Cross-posted from the Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism
The below-linked article by Adam Levick appears on the website of the Institute For Global Jewish Affairs.
http://octaskforce.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/anti-semitic-cartoons/
As I have previously posted current examples of anti-Jewish cartoons, I am doing so here to illustrate the depth of anti-Jewish feeling that is out there. In this article cartoons from progressive sources such as the Daily Kos are featured. I also take note that Daily Kos editor, Markos Moulitsas, often appears as a commentator on MSNBC, most notably with Keith Olbermann. I would ask Mr Olbermann why he associates with one such as Moulitsas given that he (Olbermann) often gets up on his soapbox to condemn others as bigots.
In addition, don't be misled by the fact that many of the people who damn Israel and stoop to this level of hate are Jews themselves. Jews have a term which is often used to describe such people; "self-hating Jews". Being a gentile, I leave that term to Jews to use toward their own co-religionists. Suffice to say that there many such individuals out there.
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9 comments:
Sorry Gary, the cartoon featured on the link you offer does not qualify as anti-Semitic. First, it clearly assumes that what occurred at Auschwitz was in some sense bad, derogatory, perhaps even evil, and that Israelis would be embarrassed by the implication of the cartoon. Second, it does not characterize Jews, it characterizes Israeli policy.
The cartoon is, in my seldom humble opinion, misplaced. The creation of the barrier wall between Israeli and Palestinian territory has NOT created a concentration camp on the other side. In fact, the PA is diligently creating a functional economy and indigenous security force NOT subject to direct Israeli control on the "other side" of the barrier. Further, the barrier has nearly eliminated cross-border suicide bombings, whether that fits the world view of aging crones raised on "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" or not.
The boldly presented full color cartoon which is featured at the very top of the linked post. The one showing a barrier being put in place, with an image of Auschwitz painted on (or made magically visible through) the blocks of the barrier. I didn't find any more, although I read through several paragraphs of mental meandering underneath it.
I'll go look for the others you imply are there somewhere, and let you know if I can find any merit in them.
OK, I found them. Way down below all the text are a series of further examples. Most of them are in considerably worse taste, and equally off-base. I'd say the one of Sharon kissing Hitler could have been drawn by one of those Gaza settlers removed forcibly by the Israeli army as well as by anyone else. Maybe the assassins of Yitzak Rabin feel that way too. Or, it could have implied that Hitler and Sharon were closet Stalinists -- every read Alexander Dubcek's biography, in which he mentions the lengths he went to, to avoid the Russian custom of male kissing? On the other hand, maybe ACT-UP wants both of them out of the closet. There are so many ways to interpret that, all of them in equally bad taste, and equally dubious.
To portray Israel as picking on poor little Gaza, without mentioning that somewhere among the women and children living there are armed Hamas soldiers dedicated to Israel's elimination, is cherry picking at its most obvious. I'm not sure how you draw a cartoon with sufficient sophistication to say, "Israel needs a much more precise and nuanced strategy, else they are damned if they do and damned if the don't."
But none of them really conform to the historical threads of anti-Semitism. Again, they all presume that nazis and Hitler are evil. Most of the cartoons insinuate, without evidence of rational thought (not unlike your crude attempts to lampoon the Obama administration) that present Israeli government policy is akin to Nazi genocide, and that Zionism is inherently racist. Neither are supported by any comprehensive assessment of historical facts.
How about the caricatures of the Jewish faces?
The notion that there is some equivalence between Auschwitz (where millions of Jews were murdered simply because they were Jewish or had some Jewish roots)and Gaza (where the "government" and many of the peoples goal is to destroy Israel) is perversion and inverted logic. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is anti-Semitic.
The cartoon(s) may be in poor taste and not a fair analogy, but they are certainly not anti-semitic, because as Siarlys already pointed out, their message relies on the (correct) assumption that what happened at Auschwitz was horrible.
1) All cartoons are caricatures.
2) Is the facile comparison of the Republican Party to the Nazis evidence of anti-Aryan prejudice? You know Ahmadinejad couldn't get away with these cartoons, because he has DENIED the Churban Europa, so he has nothing to compare Israel to...
To make an invalid analogy is not, per se, racism, merely because the analogy is invalid. To imply that an entire "race" shares common derogatory characteristics is racism. That wasn't done here, no matter how much you want to scream "anti-Semitism." (Anti-Semitism IS a form of racism, is it not?)
Come on, there are plenty of legitimate criticisms you could make. Why put all your marbles on indulging in rhetoric you can't logically sustain?
I just tried to pull up some old articles I did on a caricature of Ariel Sharon that was shown by the MSU at UCI and compared with old Nazi caricatures in Der Stuermer as well as those that are rampant in the Middle East today. They show all the stereotyped jewish physical characteristics. These are less so, perhaps because they were all or mostly American-produced.
As for comparing Israelis to Nazis, see my comment to Amonymous.
I do read the comments already posted before responding Gary. Your comment to anonymous was unpersuasive, for reasons I've already outlined. Apparently you are too mesmerized by the notion that this must be anti-Semitism, rather than merely rude, in poor taste, factually unsustainable, to take a second look at your own expostulation.
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