South Africa stops West Bank goods being labeled "made in Israel"

but in furtherance of that desire, Y not call it something entirely different, if thay wanna avoid that confusion ?

Like what?

Israelis seems the most logical to me.
Unless you prefer Israelians for some strange reason.

We call the people of Iraq Iraqis, after all. [Do we call those of Iran Iranians??]

When the South African prime minister John Vorster made a state visit to Israel in April 1976, it began with a tour of Yad Vashem, Israel's major Holocaust memorial, where the late Yitzhak Rabin invited the onetime Nazi collaborator, unabashed racist and white supremacist to pay homage to Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

At a public meeting on Friday Diskin, former head of Shin Bet (Israel's MI5), described Netanyahu and Barak as "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power". He went on: "I have observed them from up close … They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off … They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."

Diskin joins a long list of eminent members of the Israeli security establishment who have publicly voiced criticism of, and opposition to, their government's ultra-hawkish line on Iran. In fact, his astonishing attack on his former bosses came just 48 hours after the head of Israel's military, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, declared that the Iranian leadership had not yet made a decision to build nuclear weapons, that it was unlikely to go this "extra mile", and was composed of "very rational people". "Decisions must be made carefully out of historic responsibility but without hysteria," added Gantz in a not-too-subtle dig at his political masters.

Last month, in an unprecedented move, Meir Dagan, the former head of the Mossad – Israel's foreign intelligence service – took to the airwaves in the US, using an interview with CBS to tell his American audience how a war with Iran would be "devastating" for Israelis because it would "ignite, at least from my point of view, a regional war". (He had earlier described an Israeli attack on Iran as "the stupidest idea I've ever heard".)

Meanwhile, Dagan's predecessor, Efraim Halevy, has said "it is not in the power of Iran to destroy the state of Israel", and that "the growing Haredi radicalisation poses a bigger risk than Ahmadinejad". Then there is the current head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, who is said to have told an audience of Israeli diplomats in December that a nuclear-armed Iran would not constitute an "existential threat" to Israel.

I agree with you re: David. In the US we also say "Day-vid." Butnot "Is-ray-el." That kind of pronunciation would brand a person as ignorant in most other places of the English-speaking world. The name of the country is pronounced just as it is spelled: Is-ra-el. (Ra as in "rah".)

I agree with you re: David.
In the US we also say "Day-vid." Butnot "Is-ray-el."
That kind of pronunciation would brand a person as ignorant in most other places of the English-speaking world.
The name of the country is pronounced just as it is spelled: Is-ra-el. (Ra as in "rah".)

Try watching the BBC, most English speaking countries follow the lead of the English in pronunciation.
The spelling means nothing the A in Israel could just as easily be a long or a short A. Consider enough and bough.

David is actually right when he says English spelling is illogical,
but his solution is even worse.

I, like most people in the non-American part of the English speaking world pronounce it Is Ray El. However, we don't pronounce the three stand alone syllables quite like that, which sounds rather gutteral and Germanic. The vowels are softened and run together, so even though we say Is Ray El, to an untrained ear it would probably sound like Israil, as in RAILway. The same is true of Tottenham, the vowels are run together, even though we say Tot En Ham it sounds like Tot'nam.

It's French, like the phrase En Route, which we pronounce "On Root."

Y not call it something entirely different, if thay wanna avoid that confusion ?

Y not call it something entirely different, if thay wanna avoid that confusion ?

I don't think too many Israelis care if you are confused.

Well, I agree that Israel is making very wrong decisions about the occupation, particularly in allowing ongoing settlement by radical right wing Jews, and I don't think it just radical left wingers who think so.

I think this is a very interesting move for a number of obvious historical reasons.

That response is SOP for Israel, though. I think everyone expected it. What was kind of funny to me was that they thought he was Jewish and so accused him of the left wing thing rather than the normal anti-Semitic schtick that Israeli authorities

Why is it ok for Israel to have the atom bomb but no one else in the middle east? If the thought is that they are more rational than perhaps you should read some of the news about the Isralie settlers shooting at innocent palistans while their army units stand by protecting them from retalitation. Stealing palistainan land and blatant murder has become a way of life for them. But all you hear about in the U.S. is the pal rockets and bombs because the media is controlled by isralies. If you want the truth read something other than U.S. media.

Lustig Andrei wrote:

I agree with you re: David. In the US we also say "Day-vid." Butnot "Is-ray-el." That kind of pronunciation would brand a person as ignorant in most other places of the English-speaking world. The name of the country is pronounced just as it is spelled: Is-ra-el. (Ra as in "rah".)

Try watching the BBC, most English speaking countries follow the lead of the English in pronunciation. The spelling means nothing the A in Israel could just as easily be a long or a short A. Consider enough and bough.

David is actually right when he says English spelling is illogical, but his solution is even worse.

I, like most people in the non-American part of the English speaking world pronounce it Is Ray El. However, we don't pronounce the three stand alone syllables quite like that, which sounds rather gutteral and Germanic. The vowels are softened and run together, so even though we say Is Ray El, to an untrained ear it would probably sound like Israil, as in RAILway. The same is true of Tottenham, the vowels are run together, even though we say Tot En Ham it sounds like Tot'nam.

Since the name came from the Old Testament, wouldn't the "correct" pronouniation be the way it is said in Hebrew, "Duh-veed"?

How does London sound in Hebrew?

Lustig Andrei wrote:

I agree with you re: David. In the US we also say "Day-vid." Butnot "Is-ray-el." That kind of pronunciation would brand a person as ignorant in most other places of the English-speaking world. The name of the country is pronounced just as it is spelled: Is-ra-el. (Ra as in "rah".)

Try watching the BBC, most English speaking countries follow the lead of the English in pronunciation. The spelling means nothing the A in Israel could just as easily be a long or a short A. Consider enough and bough.

David is actually right when he says English spelling is illogical, but his solution is even worse.

I, like most people in the non-American part of the English speaking world pronounce it Is Ray El. However, we don't pronounce the three stand alone syllables quite like that, which sounds rather gutteral and Germanic. The vowels are softened and run together, so even though we say Is Ray El, to an untrained ear it would probably sound like Israil, as in RAILway. The same is true of Tottenham, the vowels are run together, even though we say Tot En Ham it sounds like Tot'nam.

Since the name came from the Old Testament, wouldn't the "correct" pronouniation
be the way it is said in Hebrew, "Duh-veed"?

Foofie wrote:

Since the name came from the Old Testament, wouldn't the "correct" pronouniation be the way it is said in Hebrew, "Duh-veed"?

Perhaps, but we pronounce Munchen Munich, and Roma Rome, so that's about par for the course.

How does London sound in Hebrew?