Ten years ago today, I started a really crappy blog.
For a few months, all I did was link to or copy stories I collected around the web. Some of the stories were interesting, but no one was much interested in another collection of articles.
Although, looking back, it is astonishing how little things changed. For example, here's a children's video (from Palestinian Media Watch) I reported on in October 2004.
By mid-2005, I was starting to hit my stride, with some original analysis that holds up pretty well. This post explained why pulling out of Gaza was a mistake. This 2006 article where I compare how the West treats Arabs to how families treat their crazy Uncle Ned.
Ten years (and four wars) later, EoZ is still here, and doing better than ever.Last week I had nearly as many hits as I got in all of 2007. I've given lectures, created wildly popular posters, and made hundreds of videos. scores of cartoons, and hundreds of essays. I've tried to maintain the highest standards of truth and accuracy, and although I sometimes fall short, I think my record stacks up pretty well compared to most professional writers, pundits and reporters.
The total output of EoZ over the years is over 11 million words in over 20,000 posts.
A week ago I received an email that really touched me:
I've probably spent more time reading your blog than taking care of my children or hanging out with my husband throughout the past month, and while that's a seriously depressing realization, I'm grateful for all of the time, knowledge, and resources you share. My Zionist family roots, which stretch all the way back to the 1800s, sort of withered as everyone ended up settling in the US. It was only in the past year or so that I started looking more closely into family history and discovered that the Hebrew lullaby I still sing to my own kids every night (Numi, numi, in case you've heard of it) is actually a folksy tribute to Zionist settlers laboring in the fields. Anyhow, I was (and continue to be) totally stunned and caught off guard by this wildly fact-free, anti-Semitism-under-the-guise-of-anti-Zionism campaign that exploded worldwide in recent weeks and is inclusive of seemingly dissimilar groups (angry mobs of unassimilated French Muslim youths + all my nice Unitarian Facebook friends + terrorists + all Europeans + the media sources I used to rely on for factual information??).Wow.
Clearly, I was not paying enough attention.
I have never been to Israel, I did not even really think about Israel, but I know anti-semitism when I see it and I know more about Israel than the vast majority of the people who suddenly think themselves qualified to challenge its very existence. As naive as this must sound to someone who has covered these issues for years, I woke up in this bizarro world where I was the only one who noticed the glaringly obvious bias in stories from news outlets I've always trusted, and couldn't relate to or even trust people whose views and values I usually share. More unsettlingly, my new team consisted of Joan Rivers, Christian evangelicals whose enthusiasm for The Jews makes me feel like I'm being hugged too tightly, and Fox News. Still, I have the obligation of speaking loudly and clearly on this issue and for that, I have relied heavily on your posts to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and challenge misinformation with solid sources like the ones you provide. Responding to outright hateful comments that "friends" ignore on their own FB pages, trying to sort through my own feelings about the human toll, and reeling from the magnitude of the world's hatred towards Jews has been emotionally draining and lonely. Your blog has been a reassuring presence as I reorient myself to this world.
I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to all the readers, and thanks for your support, comments, story tips, tweets, retweets, compliments, cross-posts and donations.
UPDATE: I am remiss in not mentioning the other people who have either blogged here or guest posted more than once: Ian, Zvi, Mike Lumish, PreOccupied Territory, and Challah Hu Akbar are the ones I can think of offhand, apologize if I missed any.