Tuesday 5 July 2011

Now My Countrymen Are Nazis


Taking off from Heathrow:


Coming in to land at Tel Aviv:


The view this morning from my hotel bedroom:


On the plane I was reading the complimentary copy of the Jewish Chronicle. Apparently the Dutch have banned the ritual slaughter of animals. The Jewish Chronicle's take on this was to call the Dutch Nazis, which I thought was a particularly nasty piece of victimhood journalism.

Regardless of your view as to whether a stun bolt on the head before killing or a very sharp knife to the jugular is more humane, immediately portraying yourself and your religion as a victim of modern Nazis is not going to get you much in the way of sympathy from anyone.

Holland is not the only country to ban ritual slaughter as barbaric - most Nordic countries have done so, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, while Switzerland permits the kosher slaughter only of chickens.

Personally I don't think there's much between the two methods and am happy to go with the science, which does seem to suggest ritual slaughter ain't as bad as people make out. Turn the animal into an anthropomorphic Peter Rabbit and your attitude is bound to change.

Breakfast at the hotel (which is really a bunch of apartments) is to die for. I'm looking a bit like a pig at present, thus I made do with smoked salmon and several varieties of herring.

While I sit writing this in my room with the door to the patio open, the sound of the Mediterranean surf lapping at the beach below is pissing me off.


1 comment:

Steve Borthwick said...

Ah, Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies, when your argument sucks call your opponent a Nazi thereby nullifying all reasonable objections to your woo woo by association, how quaint.

Nothing worse than going to a beach resort and having to work all day, I sympathise ;)