Leading Title (Koteret Rashit)

Leading Title (Koteret Rashit) was an Israeli news weekly published from 1982 to 1988. Edited by Nahum Barnea and Tom Segev, it made a lasting mark on Israeli journalism and public culture through deeply reported political and social writing, investigations of economic, social and military affairs, and sustained engagement with culture. The weekly did more than report events: it interpreted Israeli society, challenged accepted assumptions and gave talented younger writers a prominent platform.

Its contributors included Dan Ben-Amotz, Ephraim Sidon, Doron Rosenblum, Gaby Nitzan, Ari Shavit, Menahem Perry, Dov Alfon, Ehud Asheri, Neri Livneh, Irit Linor, Shlomo Abramovich and Avner Avrahamy, who served as deputy editor and was the publication's first designer. The editorial office was initially located in Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv in 1986, reflecting the weekly's development into a broad, energetic and highly critical national forum.

A New Language of Critical Journalism

Leading Title combined reporting and interpretation with a strongly literary sensibility. Its journalism was personal, ironic, opinionated and influenced by New Journalism. According to Oz Almog, the weekly represented an important stage in the development of a journalistic revolution that had begun with Uri Avnery's HaOlam HaZeh and continued through the magazine Monitin. In Leading Title, that tradition became sharper, more provocative and broader in scope, while giving greater space to political and social analysis.

The weekly's criticism of government and society came from an unmistakably left-wing perspective. It provided a forum for political criticism that grew stronger on the Israeli left after the First Lebanon War, and it was among the first publications to report systematically on injustices committed by Israeli rule against the Palestinian population in the West Bank. At the same time, it criticized the historic Labor movement, addressed ethnic discrimination openly, and was willing to question the conceptual foundations of Zionist nationalism and the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces. Its willingness to address these subjects helped widen public debate during a sensitive and polarized period.

Investigative Journalism and the Kav 300 Affair

In 1984, the weekly challenged the suppression of the fact that Israel remained in the security zone and criticized the effective continuation of the Lebanon War. At a time when such criticism was unusual in the Israeli press, its reporting demonstrated a willingness to confront difficult questions about security policy and its human and public costs.

After the Kav 300 affair, Leading Title reported, contrary to military censorship instructions, that Yitzhak Mordechai was the central suspect. Nahum Barnea later expressed regret over the way the coverage developed. He explained that the weekly had moved beyond publishing the information in its possession and had begun treating Mordechai as guilty before the facts and legal process had been resolved. Barnea said it later became clear that the Shin Bet had fabricated evidence, framed Mordechai and misled investigative authorities and a commission of inquiry.

The episode illustrates both the weekly's willingness to confront powerful security institutions and the importance of responsibility and self-criticism in investigative journalism. Although the coverage itself was not free of error, the publication contributed to exposing turmoil at the top of the Shin Bet and to the eventual revelation of the truth. This was central to the public role Leading Title claimed for journalism: bringing powerful institutions into the light when ordinary systems of oversight were struggling to do so.

“The Yellow Wind” and Its Wider Impact

On April 29, 1987, Leading Title published a special issue marking Israel Independence Day and the twentieth anniversary of the Six-Day War. Named “The Yellow Wind”, it collected field reports by the writer David Grossman from the West Bank. The articles portrayed life under Israeli rule through direct encounters with people, places and institutions, bringing the political and human reality of the territories to the attention of a wide Israeli readership.

The issue generated a strong response, and many readers and commentators came to regard it as a work that anticipated the tensions preceding the First Intifada, which began about six months later. The articles were soon published as a book and circulated internationally. Publishing houses and periodicals around the world acquired rights, and the royalties paid by The New Yorker alone helped keep Leading Title financially afloat for several months when it was close to dissolution.

The issue's circulation also demonstrated its reach. The weekly normally sold about 14,000 copies and generally no more than 20,000, whereas “The Yellow Wind” reached approximately 40,000 copies. Its success showed that long-form investigation, literary writing and direct engagement with a difficult national question could reach a broad audience, influence Israeli discussion and speak to readers beyond Israel.

An Enduring Journalistic and Cultural Legacy

Leading Title existed for only six years, but during that time it became a professional and creative home for established writers and emerging voices. Its emphasis on talent, its fusion of investigative reporting with literary style, and its willingness to address identity, power, war, discrimination and culture made it more than a news weekly. It was a journalistic institution that influenced how Israelis read their society and how journalists and writers sought to describe it.

The weekly's historical importance also lies in the way it connected journalism, literature and public debate. Many of the writers who worked there later became influential figures in Israeli journalism and culture. Its major issues remain valuable reference points for understanding Israeli journalism in the 1980s and the social and political processes that shaped the country.

Why Leading Title Belongs in Moreshet

Leading Title merits inclusion in Moreshet because it represents an important chapter in Israeli journalism and in public debate about society, security and identity in the State of Israel. It expanded the boundaries of investigative reporting, gave a platform to a significant generation of writers and brought readers investigations and stories that sought to expose reality rather than simply reproduce the accounts of official institutions.

“The Yellow Wind,” its coverage of the Lebanon War and its handling of the Kav 300 affair demonstrate the weekly's practical influence: it shaped public agendas, encouraged scrutiny of powerful institutions and carried Israeli questions into international discussion. Preserving the story of Leading Title on Moreshet.com records not only the memory of a publication that ultimately closed, but also its enduring contribution to journalism, political culture and Israel's capacity for honest self-examination.