Page 121 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

of support for their cause in public opinion, have become an indispensable part of the
Israeli economy and how they have also attracted a steady ®ow of people not for ideo-
logical reasons but because they provide cheap (subsidized) housing and social services,
and even schools with smaller class sizes. These bene¤ts are a result of unremitting po-
litical pressure creating, once again, “facts on the ground,” not only physically but also
politically.
12. Tembel is Hebrew for “foolish.”
13.If that were true, the whole of Israel would soon be “black” (a standard usage
referring to the black suits worn permanently by haredi men).
14.The legends and controversies are summarized by Louis Jacobs (1995, 628–630).
15.That is, the Arabs.
16.A periodic theme in Jewish and Christian eschatology, derived originally from the
Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, 38,39.
17.Even the one apparent exception to this statement—Brazil’s Universal Church of
the Kingdom of God, which owns a nationwide television network (TV Record)—is de-
ceptive, since TV Record only transmits religious content very late at night and very early
in the morning: for the rest of the time its content is standard television—although a bit
more restrained than its rivals. The church operates numerous local radios throughout
Brazil.

References

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Barzilai, G. 2003. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Ar-
bor: University of Michigan Press.
Berman, Eli. 2000. Sect, Subsidy, and Sacri¤ce: An Economist’s View of Ultra-Orthodox
Jews. Quarterly Journal of Economics 115 (3): 905–953.
Birman, P., and D. Lehmann. 1999. Religion and the Media in a Battle for Ideological
Hegemony. Bulletin of Latin American Research 18 (2): 145–164.
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Caspi, D., and Y. Limor. 1999. The In/Outsiders: The Media in Israel. Cresskill, N.J.:
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110 David Lehmann and Batia Siebzehner