Allison had the scoop some hours before the papers: Jerusalem Post editor Bret Stephens is quitting to join the editorial board of his previous employer, the Wall Street Journal (for whom he used to be the Brussels correspondent). Jerusalem Report editor David Horovitz (no relation to his namesake at frontpage.com), himself a Post alumnus, will take over Bret's position.
Let us hope this is not a case of "Exit light, enter night". I canceled my subscription to the Report some years ago when it started suffering from a serious case of PC-itis. Allison faulted Bret for being insufficiently plugged into the Israeli scene; while under his tenure, the Post did read like an Israeli edition of the Wall Street Journal at times, I admired the way he placed Israel's struggle against terror in a wider context, something which had no parallel in any of the Hebrew-language papers. Neither did his particular set of political views: unapologetically pro-market, pro-Western, and anti-terror, but favoring a Palestinian state within adjusted 1967 borders. For those unable to read Hebrew (which I assume is most non-Israeli readers of this blog), the JPost was a necessary counterpoise to the English edition of Haaretz. Yet it cannot be ruled out --- Haaretz recently having changed editors as well --- that both newspapers may move closer to the center.
I'll miss you, Bret; then again, I won't, since I'm sure I'll be seeing some of you in the WSJ.
UPDATE: here is perhaps Bret's last column for the Post: "Toilets in the sand".
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