To the question "do you believe homosexuality is a choice," with which U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry were confronted in the 2004 presidential debate, Deputy Prime Minister and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai has just offered an affirmative answer: "A minority with a normative defect" is how he referred to gays and lesbians when the news broke that the state had partly sponsored a campaign aimed at gay clientele.

Admittedly, it was no surprise that a photo of two men kissing with the Old City of Jerusalem in the background would provoke the usual homophobic exclamations from Yishai. After all, he and his colleagues in Shas share their views on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community whenever they possibly can. Yishai's rich repertoire includes statements such as "gays and lesbians are sick people" and a comparison between the Jerusalem pride parade and a terror attack.

Although homophobia is only one sort of the xenophobia that is so abundant here, the official gay-bashing has become such a standard part of Israel's political scene that it does not even embarrass us anymore. The seasonal gay-bashing, peaking with the Jerusalem pride parade tomorrow, proves again that Israel is more tolerant of homophobia by its top-ranking officials than of other forms of hatred and incitement.

 

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