From The River To The Sea

I have two predictions. The first is I’m going to get a lot of heat for this cartoon and the second is that The Washington Post is not going to publish it.

I’m not trying to please everybody with my cartoons on the Israeli/Gaza War. I feel like I need to address every concern and issue in the war, but I can’t do it all in one cartoon, or at least I haven’t figured out how to do it in one cartoon yet.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. What they did on October 7 was a terrorist act. Good guys and liberators don’t rape, murder, and kidnap. Israel has every right to defend itself, and it should. Here comes the “but.”

But, Israel needs to stop bombing civilians in Gaza. Even if the majority of Palestinian citizens support Hamas, they shouldn’t be killed by Israel trying to kill terrorists. Not everyone who protests against Israel’s bombing of civilian areas is defending Hamas, but if you listen to right-wing commentators, that’s exactly what they’re accusing. And this cartoon is not giving Israel a pass.

I will get heat for this from pro-Palestinians who will accuse me of white-washing Israel’s bombing of civilians. Readers forget the cartoons I’ve drawn that criticized Israel. And when I criticize Israel, right-wingers forget the cartoons that defended Israel. Let me be clear. I stand with innocent civilians.

I’m not trying to both-sides this. I’m not trying to be one of those cartoonists who only draw safe cartoons that merely say “War is bad.” And I’m not going to be one of those cartoonists that hits Hamas while ignoring Israel’s fault in bombing of civilians, like Michael Ramirez.

To be fair to Michael, I went over the past month of his cartoons on GoComics so I can be fairly accurate when I state that he’s only sided with Israel. He has not criticized the far-right government for its bombing of civilians. He’s blamed Rashida Tlaib, he’s gone after Black Lives Matter, he’s gone after pro-Palestinian protesters at colleges more than once, he’s gone after Hamas and Hamas and Hamas and Hamas and their supporters, and again, and he’s attacked Palestinians. So it should be noted during this controversy of The Washington Post yanking his latest anti-Hamas cartoon that he’s NEVER, not even once, criticized Israel for bombing civilians. If anything, you can say the cartoon The Post pulled was justifying Israel’s bombing of civilians.

Hamas hiding behind civilians is a crime, but they’re terrorists. They do things without justification. But intentionally bombing civilians is also a crime. Israel knows they’re killing civilians in great numbers. Hamas claims over 11,000 civilians, including 4,500 children, have been killed by Israel since the war started. Keep in mind that we can’t trust Hamas but surely the number of civilian deaths is high. Israel should be criticized for this. And criticizing Israel for this does not make you antisemitic.

But perhaps chanting “From the river to the sea” does.

Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, has been censured by the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis over her statements on the Israeli/Hamas War.

The resolution accuses Tlaib of “promoting false narratives” about Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and for “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” It highlights a video Tlaib shared that contained the chant, “From the river to the sea,” which many claim is a call for the destruction of Israel.

Tlaib defended herself on the House floor stating, “My criticism has always been of the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s actions. It is important to separate people and governments,” Tlaib said in a floor speech on Tuesday. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else.” But she’s playing dumb.

She knows “From the river to the sea” is a call for the destruction of Israel. Tlaib claims the phrase is an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” She’s wrong. The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have said the phrase is antisemitic and that it calls for the elimination of Israel. 

If you don’t trust me on the phrase being antisemitic, or the Anti-Defamation League or the American Jewish Committee, then maybe you will trust it’s antisemitic by its use by Hamas. They love chanting “From the river to the sea.” Hamas is NOT about a peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Many Jews feel it’s directed at them as antisemitic because a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea would replace Israel. And maybe with all the rising tension and increase in antisemitism, you stop saying it with respect to your Jewish brothers and sisters on this planet, even if you don’t believe it’s antisemitic. It may be as loaded as the N-word. Stop saying it. You can say something else.

And while I feel Tlaib has made a few statements I don’t agree with, and that were very poor choices, I don’t like this resolution. I think it’s something Republicans want to use to paint all Democrats as supporters of Hamas and opponents of the people of Israel.

Back on the Ramirez issue, although I criticize his cartoons (for example, the Black Lives Matter cartoon is a blatant lie and his Tlaib cartoon is really ugly), I stand with him on the cartoon that was pulled. I believe the cartoon by itself is fine as Hamas does use human shields, and that The Post should have stood its ground on it instead of cowardly backing down because of criticism. Great newspapers used to withstand criticism. It should not be controversial to criticize terrorists. The Post didn’t just pull the cartoon from its website (it was in the print edition Tuesday), but they also apologized for it.

If The Washington Post didn’t like the cartoon, then they never should have approved it. It’s very wimpy to change your mind after readers express disapproval. If the editors could pretend they put it on the page without reading it first, they would.

I am torn about Ramirez’s cartoon that I support. I agree with the cartoon but am uncomfortable with how it follows his pattern of lying and gaslighting issues stemming from this war. Sorry, Michael. I will say this about the cartoonist: I have known Michael Ramirez for over 30 years and while he’s wrong about everything, lacks empathy, enjoys siding with goons, and almost crashed a rental car in a pineapple field when someone stuck a Twizzler in his ear while saying “bzzzz,” he’s not a racist. That Twizzler thing is another story.

And I know it’s fashionable to criticize a cartoonist for drawing a big nose, but we all draw big noses. Cartoonists joke that cartooning classes should have courses on drawing big noses.

Innocent Palestinians should be defended and Hamas should be blamed for the death of Palestinian civilians…and so should Israel. Criticizing Israel doesn’t make you antisemitic or a supporter of Hamas (are you listening, Michael?). But calling for its destruction does. Tlaib knows better.

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