Thamsanqa Jantjie, the guy standing next to world leaders during the Nelson Mandela funeral and translating the speeches to sign language, had his cover blown when deaf people complained that he was not signing in any known language and was seemingly making it up - just gesticulating randomly. Jantje later admitted that he is schizophrenic and was hallucinating at the time.
Jantjie has since become the example of a prime insult..
Just a few days ago one MK, Yaakov Asher (UTJ), criticized PM Netanyahu's comments about the snowstorm and how reasonably well Israel dealt with it by referencing Jantjie. Asher had said that listening to Netanyahu's press conference about the snow was similar to the signer at the Mandela funeral - there was no connection between what was said and what was actually happening..
And now Minister Yuval Steinitz gave an interview in which he criticized Finance Minister Yair Lapid. He criticized Lapid for his stance on the idea of buying an airplane for the prime minister in which he opposes the opinion of Netanyahu, and he criticized Lapid for his dealing with the budget. Steinitz said that a new finance minister comes and deceives the entire country saying the deficit is going to be 5%, and it turns out the deficit is barely even approaching 3%. He must apologize for that. The behavior fo the finance minister reminds me of the expert sign language translator at Nelson Mandela's funeral - a lot of shtick, a lot of communication a lot of facebook....
I wonder if Thamsanqa Jantjie ever thought he would become such an icon! I think Israel should give him honorary citizenship!
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