Best Jewish blog award goes to ultra-conservative extremist

Samson Blinded, a blog advocating ultra-hard-line Israeli approach to Arab nations, received 2006 People's Choice Jewish and Israeli Blog Award in the Best Overall Blog category and scored the highest in four other categories.

January 22, 2006. Jerusalem, Israel. Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict, won in the Best Overall Blog category, scored the highest in the Best Jewish Current Events, Best Personal Blog, and Recommended Blog categories, and came close second in Best Pro-Israeli Advocacy and Best New Blog categories. Hundreds of well-known pro-Israeli blogs took part in the competition. Samson Blinded' supporters cast more than 3,000 enthusiastic votes in the final days of the competition. 

Samson Blinded is run by a politician writing under pen name Obadiah Shoher. Pen name is a must because Israeli law criminalizes racism and incitation. Shoher advocates creating a Jewish religious state, Judea, alongside Israel, while transferring the Palestinians to Jordan. Shoher denies ethnic-blind democracy and argues for expulsion of Arabs from Israel. He rejects democratic process dominated, he asserts, by liberal and Arab voters, and calls for violent opposition to police efforts at removing the illegal settlements.

Shoher calls for nearly dismantling Israeli army and fully relying on nuclear response to counter possible Arab aggression. He vocally opposed the wars in Iraq and Lebanon, and calls for employing nuclear weapons against the Iranian nuclear facilities. Shoher raised to prominence the issue of Islamic Brotherhood coming to power in Egypt.

Shoher praised the award: "People's Choice competition became referendum on Israeli policy, and declared resounding 'no' to the suicidal line of appeasing Arab enemy with Jewish land. Not a single leftist blog made it into the winners. Tens of thousands votes universally supported conservative views. That shift away from leftism is especially significant given a large proportion of young people among the voters."