Gay Israel

If 26 percent of the religious and 27 percent of the Arabs say we’re not perverts, you can say we’ve achieved something.” — Yaniv Weizman (pictured above), head of Tel Aviv’s gay youth organization (via 46% of Israelis Believe Homosexuality “A Perversion”/Tikun Olam

In what must be a challenging image in Israel, this photo — issued by the Israeli government press office — offers Netanyahu the hawk, the man’s man, visiting the Tel Aviv gay youth center, Beit Paz, where two people were murdered last week. Notable for me is the simultaneous intimacy and impersonality of Bibi lightly touching the long bare arm.

Call it face-to-face with a macho society.

(image: Israeli Government Press Office, August 6, 2008 in Tel Aviv)