Stylish Nazis and ‘very dangerous’ pineapples
Pineapple problems
The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture is investigating how 1,000 pineapples from Togo came to be distributed among workers in the Prime Minister’s Office. The fruit — a gift for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from Togo’s President Aydama Gansingba — potentially contravenes a ban on importing pineapples to Israel due to concern they may carry diseases. The President sent his gift in appreciation for medical treatment received in Israel. The fruit was then distributed to Mr Netanyahu’s staff. A spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry said: “The pineapples arrived without a licence. We will look into this. Pineapples are a very dangerous fruit.”
GQ editor quits after piece on ‘stylish Nazis’
The resignation of GQ editor James Brown after the magazine featured the Nazis in a list of the century’s most stylish men was described this week by a Holocaust education leader as “an appropriate end to a sad tale.” Mr Brown departed in the wake of the furore surrounding the piece, which was illustrated by a photo of Rommel. Prior to Mr Brown’s resignation, Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Conde Nast, GQ’s publishers, acknowledged that a mistake had been made. Speaking this week, Holocaust Educational Trust chairman Lord Janner said that “to describe Rommel as one of the most stylish men of the 20th century was a monstrous misjudgement.”
Israel bars use of word ‘euro’
AEuropean currency union is not just causing trouble over here, the storm rages in Israel as well. Israelis are having problems over what to call the euro. The Hebrew Academy — arbiter of modern usage of the language — has decreed that the new currency should be called the “aero” rather than the “euro.” The decision has caused much controversy. Apart from the spectre of thousands of British tourists attempting to pay for their transactions with bars of bubbly milk chocolate, the fact is, everyone in Israel already calls it the “euro”. Neil Corney, head of foreign exchange trading at Bank Hapoalim, thinks having an Israeli pronunciation is a bit, well, silly. “I’ve never heard anyone use the term,” he told the Jerusalem Report, “except maybe a government official.” Another case of the Israeli love of confectionery prevailing over common sense.