I was accused of being an antisemite last week for a cartoon criticizing Israel’s bombing of civilians in Gaza. The person doing the accusing was Jewish and claimed his family were Holocaust survivors, which he used to justify his claim that I’m antisemitic…for criticizing Israel.
Here’s the thing, kids… Criticizing Israel doesn’t make you antisemitic, especially when your issue is that they’re repeatedly bombing civilians. Jewish citizens in Israel have issues with that. Are they antisemitic Jews? I don’t think so. Nobody was anti-American who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Forget that noise of “you’re either with us or against us.”
A lot of the people making claims of antisemitism in regards to college protests are only doing it out of convenience, never mind that a lot of them have a past of being antisemitic and supporting other antisemites. Take my right-wing goosestepping MAGAt colleague Gary Varvel for example.
Gary has accused the college protests of being antisemitic and somehow found a way of being antisemitic while doing it. There should be some sort of right-wing goon award for that shit because it takes some real talent to blame George Soros (a Holocaust survivor who’s become the antisemite’s whipping boy) for antisemitism. There should be a hate trophy for being antisemitic while criticizing antisemitism. Soros, like “globalists,” has become a not-so-secret right-wing code for Jew.”
But when I looked at Gary’s cartoons following the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Gary was less critical. You remember that horrible day, right? A bunch of neo-Nazis marched in the city with tiki torches while chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.” They also murdered an anti-hate activist.
Gary made a couple of jokes that Trump didn’t respond well to the event while not being specific. He drew an anti-hate cartoon, a pro-love one, and one about unity, but guess what he didn’t draw. The rally began on August 11, 2017, and throughout the rest of the month, Gary never criticized Donald Trump’s defense of the Nazis. Gary didn’t go after him for saying there were “good people on both sides.” Gary never bothered to point out that “good people” don’t march with Nazis. A young woman, Heather Heyer, had her life taken away from her and Gary couldn’t bring himself to criticize the Nazi who did it. He couldn’t criticize the Nazis making antisemitic chants. His pro-love bullshit was nothing but empty gestures when he couldn’t say something bad about Nazis. How hard is it to criticize Nazis? NAZIS!
How do you NOT draw a cartoon about Nazis after they murder a person and the president (sic) defends them? Are you afraid of offending Nazis?
But, he’s not afraid of offending college students (drawn the day before his antisemitic George Soros cartoon).
I’m sorry to only bash Gary for this when there are other cartooning hypocrites, such as Al Goodwyn, Mike Beckom, Michael Ramirez, Dana Summers, and Steve Kelley. It’s not just the right-wing cartoonist but the entire right-wing and MAGAt base. It’s like Speaker Mike Johnson going to Columbia to criticize “antisemitic” students while ignoring every time Donald Trump says something racist. They hate antisemitism but they appoint Ms. Jewish Space Lasers to every committee they can. I call bullshit on this. How many cartoons has Gary drawn attacking Marjorie’s conspiracy theories about Jews? You can’t only be anti-hate when it’s politically convenient. Real bravery would be to call it out when it comes from your side and if you’re a Republican, that’s daily.
But are these protests antisemitic? I’m sure there are some who are but protesting the bombing of civilians is not antisemitic. I’ve heard complaints from Jewish students who don’t feel safe with these protests happening and others say they’re not comfortable. But I’m not seeing a lot of antisemitism within these protests. I’ve seen one photo of a Hamas flag and a few signs of “from the river to the sea,” but you can’t rope them all in together. Making people uncomfortable is part of the point of protests. I’m not sure the reality of these protests is being framed accurately.
I think the protesters should find a way to defend Gaza and Palestinians without supporting Hamas. They should definitely do it without attacking their Jewish classmates. They’re not bombing Gaza. Leave them alone. Meanwhile, let the kids protest.
Is it making you uncomfortable? That’s kinda the point. Also, don’t listen to cries of antisemitism by people who are afraid to make Nazis uncomfortable. Good people don’t march with Nazis. And these are the same motherfuckers who claimed a few years ago that colleges were canceling Nazi Richard Spencer.
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CLAYTOONZ 
I like to refer to him as “Very Garbled”. Her’s a tool.
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I, an indigenous Canadian, have been on the Palestinian side from the start. And I have had many Jewish friends in my life. The problem lies not with the Jewish religion, but with certain Israeli leaders who decided a long time ago they do not want to share the land with those who call themselves Palestinian.
Too late now, but the biggest problem came in 1948 when the newly created home for Jews on Palestinian soil was named Israel. What a slap in the face to Palestinians! Calling the new country “The Holy Land” would have honoured everyone that lives there, not just the Jews.
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I am an ethnic diasporic anti-Zionist Jew. And an atheist. But citing the Nakba as justification for the barbarities of Hamas is a bit much. In 1948, the Grand Mufti of Damascus called out to the Islamic Palestinians (there were also Christians) to fight a holy war against the 700,000 Jews resident in Palestine at that time. He also told them to leave. Calling ANY place the Holy Land buys into the whole monotheistic thing. Get a grip.
I’ve also been to Amritsar in India, the Holy City of the Sikhs and site of a British massacre in the 1930s. Both the Hindus (Hinduism is actually a mixture of many religions, only “unified” in response to the British) and the Moslems of the subcontinent I’ve also visited Tikal and Copan, sites of many ritual murders by Mayan peoples. And Mexico City, where the Aztecs were wont to remove (and eat) the still-beating hearts of sacrificial victims. Religion, greed and rapacity have been destructive and should be discarded or altered to fit the modern world.
Just sayin’.
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I used “The Holy Land” only as an example. I obviously do not think the land is “hol,y.” But naming the whole country Israel was stupid. Any othsr name would have been preferable.
I have no idea shat “Nakba” means, nor am I concrrned with the Grand Mufti or whomever. The land was basically stolen from the Palestinjans the very same way Turtle Island (the Americas) were stolen from my ancestors.
We gave up, the numbers were too big, but we have never forgotten. The Palestinians gave up too, they could not fight Britain, America, and whoever else was involved in the creation of Israel.
All I am saying is design a name to represent everyone, or no one. Calling that nation Israel was bound to create factions, with one facton thinking the land belonged to them, and the other faction feeling like they were being dispissessed. Religios beliefs aside, i’m betting with a neutral name all the hatred could have been dissipated. The Arabs went to war many times, but with the English world backing the Jewish people the Arabs had no chance of victory. None of this was necessary! People as what is in s name? When it favours one side over the other, it means War!
Humans cannot seem to evolve beyond that!
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Just to say: “from the river to the sea” dates back to the origins of Likud. It has been coopted by Hamas, which probably pisses off Bibi no end, since his party owns the copyright.
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