Thursday, March 26, 2009
Anti-semitism
This cartoon, which has just appeared in major newspapers courtesy of renowned (Pulitzer Prize-winning) cartoonist Pat Oliphant, is being denounced as "anti-Semitic." Once again, to no one's surprise, criticism of Israeli thuggery is equated to hatred for Jews.
The head of the Anti-Defamation League says of the figure at the left, "The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart." And whose fault is that, exactly? The cartoonist? Or the policy? [Actually I'm being a bit disingenuous; Israeli policy towards the Palestinians may not have a heart, but it certainly has a head, in that the Israelis know exactly what they are doing]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center says "It is cartoons like this that inspired millions of people to hate in the 1930s and help set the stage for the Nazi genocide." Once again, no. It is the Israeli barbarity toward the people of Gaza that inspires people to hate Israel and, unfortunately, in some cases Jews in general. And of course the supposed "genocide" against the Jews whose stage is being set is entirely fictional, whereas the actual genocide of the Palestinian people is quite real, and very much ongoing.
