Jews Say No to Hurricane Named Israel

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/05/25/News/News.26925.html

Storm brewing over hurricane named Israel
By Elli Wohlgelernter | Jerusalem Post | 05-25-01

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.”