Justifying Israeli homosexuals by attacking Haredim
A proud father of a gay son

By David Fogel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959968.html
Mon., March 03, 2008 Adar1 26, 5768

Full disclosure: I'm the proud father of a gay son. And I'm not the only one. Our prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is the proud father of a gay daughter - a daughter who has become a symbol, the pride of the community, for being an open lesbian and a brave fighter for equal rights for the homosexual community.

And because I know, from personal acquaintance, that Ehud Olmert is a warm and loving father, I am angry at his thundering silence in light of the nonsense and incitement against the homosexual community by several leaders of Shas.

As long as the leaders of this party were content robbing the public coffers, as long as they adopted the extortion methods of the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox parties, we somehow accepted it; after all, this has been going on since the establishment of the state. It's true that there has been a certain innovation here: To date, the MKs of the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox parties have not been convicted of criminal offenses or served prison terms - but we have become accustomed to this, too.

But the Shas wheeler-dealers are no longer satisfied with reaching into the public coffers. As faithful representatives of worldviews that were common during the Middle Ages, they have pulled out a new "winning" card - as far as they are concerned, nothing less than an ace - the homosexual card.

I have no desire to repeat their nonsense, or to try to diagnose the psychological problems that lie behind these statements. I only know that in this difficult country, where hooligans mercilessly beat up helpless elderly people, there has been an increase - so my son and his friends tell me - in hooligans also beating up homosexuals who are walking innocently in the city streets, minding their own business. We can assume that some of these hooligans draw encouragement and confirmation from the contemptuous words uttered by the Shas wheeler-dealers.

I return to Ehud Olmert.

Olmert is a sophisticated and experienced politician, as evidenced by the wisdom and the cunning behind his extraordinary success at maintaining his coalition. There probably has been no prime minister who did that as well as he does. And still, we can also expect him to understand that there are far more important things than survival. For example, the dignity of his children.

Therefore, if I were Ehud Olmert, I would convene all the Shas MKs in a closed room and tell them the following: I have no intention of preaching morals to you and explaining to you what damage you are causing my daughter's community. As far as I am concerned, you can continue to think whatever you wish. But if you dare once again to utter such nonsense in public, you will find yourselves outside the coalition.

The writer is the chair of Fogel-Ogilvy Advertising Ltd.

Labels: Gay pride parade, Haredi Judaism, Homosexuality, Homosexuality in Israel, Israeli gays, Israeli Jews, Israeli society

- posted by Izak @ 9:29 AM