STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bad taste perhaps,but hilariously insensitive!! Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 12:27:30 +0200 From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Storm brewing over hurricane named Israel Storm brewing over hurricane named Israel http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/05/25/News/News.26925.html By Elli Wohlgelernter JERUSALEM (May 25) - As if Israel does not have a big enough public relations problems in the world, the name "Israel" is set to be used this summer on a UN agency's list of typhoons and hurricanes. The consequence of a devastating storm named Israel causing massive destruction and death - with the accompanying headlines - has enraged Jewish leaders, who called it "bizarre," "stupid," and "insensitive." In addition to Israel, the name "Adolph" is on the same alphabetized list of Eastern North Pacific Names for 2001, further fueling the indignation of Jewish groups. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami and chairman of the UN's hurricane naming committee, told The Jerusalem Post that no one on the committee thought about the implications of the name Israel. "We have four billion people on the planet, and you are the only person I've ever had express a concern about the name Israel," which he called a "good Spanish name." Adolph, added Mayfield, is "not the German spelling, and there are a lot of good people with the name Adolph, too." Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, expressed outrage over the use of either name. "How about Jesus?" Foxman asked. "That's another good Spanish name. They wouldn't name a hurricane Jesus, would they? If there were a headline that said 'Jesus hits Philippines,' a lot of people would be upset. "It is totally insensitive. One would have hoped that people who have the responsibility of picking names would have a greater sensitivity about what names reflect. Adolph, in the lifetime of people still alive, to name anything after [that] by an international body is offensive and hideous." There are 10 regional storm areas with lists of tropical storm names. Other first names that are also countries, for example "Jordan" and "Chad," do not appear on any list. "I understand that there may have been a lack of understanding in terms of Israel, but there, too, one should look at every name that they pick from 14 views, and test them out in 14 ways," Foxman said. Names for hurricanes are provided by a 25-man international naming committee under Regional Association IV of the World Meteorological Organization, a Geneva-based UN agency. The committee, which meets once a year, approved of the list at the last meeting in April. "There is a certain terrible irony to naming a hurricane Israel, given that the Nazis forced Jewish males who did not have what they considered to be a distinctly Jewish name to add the name Israel as a middle name," said Efraim Zuroff, Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "It was done in order to make sure that they were clearly identified as Jews, and therefore subject to the racial laws and other discriminatory measures. "With all our current security problems and the concurrent struggle over Israel's image in world opinion, a killer hurricane named Israel is the last thing we need," said Zuroff. "I shudder to think how terrible it would be in Muslim countries in the Far East if they found themselves suffering from a storm by that name. All we can hope is that if a hurricane is named Israel, it will be the least destructive one in recent history." Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, mused whether the use of both names wasn't intentional hatred against Jews. "It's funny that in an era when almost no one names their children Adolph, for them to name a hurricane Adolph forces one to question their motive," Klein said. "It seems likely that this group has employed this name, which brings up ugly memories, simply to show hostility toward the Jewish people. With the UN's record of anti-Israel policy, it does not seem far-fetched that they have now come up with a new method to bash Israel." The WMO states on its Web site that not all names are used: "The use of people's names for this purpose is, however, not done everywhere. The practice of naming storms, which usually bring destruction, after persons appears to run counter to Oriental sensibilities. Thus, Asians, like the Japanese and Chinese, prefer to name their storms after other living things and also after inanimate objects like flowers, rivers, etc." Both Mayfield and Arthur Dania, president of Regional Association IV, said there was no possibility this year of removing the names from the list. "There is no mechanism to change it, and we certainly would not consider changing it for this year," Mayfield said. "Too many people already have the list and are ready to go with this name." Foxman refused to accept that argument, saying, "This is not the Law of Moses from Sinai, it is not the word of Jesus that cannot be changed. This is a bureaucratic function, communicated by individuals through e-mail and faxes, and it could be changed in a very simple manner if there is a desire to change it. It is absolutely ludicrous to say that they cannot change it." Foxman said the names are less a case of the UN bashing Israel than "another example of insensitivity and stupidity, and I don't know what comes first - probably stupidity, and then insensitivity. Because stupidity is what led them to do it, insensitivity is their argument with you." ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
