How to demonize Israel: 2

Yesterday, I posted about how Nick Garland's Daily Telegraph cartoon invoked traditional stereotypes of Jews as cruel abusers of innocent children, whilst sanitising Hezbollah as no worse than a naughty boy prince with only toy weapons.

I've always found Martin Rowson's cartoons repulsive, in a way that Steve Bell's, which I see as mindless and boring, aren't. Not surprisingly, he was Ken Livingstone's choice for the slightly ludicrous position of Cartoonist Laureate to the Mayor of London.

He regularly does cartoons for the Times Educational Supplement, which invariably portray any authority figures in teaching as grotesquely ugly, inhuman, vengeful slave-drivers, bent on scaring the daylights out of children and grinding ordinary teachers' faces into the dust. They make Victorian pantomime villains look like laid back post-modernist anti-heroes.

I'd better declare an interest here. Of all the educational authority figures he portrays, the most vicious are OFSTED inspectors. Invariably portrayed as male, they are heartless, vicious torturers. I'm an OFSTED inspector.

So I'm not surprised that in today's Guardian, his cartoon about Israel and Hizbollah is as repulsive as anything he's ever done. But he goes way beyond Garland in his vicious distortion of the two parties.

Israel is portrayed as a truly vicious mobster-style giant, so huge that only his fist is in view. And it's wearing a glove covered in Star of David knuckle-dusters.

Anti-semitic? You decide, but I've never seen Rowson portray any Christians covered with crosses or Muslims covered with crescents, let alone with the symbols of their faith represented as knuckle-dusters, being used deliberately and with maximum force to knock the teeth and consciousness out of a little boy.

And it goes without saying that Israel appears to dwarf Bush, seen as a pathetic, almost frivolous figure, all but ignoring Israel smashing the face of the little boy Lebanon.

And how is Hizbollah portrayed? As an angry wasp, utterly dwarfed by the repulsive thudding fist of the Israel figure. On the Israel figure's wrist are four repulsive pustules.

It's as if to say Hizbollah is just some tiny insignifant little wisp of an organization which can do no more than raise a few blisters. All it can do to Israel, it seems, is to make it look yet more repulsive.

Over the last few days, Hizbollah has landed over two thousand rockets in Israel, some of them enough to demolish blocks of flats, take out a hospital and kill large numbers of people.

But that's ignoring its years of vicious terrorism and gangsterism in Lebanon itself, taking over the south of the country from its own people. And British people too. Hizbollah was a major player in the kidnapping and years of brutal, inhuman imprisonment of Terry Waite and Brian Keenan.

And of course, to say nothing of Hizbollah's totalitarian Islamist aims of imposing a seventh century Caliphate,  which involves a commitment to the destruction of Israel.

Hizbollah was a major force in contributing to the years of Syrian oppression of the Lebanese people. It's also ignoring Hizbollah's role as the proxy of Iran and Syria, and the launcher of those countries' lethal weaponry.

The greatest irony of all is to consider exactly what Hizbollah is loading into the rockets it is raining down on Israeli cities and villages.

Just like the suicide terrorist bombs it helps to source, Hizbollah rockets carry payloads of ball bearings and shrapnel, which have no real military value whatsoever, but are guaranteed to cause horrific injuries to any people (and especially children they hit.

Via Tom Gross from Larry M, here's an image of what's in their rockets:

And in case you think those ball bearings are just little wasp stings, here's what they do to the body of a car:

I'll leave you to use your imagination about what they might do to the Israelis they hit-- say like a defenceless pair of Israeli Arab children.

And to reflect on the prejudices and hatreds which underlie Martin Rowson's attempt to portray what he no doubt sees as disproportionality on the part of the Israeli response to Hizbollah's unprovoked rocket attacks and raids.

HAT TIP: Malachi/RB

Comments

[Huldah]

I don't know what to say. Can this sort of anti-semitic trash really be legal in this country?

That Guardian readers apparently lap it up suggests a rotten core at the left of politics.

Revolting.

[Rick]

Wonder where they get the ball-bearings ? I cannot imagine Iran can make them............. China ?

[Lisa]

The ball bearings were identified by the IDF as made in Syria.

[Eamonn]

Over the years, Rowson's anti-Israeli stereotyping does have big effects on certain groups of people (i.e. avid Guardian and Independent readers). It tends to encourage the promotion of the "Israel - criminal entity" meme to the centre ground of acceptable left wing discussion. Fortunately, although these papers are widely read at the BBC and amongst the chattering classes inside the M25, they are not read by the vast majority of UK citizens, in particular those who read the Times and Telegraph in far larger numbers.

[Eamonn]

However, there are some Times opinion columnists whose grip on reality in the Middle East does appear to be slipping:-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2277670,00.html

[Deborah]

The cartoon by Rowson should serve as a wake-up call for those who still doubt the blindingly obvious connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

[JJM]

I'm appalled - and I generally accept that political cartoons should be relatively no-holds barred.

Rowson is an posturing ass.

You can be very sure he'll never draw a single cartoon showing the Prophet Mohammed as a grotesque caricature.

Fatwas and death threats have a way of spoiling all those lovely lunches at the OXO building or those clever dinner parties in Islington...

[JJM]

Oh, and one more thing about Rowson: he's singularly free of any real cartooning talent.

I'm not that crazy about Steve Bell or Nick Garland, but at least their work displays a bit of flair.

[hyam]

Peter Brookes' efforts in the Times are hardly balanced.But they are not grotesque

[windowlicker]

Gotta love Haaretz. Out of all the residents of Nazareth they asked about the killing of the two children, they quote this one:

The Israeli government is to blame for the incident. The Israeli aggression must stop.

[Jake Hayman]

OneVoice is a grassroots, non-partisan Israeli-Palestinian group working to empower moderates to stand up against extremism and seize back the agenda for conflict resolution. At a time when extremists are once again dominating the agenda, its need to exist and to deliver could not be more crucial.

From OneVoice Youth Leaders, Saed Bilbeisi and Elad Dunayevsky

Dear International Friends of OneVoice,

There are rockets flying into Israel’s Northern towns as far down as Haifa as we write this, while the people of Gaza are in fear for their homes and lives, without electricity and running water. People are suffering, people are dying and people are afraid. It’s a crisis. We are writing to tell you though not to give up on us, or to give up on hope for an end to the conflict.

The situation today makes it very difficult to talk about conflict resolution - to see an end to the conflict. Sometimes it is easy to see the light at the end of the tunnel, at the moment the tunnel is dark. But this crisis and this conflict will end, and we say that with sobriety and rationality. As much as we feel helpless today, as rational people we must see any crisis as an opportunity to rise up and overcome the reasons that brought that crisis.

The situation will come to an end, when we do not know. In the meantime both people suffer so badly. Believe us that no-one is happy with this life. We want everyone around the world to know that we, and many friends and colleagues like us at OneVoice, are working to change this situation. We are ready. We are ready to do anything necessary to help end this situation. We have done so many activities and introduced so many people to OneVoice and it always gives them hope and energy. We can not and will not lose all of this however hard it is at this moment. We will strive to improve this life.

A resolution to the conflict may seem like a dream, but let us dream it and keep helping us do whatever we have to do to make it a reality. The day will never come when Israelis and Palestinians are prepared to accept living with this situation. How far we are from the day when we have a situation we will accept is hard to say, but we will work for it, even as the fighter jets and rockets go overhead, we will work for it.

Thank you,

Saed and Elad

Saed has been involved with OneVoice for around a year. He visits the OneVoice office to meet with other youth leaders and staff at least once a week and has even pioneered his own workshops on OneVoice in Ramallah, which have recruited many new volunteers. He spoke about OneVoice in Synagogues, community centers and campuses during OneVoice’s International Education Program tour to Canada.

Elad has also been volunteering for around a year. He uses his Arabic and Hebrew language skills to speak with both Arabs and Jews about the work of OneVoice and has served to educate and recruit activists in the Region and also in the US, where he spoke at over 10 venues on behalf of OneVoice during their International Education Program tour to New York.

OneVoice is a grassroots, non-partisan Israeli-Palestinian group working to empower moderates to stand up against extremism and seize back the agenda for conflict resolution. At a time when extremists are once again dominating the agenda, its need to exist and to deliver could not be more crucial.

[John]

I regularly see a Christian cross being used to represent England, in cartoons and elsewhere: it's called the St George's Cross!

The Star of David can be found on the Israeli flag. It's not unreasonable to use this as a representation of Israel.