beyond Images). Secondly, media monitoring requires
resources beyond our disposal. And thirdly media monitoring is reactive:
the activities are defined by what others say about Israel. While
it is vital to monitor, we use Beyond Images to disseminate core
messages and arguments in a pro-active way.
We do not recirculate opinion articles |
Thousands of Op-Ed articles and in-depth commentaries are published
every year, worldwide, on Israel. Many of these end up being circulated
across the Internet, within days of appearing. We do not recirculate
such articles. Websites such as Mideast Truth, or Israel Insider
do this. We concentrate on building long-term resources which will
outlast the topical subject of the day.
We are eager to collaborate with other projects with
similar goals |
We have approached significant Jewish communal organisations to
explore collaboration. We believe in resource and content sharing.
We have left the strongest reason why Beyond Images
is different till last….
Our users are telling us we are valuable and are making a difference.
What more do we need?
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