Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian

Yellow badges for Jews in Iran?

There are conflictying reports on alleged attempts by the Iranian regime to pass a law mandating identifiable dress codes for each of the non-Muslim minorities. (I have no doubt whatsoever that they're crazy or morally degenerate enough to do it, though. Then again, many "urban legends" stick precisely because they are somewhat plausible.) Hot Air summarizes evidence either way.

Michael Totten in Ramallah

Michael Totten continues his "fact-finding regular Joe" tour of the Middle East in... Ramallah. Go read the whole thing, although if he finds a pathological liar like Saeb Erekat "one of the most honorable Palestinian politicians" it says a lot about what the rest are like. And, as a commenter points out, the DFLP that now opposes all attacks against ISraeli civilians (or even soldiers within the pre-1967 border) was responsible for the 1974 Ma`alot massacre. (It's possible they may have changed a bit since then, but color me skeptical...)

And make sure to read all the comments --- there's some great stuff there (sadly, no permalinks), such as an extended excerpts from Martha Gellhorn's 1961 Atlantic Monthly piece (full text in for-pay Atlantic Monthly archive; summary by Neo-Neocon).

Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali leaves parliament and the Netherlands

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reports that MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, best known for her fierce criticism of radical Islamism, will leave parliament and move to the USA, to start a job at the American Enterprise Institute.

All this following a confession that she told some (to my eyes fairly white) lies on her original application for asylum. The newspaper reports, BTW, that she made the confession herself after one Taida Pasic was expelled for the same transgression.

UPDATE: LGF, Emailed by about 20 people, posted the story within seconds of my posting it here.

UPDATE 2: an LGF commenter trasnlates an article by Leon de Winter, pointing out that there is nothing new in the 'revelations' made by AHA about her declarations to immigration authorities. I have a feeling somebody is getting screwed over royally here...

UPDATE 3: NRC Handelsblad reports AHA will be allowed to retain her Dutch citizenship.

Fair Trade

In the comments on an article about renewed attempts at academic boycott by the British tertiary education union, "Don" suggests a "fair trade" to end what leftist tools call the ap*rtheid wall:

I believe in fair trade. Brittan can send all Jews living there to Israel, and Israel can send all the Palestinians to Brittan. This would solve many problems. [...] Israel on the other hand could saf[e]ly take down the fence, re-settle the settlers and have room for more Jewish people that wish to leave the anti-sem[i]tic everyday life of Europe.

Political correctness gone rampant

Clayton Cramer draws attention to this piece of political correctness gone wild:

The Lord Chancellor is facing accusations of political correctness after banning the word “homosexual” from official documents in his department.

Lord Falconer has ordered for the word to be removed on the grounds that it “may be considered offensive.”

The ban comes after a report commissioned by the Department for Constitutional Affairs to analyse how well diversity rules are obeyed when selecting judges.

Academics from the Queen Mary college compiled the report and concluded, “It is important to recognise that the term homosexuality is considered inappropriate by many gays and lesbians today.”

They claimed that gay charity Stonewall regards the word as derogatory, “It originates from a medical definition when same-sex attraction was construed as mental illness.' The report said “it should no longer be used in official documentation. Stonewall recommends that ‘lesbian, gay and bisexual’ is a more appropriate term.”

The PC cant-mongers should realize that, etymologically speaking, 'gay' used to be a slang term for what we nowadays call 'rough trade' or 'stud hustlers' in the 18th century. (Don't even get me started on 'queer'.)

Listen, I'm probably as heterosexual as they come so have no personal experience with the specific matter. But I do know that I've always rejected (and resented) weasel-words such as 'Israelite', 'of the Mosaic persuasion', 'of the Hebrew faith', and the like in favor of the simple, plain, and descriptive 'Jew'. And I have no doubt that if I were homosexual (as impossible to imagine as it is), I would prefer to be called just that. Or that I'd prefer to be called 'black' rather than 'African-American' if I had a darker skin tone.

The English language has a very diverse and colorful repertoire of derogatory terms for homosexuals (one more anatomical than the next). Nobody would ever confuse those with a neutral descriptive term.

Unless the attitude displayed is the same as that of the Index of Forbidden Books of the Catholic Church, which would not only ban certain books as hostile to the Church and give its approval to others, but would use a category that literally translates as 'disturbingly/annoyingly neutral' ("storend neutraal")...

Iscar sold for USD$4B to Warren Buffett

Legendary investor Warren Buffett bought 80% of Israeli machining tools company ISCAR for US$4B.

ISCAR, founded by German-Jewish refugee Stefan Wertheimer, is one of the crown jewels of Israel's economy, and Wertheimer one of Israel's true visionaries.

Porcupine Tree frontman moves to Tel-Aviv

Steven Wilson, the brain behind progressive rock group Porcupine Tree as well as an acclaimed record producer, has no Jewish roots and in fact very little time for organized religion. Yet he decided to... move to Israel.

The Tree's own "In absentia" is one of the more played rock albums on my iPod. But perhaps the outstanding album Wilson had a hand in was the haunting and elegiac "Damnation" by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth, on which Wilson appeared as producer and keyboardist, besides co-writing the song "Death whispered a lullaby". Wilson has a long-standing collaboration with Aviv Geffen (don't ask!) and is set to produce the next album by Israeli metal band Orphaned Land.

A cabinet is emerging

As compiled from here, here, and here, a cabinet is now emerging.

As "Rasputin" Lieberman's party is out, Kadima ends up getting quite a bit more than originally thought.

• Ehud Olmert: Prime Minister
  
• Shimon Peres: Deputy PM and Minister in charge of Negev and Galilee development
  
• Tzipi Livni: vice-PM and Foreign Affairs (clearly up to the job)
  
• Shaul Mofaz: vice-PM and Transportation Minister
  
• Avraham Hirschson: Finance Minister
  
• Avi Dichter: Internal Security (former Shin Bet chief, obvious choice)
  
• Roni Bar-On: Interior Minister (what?!?)
  
• Chaim Ramon: Justice Minister
  
• Ze'ev Boim: Immigrant Absorption
  
• Gideon Ezra: Environment (no comprendo)
  
• Meir Shitreet: Housing and Construction (+control of Israel Lands Authority)
  
• Yaacov Edri: Minister w/o Portfolio
  

Some of these choices are no-brainers in terms of competence. Tzipi Livni is clearly on a roll at the Foreign Ministry; Avi Dichter earned his spurs as chief of the Shin Bet during Intifada II. But some appointments do not make any sense to me. Former Shin Bet official Gideon Ezra for Environment?! Not to mention a political hack par excellence like Roni Bar-On (the central figure in the "Bar-On for Hebron" influence peddling scandal, who was attorney-general for something like 12 hours under Netanyahu before being forced to resign).

And speaking of political hacks, the idea of Dalia Itzik as Speaker of the Knesset makes me lose my last three meals.

WHat about Labour?

• Amir Peretz: Defense Minister
  
• Yuli Tamir: Education Minister
  
• Shalom Simchon: Agriculture Minister
  
• Binyamin "Fuad" Ben-Eliezer: National Infrastructure Minister
  
• Isaac "Bougie" Herzog: Tourism
  
• Ophir Pines-Paz: Sports and Jerusalem Affairs
  
• Eitan Cabel: Public Broadcast Ministry (what?!)
  

I don't trust Yuli Tamir (she smells a bit too much of "left"ist humanities academe for my taste), but at least she has qualifications to be Education Minister. Shalom Simchon has held the Agriculture portfolio in at least one government I can remember off-hand. But Amir Peretz as Defense Minister?!? G-d help us.
And what sort of a monster is the ministry for Sports and Jerusalem Affairs? Already today, I heard jokes being told about "Minister for Beitar Jerusalem" (one of Israel's two most popular soccer teams).

Or why a new completely redundant ministry of "public broadcasting" is being created for a small-time political hack. (However, see below.)

The Pensioners' Party will get the Labor and Social Affairs portfolio, plus a newly created Ministry for Senior Citizens Affairs.

Finally, Shas (appropriately, the name sounds the same as the Belgian Dutch and French slang word for a toilet flush) will get

• Trade and Industry (minus control of the Israel Lands Authority)
  
• Communications Ministry (minus control of the Israel Broadcast Authority, see above, and thank G-d)
  
• A minister without portfolio "in charge of religious services" (i.e., the late and unlamented Ministry of Religious Affairs being recreated through the back door)
  
• One minister without portfolio
  

I have no idea which cretin gets to warm which chair and couldn't care less.

One portfolio is missing from the above lists: Science and Technology, which makes me wonder whether this will be a consolation prize for erstwhile Ben-Gurion University chancellor Prof. Avishai Braverman. No such prizes will be available for Ami Ayalon and Matan Vilna'i, other Labor losers against seventh-rate political hacks.

UPDATE: click "see more" for the final cabinet. So Braverman didn't even get Science and Technology --- in the end Ophir Pines got that, and Culture and Sports (which used to be the same ministry, go figure) are attached to the Education Ministry.