Mentioned Over at SLATE

SLATE includes me in a round-up:-

Proud Zionist Yisrael Medad at My Right Word can't help but notice the plan bears an eerie similarity to the plot of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Still, for all Ahmadinejad's wide reading, Medad still wants to negotiate: "[S]ince Iran is slightly larger than Alaska, with an area of 1,638,057 square kilometers while Alaska has an area of 1,530,693 square kilometers, why can't the world have Ahmi chose Alaska and we get Iran?"

Alaska? Sorry, Too Cold

I think I informed you that I have read "The Yiddish Policemen's Union".

The plot is based on the imagined reality (based on a snippet of almost-history that Jews almost actually did arrive in Alaska) that the Jews are now living in Alaska (okay, so you really do have to read the book).

Anway, I just read this:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested Friday that a referendum be held in "Palestine" to determine where the Jews should be transferred to. The choice, he said, should be between Europe, Canada and Alaska.

(Kippah tip: Arutz 7)

This on the background of this:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday launched a new tirade against Israel amid growing tensions with the West, vowing to work to abolish the Jewish state and questioning the scale of the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would work until "all of Palestine is liberated" from Israeli hands, in a speech to mark the Quds day, Iran's annual day of mass protest marches in solidarity with the Palestinians.

"The Palestinian people are standing firm. The Iranian people and other peoples will not stop until all of Palestinian territory is liberated," Ahmadinejad told the faithful at Tehran University.

Did he read the book?

But, on second thought, since Iran is slightly larger than Alaska, with an area of 1,638,057 square kilometers while Alaska has an area of 1,530,693 square kilometers, why can't the world have Ahmi chose Alaska and we get Iran?

What will be said at Columbia University now?

Yiddish, Alaska, Detective Novel

Here.

And the author's admission (with which I identify completely):-

“I don’t like having my ignorance pointed out to me. I was embarrassed and shamed. I had the nice Jewish boy impulse that I disrespected my elders and caused pain and embarrassment.