A couple of years ago, my friend Michael A. Burstein (a science fiction writer; here’s his website) steered me toward independent journalist Michael Totten’s blog. I was pleased to find Totten’s reporting thorough, thoughtful, and unprejudiced. He takes a keen interest in the Middle East, visiting Lebanon and Israel frequently. With Israel in most journalists’ sights, I was pleased to find someone reporting on my adopted country who clearly has no hidden agenda. (I was also pleased to discover he’s a fellow Portlander. Ah, that rainy, rosy city in the beautiful Northwest.) He writes in a clear, unassuming prose, and his longer pieces are always accompanied by photographs that lend another dimension to his stories and interviews.
Totten was in Israel in August, and two of his pieces resulting from that trip pleased me in particular. The first is an observation on the kindness of Israelis (not, I would guess, the first thing one thinks of after reading the news these days). In this piece, published in the online Commentary magazine, Totten writes,
A few days ago, I announced that I’m leaving for Israel this week now that I’ve finished and sold my book, and the same thing happened that always does when I mention in 
public that I’m on my way over there. My in-box filled with offers of generous assistance from Israelis whom I’ve never met or even heard of. Most offered to buy me dinner. Some said I could sleep on their couch or in a spare bedroom. A few even offered to show me around, introduce me to people, and set up appointments for me. …
This rarely happens when I go anywhere else in the world. It happens every time I’ve announced a trip to Israel, though, in times of peace and during war, and it has been happening to me for years.
I get these sorts of offers from the entire range of Israeli society, from people affiliated with Peace Now to the settler movement. I can always count on kind and generous people in Arab countries to help me out once I’ve arrived, but only Israelis reach out so extensively, so consistently, and in such large numbers before I even get off the plane.
The second piece is an interview with David Hazony, an American-born Israeli writer and former editor-in-chief of Azure magazine. While they mostly discussed Israeli politics and society, Totten also includes a video about Hazony’s new book, The Ten Commandments: How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life, published last month, and recently added to my Amazon wish list.
I highly recommend Totten as a source of news and perspective. He has done some fascinating interviews, and because he publishes many of them on his own blog, he does not have to cut them to fit space in print. This allows for tangents and thoroughness which it’s rare to find anywhere else. I don’t always have time to read his long pieces, but I was rewarded by his interview with a former Iranian Revolutionary Guardsman, and on my list to read are his interview with Michael Young about Lebanon (viewed from the inside) and with Jonathan Spyer, an Israeli Middle Eastern analyst who specializes in Lebanon and has visited that country undercover, both with and without a passport.
Journalists who are independent, both in the financial and in the mental sense, are a rare find these days, and Totten is too good not to read. Please join me in supporting Totten by making a contribution to his efforts, and by enjoying his high quality reporting.
Shimshonit 
Great blog. Thanks for the link!
“a friend”
You mean me, right? :-)
Michael and I met at Clarion in 1994. We spent six weeks together in that intensive writing program and became friends.
He’s the last person I ever would have expected to become the journalist he has. I’m very glad for his reporting.
sol: Happy to oblige.
Michael: I do indeed. (Is that okay?) I wondered how you two had met. I appreciate your telling me about him. Perhaps he’ll have time to meet me on his next trip to Israel.
Of course it’s OK! You could have even mentioned me in the blog and linked to my website (hint hint). :-)
Michael: Okay, okay. I have altered my post accordingly.
I’ve been reading Michael Totten since this article appeared and I’m completely bewildered by the assessment of him as independent and unprejudiced. It seems to me he toes the straight center right Israeli line. Could you please point me to some articles that you think demonstrate the qualities you praised him for?
Larry: I call Totten independent and unprejudiced for several reasons:
1) He isn’t a Jew and he isn’t an Arab. He’s a white, Catholic American. In other words, he has no personal stake in the Middle East one way or another.
2) He came to writing about the Middle East from a position of admitted ignorance. He has said he continues to learn about the issues here as he goes. He does not carry around preconceived notions of who is right and who is wrong.
3) He has visited Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon many times and talks to people across the political spectrum: settlers, Peace Now and everyone in between; ordinary people, experts, and political figures; Jews and Arabs. He runs his feet off when he’s here and walks away with as complete a picture as one can possibly get of the situation. Can you say the same?
Given all that, if he sounds like a center right Israeli, I conclude that center right Israeli is the most logical line to toe.
I’ve looked at some of his recent pieces. He’s either quoting news reports from other sources as part of an observation about the sorry state of the UN, or the hidden truth about how American Muslims REALLY feel about the Ground Zero Mosque plans, or Tony Blair’s sister-in-law. I really don’t know what you’re grumbling about. Perhaps you could share what you think makes him dependent and prejudiced. I know you aren’t a center right Israeli, but he must have done something other than reach different conclusions than you to rouse your ire.
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