There has been precious little coverage of Annapolis in Dutch media sources.
That is probably a good thing. The Dutch media, in particular the NRC and the Algemeen Dagblad, tend towards the 'socially accepted' left of centre povs - alas, in the Netherlands that means very far out in left field indeed.
[The NRC takes pains to contrast anything positive about Israel with at least one negative thing (par exemplo: 15:37 Bush: Palestijnse staat voor eind 2008, 14:00 Slechte samenwerking Palestijnse en Israëlische ambulances).]
The NOS (Nationale Omroep Stichting - the main television and radio broadcasting organization in the Netherlands) has been described as dominated by PvdA (Dutch labour party) and Groen-links ('Green-Left' - the people who over here would probably have been members of the Workers World Party), in the same way as the ANP (Algemene Nederlandsche Persbureau - the Dutch news agency) has been described as the outreach department of Pravda (and absolutely sodden with Castro and Chavez sympathizers) - and, probably uncoincidentally, the ANP today prominently mentions two dead Palestinians.......
This situation explains the common misperception among 'sociaal bewogen' Netherlanders that Israel is not a democracy, was created out of nothing as a parking spot on someone else's territory for Jewish refugees after WWII, and that it is populated only by 100% Jewish religious fanatics of European origin who should learn to act like proper Europeans and should also return to Europe or America.
So, for anyone interested in relevant yet neutral news in Dutch, here are two sources wich are far more rational and balanced than either the ANP or NOS.
http://israel-palestijnen.blogspot.com/
This one frequently mentions, in some depth, the news that the Dutch press strenuously avoids. It is generally speaking pro-Isreal (which really means that it is both neutral and rational).
http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/
This is Manfred Gerstenfeld's splendid highlighting of the way in which news can be slanted by focussing primarily on the negative. Which, davka, is what the Dutch press loves to do to both Israel and the US, it being so easy and so profitable to pander to low common denominators.
Additionally, another great source of general info is:
http://www.likud.nl/
Likoed Nederland - Likud of the Netherlands.
[Yes, I know, Likud is not usually considered neutral. But at the risk of causing y'all to rupture yourselves laughing, I will maintain that it is indeed very much middle-of-the-road / mainstream. It has none of the biases of the hardcore on either side, but as Rebbe Nachman advises, veers neither right nor left and stays steadfastly focused. ]
That is probably a good thing. The Dutch media, in particular the NRC and the Algemeen Dagblad, tend towards the 'socially accepted' left of centre povs - alas, in the Netherlands that means very far out in left field indeed.
[The NRC takes pains to contrast anything positive about Israel with at least one negative thing (par exemplo: 15:37 Bush: Palestijnse staat voor eind 2008, 14:00 Slechte samenwerking Palestijnse en Israëlische ambulances).]
The NOS (Nationale Omroep Stichting - the main television and radio broadcasting organization in the Netherlands) has been described as dominated by PvdA (Dutch labour party) and Groen-links ('Green-Left' - the people who over here would probably have been members of the Workers World Party), in the same way as the ANP (Algemene Nederlandsche Persbureau - the Dutch news agency) has been described as the outreach department of Pravda (and absolutely sodden with Castro and Chavez sympathizers) - and, probably uncoincidentally, the ANP today prominently mentions two dead Palestinians.......
This situation explains the common misperception among 'sociaal bewogen' Netherlanders that Israel is not a democracy, was created out of nothing as a parking spot on someone else's territory for Jewish refugees after WWII, and that it is populated only by 100% Jewish religious fanatics of European origin who should learn to act like proper Europeans and should also return to Europe or America.
So, for anyone interested in relevant yet neutral news in Dutch, here are two sources wich are far more rational and balanced than either the ANP or NOS.
http://israel-palestijnen.blogspot.com/
This one frequently mentions, in some depth, the news that the Dutch press strenuously avoids. It is generally speaking pro-Isreal (which really means that it is both neutral and rational).
http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/
This is Manfred Gerstenfeld's splendid highlighting of the way in which news can be slanted by focussing primarily on the negative. Which, davka, is what the Dutch press loves to do to both Israel and the US, it being so easy and so profitable to pander to low common denominators.
Additionally, another great source of general info is:
http://www.likud.nl/
Likoed Nederland - Likud of the Netherlands.
[Yes, I know, Likud is not usually considered neutral. But at the risk of causing y'all to rupture yourselves laughing, I will maintain that it is indeed very much middle-of-the-road / mainstream. It has none of the biases of the hardcore on either side, but as Rebbe Nachman advises, veers neither right nor left and stays steadfastly focused. ]
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ADDENDUM
Dutch readers can also rely for their pov on people like Anja Meulenbelt (Dutch parliamentarian, radical socialist, and harridan blog-hag); what such folks say is often the very best example of everything wrong.
Ajaan Hirsi Ali (Ajaan Hirsi Magan) and Geert Wilders, both of whom function as guard-dogs against the creeping Islamicization and culture-rot of the Netherlands, are also very interesting and worthwhile reads, but both have their own agendas, and both veer too much into xenophobia.
Being in many ways the eternal foreigner, I am not overly enthusiastic about xenophobia.
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