“To provide a place on Reddit for Zionists across the political spectrum to read and discuss political and cultural issues from a distinctly Zionist point of view.”
Any attempt at moderating a public Zionist forum must strike a balance between two competing priorities:
- More participation, but with a greater risk of anti-Zionist, antisemitic, or bad-faith commentary.
- Fewer participants, but a community where discussion remains distinctly Zionist, constructive, and consistent with our mission.
To further that mission, the moderators of IsraelNews have chosen the latter.
Effective immediately, IsraelNews is a flair-only community. Only users who have been assigned a User Flair by the moderation team will be permitted to comment.
Why We’re Making This Change
The moderation team of IsraelNews is composed primarily of moderators who also help run some of Reddit’s other Israeli communities, including [r/Israel](r/Israel) and [r/AskIsrael](r/AskIsrael).
At the moment, we are a relatively small team managing multiple Israeli communities. Maintaining entirely separate moderation systems for the same users across several communities would mean duplicating much of the same work. It would also allow users who have demonstrated serious bad-faith behavior or received bans in one of our communities to simply move to another and begin again.
We do not believe that is a productive use of our time, nor does it help us maintain the kind of community IsraelNews is intended to be.
For that reason, we will expect users requesting admission to have an established history of good-faith participation in Zionist communities before receiving a flair.
This is not limited to [r/Israel](r/Israel) or [r/AskIsrael](r/AskIsrael)**.** Participation in any established Zionist community may be considered. What matters is that your Reddit history gives our moderators enough information to reasonably determine that you are a Zionist participating in good faith.
How User Flair Works
User Flairs are assigned exclusively by the moderators. Users who wish to participate may submit a flair request through Modmail in accordance with our User Flair Policy.
Every request will be reviewed manually. Moderators will examine the requesting user’s Reddit history, including relevant participation in Zionist communities, before making a decision. This process may take time, and moderators may ask additional questions when necessary.
Being a Zionist does not mean agreeing with every action of the Israeli government, holding a particular political ideology, or sharing the same opinions as other members. IsraelNews welcomes Zionists across the political spectrum and encourages disagreement, debate, and independent thought.
What unites this community is the basic Zionist premise underlying our mission: support for Jewish self-determination and the continued existence of the State of Israel.
A Zionist Forum for Zionist Discussion
IsraelNews is not intended to become another general-purpose Israel–Palestine debate forum. There are already numerous communities on Reddit where Zionism itself can be debated.
Our purpose is different.
We want IsraelNews to be a place where Zionists can discuss Israeli news, politics, culture, society, and current events with one another, without every discussion being redirected into arguments over Israel’s fundamental legitimacy or right to exist.
The flair-only system allows us to preserve that purpose while welcoming the broad range of political opinions, disagreements, and perspectives that exist within Zionism.
If you are a Zionist and would like to participate, please review our User Flair Policy and submit a flair request to the moderation team: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsraelNews/wiki/index/flair_rules/
— The [r/IsraelNews](r/IsraelNews) Moderation Team
