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The flourishing online press in Israel and its implications for Israeli society are assessed according to a four-stage media development model (penetration, institutionalization, self-defence and adaptation). During the first decade of the current millennium, the online press became entrenched, shifting from the penetration stage to the institutionalization stage. Since then, the printed press has been showing signs of adaptation to the new online press. It seems that the powerful media conglomerates have again succeeded in intensifying their hold on the new platform, leaving us with a new journalism but the old hegemony.

Therapy with TNFa blocking agents has been associated with increased rate of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) and rare cases of lupus like syndromes. Our aim was to prospectively analyze a wide array of autoantibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients before and 14 weeks after starting infliximab.In this study, 26 consecutive active RA patients participated. All treated with infliximab at a dosage of 3 mg/kg on week 0, 2, 6 and every 8 weeks, along with weekly low dose methotrexate. Patients were evaluated at week 0 and 14. Clinical assessment included the number of tender and swollen joints, duration of morning stiffness, adverse events (AE) (including SLE-like) and ESR. Sera were collected before the 1st infusion of infliximab at week 0 and 14. The autoantibodies studied were: fluorescent ANA, anti-double-stranded-DNA (anti-ds-DNA), IgG and IgM anti-cardiolipin (ACA), anti-histone- H1 and C (H1, H2A, H2B, H3, H4), anti-SSA, -SSB, -ENA, -scleroderma 70, -thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and -neutrophilic cytoplasmatic (ANCA) antibodies.Of 26 patients, 17 were women. A significant decrease in duration of morning stiffness, number of tender and swollen joints and ESR were observed between week 0 and 14. During follow up (mean of 20.5+/-7.3 months), 9 patients stopped infliximab due to inefficacy or AE (most of them after the 4th infusion). Two patients developed lupus-like phenomena. ANA was found positive at baseline in 7 out of 26 patients. In 5 of them, an increase in the titer of ANA was observed at week 14. ANA negative turned positive for 8 patients. A significant increase of anti-cardiolipin (ACA)-IgM levels was observed in 8 patients and of ACA-IgG in 6, in parallel with ANA seroconversion. The mean level of anti-double-stranded-DNA (anti-ds-DNA) -IgG significantly increased from 66+/-33 to 93+/-68 IU/ml, in 4 patients to pathological levels. Four patients demonstrated an increase in anti-histone H1. Levels of ANCA, anti-ENA, -SSA, -SSB, -RNP, -scleroderma70 and -thyroid peroxidase (TPO) were negative in all patients and remained unchanged during the study. Cessation of treatment with infliximab was found to be associated with the appearance of ANA.An increased titer or a new appearance of ANA was observed in 12 out of 26 patients. The main autoantibodies found were anti-ds-DNA, ACA-IgM and -IgG and anti-histone. In our cohort, the appearance of some autoantibodies seemed to predict late cessation of treatment.

This article challenges the dominant ‘victimizing’ overtones offering a balanced view of the love-hate interaction between politics and media in Israel. The political institution, and politicians in particular, are not helpless 'victims' up against the terrible media. The ongoing broadcast regulation that results in a three-stage process – maturation, implementation, negotiation – may characterize the relations between the two branches of the Israeli democracy. In the stage of maturation, possibly for months and even years, the political and economic circumstances enable the adoption of a medium innovation. In the implementation stage, the actual constaints are revealed, as expected, some of which are predictable and others unforeseen. In the final phase, the stage of negotiation, in light of the aforementioned gaps, bargain is held between the franchisers and the government, usually at the initiative of the former. These relations are analogous with a pendulum swinging between the authoritarian approach,...

Interviews of Israeli politicians revealed that television was the most severly criticized medium, not only for its presentation of content, but also for its implied political biases.

The present article suggests applying a “uses and gratifications” approach to the study of media‐government relationships. According to this approach, the political impact of the media is related to its ability to gratify the cognitive needs of the members of the political elite. The study is based on data collected during the ninth Knesset (Israeli parliament) term. Ninety‐one of the 120 members of the Knesset (MKs) were interviewed and asked to evaluate the uses of each of five media—newspapers, radio, television, private conversations with newsmen and with acquaintances—in gratifying their own cognitive needs in each of seven spheres of political reality: the Knesset, one's, own party, other political parties, the government, the state, the Arab states, and other countries of the world. The main findings were: 1. Newspapers were found to be the most relied‐upon mass medium for fulfilling an MK's cognitive needs; 2. The mass media were helpful in providing MKs with information in those spheres ...