Israelis ought to avoid the swine flu cumbia

The menace formerly known as Swine Flu, and now rebranded H1N1 as preferred by the religious parties in Bibi's medicine cabinet, has indeed reached Israel. At least three cases have been confirmed here in travelers returning from Mexico, although they all seem to be recovering. Three more locals are awaiting the results of their lab tests for this worrying new strain of respiratory virus, but the panicked reaction to apocalyptic pestilence with pork origins is starting to subside from last week's fever pitch. Egypt's new law, requiring farmers to cull all 300,000 pigs in the nation before even a single case of flu was confirmed in porcine or human residents, was widely ridiculed as overkill. Ho hum: the pharaoh issuing a baseless edict of death-- it's enough to make one's tail curl.
But some agencies inside Israel still don't quite get it. The Kibbutz Movement is blackballing ten volunteers from Mexico until the pandemic fears are absolutely quashed. When they do arrive, maybe they can sing a few bars from the "Swine Flu Cumbia", a catchy salsa song that's been quickening pulses south of the US border during the much-heralded Aporkalypse and Hamageddon . The song here, circulated on You Tube, is an English translation. The Spanish version is just as corny.