Yisrael Katz was for many years a Likud apparatchik, rarely if ever standing out from the regular crowd of other apparatchiks (aside of his larger than average dimensions). Now, though, with his rise to the lofty throne of the Ministry of Transport, he decided to make his mark in history. And he does it via... a war against Arabic names on road signs. To make the long story short for people who don't want to read the ABC article - under the guise of unification of naming on the road signs, only Hebrew names will be used in three languages (Hebrew, Arabic and English):
"The lack of uniform spelling on signs has been a problem for those speaking foreign languages, citizens and tourists alike," transport ministry spokesman Yeshaayahu Ronen said.How exactly will "Yerushalayim" (Hebrew spelling) assist the hot and nervous tourists with their malfunctioning GPS and screaming kids, remains unclear. How will this idea improve the driving skills of an Arab driver on his way to Musmus (an Arab village that will, probably, be translated into Mishmish now) is even less clear, if it is at all possible. Etc.
It will be a good time to ask the Hon. Minister a few questions, like:
- Does Minister Katz know that in bilingual countries it is accepted to put two names on a road sign if the names differ in the respective languages? Brugge/Bruges will be a typical example (right, they don't exactly love one another, but at least they do it in a civil way).
- Does Minister Katz know what is the main goal of his ministry?
- Does Minister Katz know how many people died on the roads this year only?
- Doesn't Minister Katz think that the money wasted on idiotic initiative like this one could be used, for example, to better mark the existing roads, where the criss-crossing of old and new, yellow, orange and yellow lines makes the driving a real challenge?
- Doesn't Minister Katz realize that pissing off 20% of population by a stupid act like this is a damaging and unnecessary provocation, not justified by any conceivable sane motive?
The minister's own communications advisor, Barak Sari, said criticism was an "attempt by anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist elements to annul Israel's identity as a Jewish and democratic state. Anyone willing to refer to Jerusalem as al-Quds is collaborating with the Palestinian propaganda."See, how easy it is? You cannot call a minister names now without becoming automatically an anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist collaborator with Palestinian propaganda.
Ehehe... If Palestinian propaganda didn't have nincompoops like Minister Katz so easily available, it must have created them, methinks.
But, on the other hand, Minister Katz got something he was denied all these years of toiling for the other dudes in Likud - international publicity. And there is no such thing as bad publicity, they say. So, in an attempt to help Minister Katz out I looked for his picture. But what do you know - there is not a one of him smiling, his mug looks more or less like this everywhere:
So - smile, ijit, you are famous now!But, on the other hand, there is a totally different matter - that of the unknown person (author, editor, who cares?) inventing the subtitle to the article linked above:
Israeli Transport Ministry Accused of Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Road Signs
Goes to show that idiots are not reserved solely for population of various ministries. Instead of inventing my own reply, I will quote what a guy/gal named msr07 said on the subject:
Regardless of whether Israel is wrong for changing the road signs, the headline "Israel to ETHNICALLY CLEANSE road signs" is offensive to me. That is a horrible term that has no business being the headline for this story. The author may think this is a cute play on words but it's not - it promotes anti-semitism.Indeed.
