Once, about 25 years ago, while I was the northern Israel correspondent for Maariv, I was driving on my way to Falafel Zahava, which is in Beit Shean. There, a small "parliament" of friends would convene every morning to discuss current events. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed despairingly as stacks of Yedioth Ahronoth quickly disappeared, while Maariv stayed in place. Every once in a while, I would approach somebody who picked up Yedioth and try to understand what laid behind their choice. I explained how Maariv's writers and photographers were no less talented than their counterparts at Yedioth. But these people, they had made their choice. One time, however, an individual stopped to whisper the secret in my ear. "Maariv is an imitation of Yedioth. Why would I grab an imitation if I can read the real thing? Get it-" the man said, and went on his way. Yedioth Ahronoth, the newspaper that espouses the slogan "there's nobody like me," which does not consider its competitors, which despises anybody that dares defy its word, has been stripped of its hegemony. Yedioth may have kept its title of "the nation's newspaper," but everybody knows that Israel Hayom is truly the newspaper of the people. The nation has become fed up with reading Yedioth praises of the corrupted collective that once led the state. And who forced Noni Mozes to face the new reality? The very same public once addicted to Yedioth Ahronoth, which understood that it was being led astray, which perceived the paper's narrow interests, malicious gossip and tendentious commentary. But in the last several years, the public has been offered an acceptable, professional alternative. Not an imitation like Maariv once was, but another newspaper. Israel Hayom has an agenda that the public in Israel can identify with, because it is a newspaper designed to serve the public itself. Noni Mozes, who wistfully monitors how stacks of Israel Hayom newspaper speedily vanish among distribution points while his free Yedioth barely moves from its stalls, has decided to wage a war against Israel Hayom. He set out on the warpath against the public that once supported him. Against the nation. But it is a losing battle destined for failure. Even MKs who are effectively Mozes' legislative tools understand that the people are revolted by the bill designed to reinstate Yedioth's dissipated hegemony. Thousands of ordinary citizens have already petitioned them. I meet those same citizens every day on the street, at cafes, at the neighborhood supermarket, waiting in line at the bank. They say, "Finally there's a newspaper that writes the truth. That reports without bias what happens. A newspaper that doesn't kowtow to criminals who were convicted and thrown away in the calaboose."
