HUMOR, pt. 2
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Al-Jazeera animation about who runs the American Presidential contest
Man with dog: I don't think there should be walls between peoples.
Jew: Damn anti-Semite.
- Dagens Nyheter (Sweden).
Focal Point Publications,
"The bigots: Robert Skole, an author living in Sweden, finds its media 'viciously anti-Israel.' This week (Sept 2004) he alerted HonestReporting.com to this cartoon published in Sweden's largest morning daily, Dagens Nyheter. Created by the paper's staff cartoonist, it appeared on the 'Family' page. In consequence, as the newspaper's ombudsman Lilian Ãhrsträm [ombudsman@dn.se] commented on Sept 16, 2004, her mail box was flooded with e-mail, more than 1000 so far, almost all from the USA and brimming with hatred, threats, and obscenities. As she herself puts it, this campaign largely confirms the message that the artist wanted to convey."
[Hey, we're interested in humor via cartoons too! Check out our Rabbi Rabbit cartoon series which "combats" Jewish racism, ethnocentrism, and tribalism. As a matter of fact, we even have a cartoon satirizing Jewish obsession with its myths of "anti-Semitism. There is "ludicrous," and then there is "LUDICROUS."]
To combat anti-Semitism, cartoonist turns to old Jewish staple — humor,
by Sue Fishkoff, Jerusalem Post, October 27, 2004
"Israeli cartoonist Ya’akov Kirschen, whose Dry Bones comic strip has appeared in Jewish newspapers for more than 30 years, is aiming his pen in a new direction. Enlisting the help of Mr. Shuldig and his dog Doobie, along with their other bulbous-nosed, wide-eyed cartoon friends, the artist has formed a nonprofit organization called The Dry Bones Project to combat the “lies and ugliness” of anti-Semitism through humor. “My experience with Dry Bones has taught me that people laugh when they see the unexpected appearance of what they perceive to be the truth,” explains Kirschen, 66. “The strength of cartoons is that when you get someone to laugh, at that instant they see things from your point of view.” The Brooklyn-born cartoonist, who immigrated to Israel in 1971, never has concealed his contempt for those he perceives as Israel’s enemies, and the Dry Bones comic strip long has served as an outlet for Kirschen’s strong Zionist beliefs. Creating the new nonprofit simply represents a more organized effort to fight the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism that has emerged in the Western world over the past few years. “We plan to educate those who might be tricked into supporting this war against our people by holding the perpetrators of these assaults and their ideas up to ridicule, satire and exposure,” Kirschen says. “Humor is a very basic tool of the Jewish people, and for the entire Judeo-Christian world to be under attack and for us not to use humor would be a silly failing.” Daniel Pipes, an academic who directs the Middle East Forum, is on the project’s international advisory board. Though he has made his career defending Israel through political analysis, Pipes acknowledges the limitations of words. “Anti-Semitism is irrational and so cannot be combated by marshalling evidence and convincing arguments,” he suggests. “Perhaps humor can work to expose its folly ... Kirschen’s characters smile as they convey the cartoonist’s simple, straightforward messages: Anti-Semitism is stupid, doublespeak is wrong and those who threaten the Jewish people’s safety in their homeland must be exposed. “Unlike many cartoonists whose mission is to go for the jugular, Ya’akov sees his mission as educating people,” says Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who says he welcomes this latest initiative. “As anti-Semitism has mushroomed these past few years, he’s used his Dry Bones to show how ludicrous and untruthful it is. And I think he’s been quite successful,” Foxman says. Cartoonists are given great license to stretch the truth, Kirschen says, and they can abuse that power. Pointing out that a recent cartoon showing Ariel Sharon eating Palestinian babies was named best cartoon of the year in Britain, Kirschen maintains that a print journalist never would be allowed to convey such vitriol in words. “We as a people have borne the brunt of totally insane lies published in American and English newspapers,” he continues. “As a Jewish cartoonist, I am very wary in my cartoons about libeling people. I have the power to do it, but I set my own boundaries. I don’t want to incite.” The Dry Bones Project is still in the formative stages. So far, Kirschen has a Web site — www.mrdrybones.com — and two prototype cartoon books that he is showing to Jewish and Christian leaders in North America and Israel. He is ready to provide the material for free to anyone who wants to print and distribute it, and he’s already getting some tentative bites. Bridges for Peace, a Christian Zionist organization based in Tulsa and Jerusalem, is considering printing the booklets and sending them to its affiliated newspapers. The Women’s International Zionist Organization has invited Kirschen to discuss his project with its young leadership group later this month in Tel Aviv, and to speak about it at the group’s annual conference in Jerusalem next January. Rabbi Stanley Davids, president of ARZA — the Association of Reform Zionists of America — says he is “personally very excited” about the project’s potential, and is bringing it to the ARZA leadership “for consideration, to see whether we would want to distribute it to our congregations' ... Another possibility is branching out to write jokes. There are plenty of anti-Semitic jokes, he says, so why not write a few anti-anti-Semitic ones? “We want to use every kind of humor to carry this out,” he declares. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people started telling jokes like, ‘Two anti-Semites were on a train…’ ”
"ar-Rai, October 20, 2004 (Jordan)
The candidates are puppets controlled by a Jewish puppeteer with Star of David cufflinks."
Cartoons in Arab press anti-Semitic,
by Uriel Heilman, Jerusalem Post, October 26, 2004
"While American Jews debate which US presidential candidate would be better for Israel and the Jewish people, for readers of Arab newspapers the choice seems clear: It doesn't much matter, since both candidates are stooges of the Jews and Ariel Sharon. At least, that's the message of editorial cartoons in newspapers across the Arab world. In the cartoons, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are portrayed as puppets controlled by Jewish hands, as characters reading a script saying "Israel is always right" and as two heads of a single Jewish body. In one cartoon, a caricature of a Hasidic Jew is shown using a remote control to manipulate the US Congress. "Throughout the Arab world, they project that Jews control this election," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic images in the Arab press ... The cartoons hew to many of the classic Arab conspiracy theories about Jewish influence in the United States. They show Jews manipulating the US election from behind the scenes, the presidential candidates following the dictates of Israel and the Jews, and the Jews as miserly, depraved and power-hungry. The images have appeared not only in countries that have an official policy of hostility toward Israel and the Jews—such as Saudi Arabia, whose state-sponsored religion, Wahhabism, has been described as the Islamic equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan—but also in newspapers in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority ... These anti-Semitic caricatures being disseminated in the Arab world are worse than in previous elections, Foxman said, and they are the natural result of comments made by countless Arab leaders—and by one US presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent. Nader's insistence that the White House and Congress are puppets of Prime Minister Sharon has prompted repeated rebukes from Foxman, who has exchanged several letters with Nader on the issue ... The ADL said it was publicizing the images to generate increased pressure on Arab countries to rein in their anti-Semitic incitement. "John Kerry has been critical of Saudi anti-Semitism," said Jay Footlik, a campaign adviser for the Democratic nominee on Jewish issues. These cartoons, Footlik said, "underscore the need to have American leadership fighting global anti-Semitism and strongly supporting Israel, and that's exactly what John Kerry's going to do as presidet."
[More ADL examples of "anti-Semitic" cartoons, here!]
[More Jewish hypocrisy. Per the following article, it's time to send Jews en masse for some sensitivity training: The following are examples of traditional Jewish self-identity from a collection of Yiddish folk sayings:
"One need never suspect a Jew -- he surely is a thief." [p. 139]
"It's good to do business with a thief." [p. 233]
"If you steal -- you'll have." [p. 233]
"What is smaller than a mouse may be carried from a house."[p. 233]
"Petty thieves are hanged, major thieves are pardoned." [p. 233]
"A thief gives handsome presents." [p. 230]
"Before a thief goes stealing, he also prays to God." [p. 231]
"Better with a hometown thief than a strange rabbi." [p. 231]
"Thieve and rob if you must but be honorable." [p. 232]
"God protect us from Gentile hands and Jewish tongues." [p. 196]
"Live among Jews, do business among the Goyim." [p. 143]
"If you steal enough eggs, you can also become rich." [p. 249]
"A fool gives and a clever person takes." [p. 106]
"Always take -- if you give me, I'll go away, if not, I'll stay."
"Always take!" [p. 106]
"The goy is treyf [forbidden] but his money is kosher
[acceptable]." [p. 126]
"Offer a Jew a ride and he throws you out of your own wagon."
"A sense of justice we want others to have." [p. 127]
"Money rules the world." [p. 179]
"Money is the best soap -- it removes the greatest stain. (p. 179)
"Gold shines out of the mud." [p. 179]
"Gold has a dirty origin but is nevertheless treated with honor.
"The world stands on three things: on money, on money, and
Jewish joke no laughing matter,
, Herald Sun (Australia), November 3, 2004
An anti-Semitic joke by a car salesman has led to an anti-racism session for the company's entire sales staff at Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust centre. The centre, which includes a museum to nazi victims, has set up a scheme to help firms fight racism in workplaces. The centre's education director Bernard Korbman said the idea arose after the owner of a car dealership contacted him with a staff problem. Mr Korbman said a salesman offended a Jewish customer after the buyer said he didn't need finance organised for the car. "The crack was, 'You people don't need finance, ha, ha, ha'," he said. Mr Korbman said the salesman protested that the customer had no sense of humour, "but it was suggested he go to the Holocaust centre to see Jewish sensitivities to certain things". Mr Korbman, who wouldn't name the company for confidentiality reasons, said all staff attended the centre for an education program. They were shown a video about the Holocaust and spoke to survivors about their wartime experiences. Mr Korbman said the employees were told how unprecedented the Holocaust was and why Jews were sensitive about anti-semitism."
[JTR contributor's comment: "Well, Ms. Cohen, I expect quite a few minds were 'opened' and that the students journalists did indeed 'learn' an important lesson, about who really calls the shots in journalism in America, and what you can't make fun of, ever. " Our comment: Welcome to more Free Speech America. The Jewish Lobby is screwing another kid's future career. Banning cartoons that satirize them and Israel seems to be a Jewish priority these days. Is the Thought Police most robust at colleges where people are supposed to be allowed to think? Gosh, what's wrong with these fledgling free thinkers? Haven't students on the robotic treadmill learned by now what the most hallowed TABOO is at any university? Jews are beyond the pale of criticism and those that trespass this absolute rule will be punished. Sure, poke fun at Jesus, trash God, Republicans, Democrats, whatever you want ... Except one thing. What one learns at the modern secular university is that Jews are sacred.]
U. of I. paper suspends students for anti-Semitic comic,
by Dave Newbart, Chicago Sun-Times, November 15, 2004
"In a recent comic strip in the Daily Illini, a student says he wants to tell a "Jew joke'' but decides not to because he doesn't want "Isiah down at the bank to beat me with his nose.'' That cartoon in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's student newspaper has caused such an uproar that the paper has apologized and suspended the cartoonist, Matt Vroom, along with the editor who approved the strip. In the apology, editor in chief Evan McLaughlin, of Palatine, said even though Vroom "did not intend for the comic to degrade Jewish people or Judaism, we understand that the content was offensive to those concerned.'' In an interview, McLaughlin said Vroom's attempt at poking fun at stereotypes didn't work. "We realized this doesn't come off as satire,'' said McLaughlin, 21. "It comes off as hate speech.'' McLaughlin said the punishment might have been harsher --a one-month suspension for Vroom, two weeks for the editor -- if the strip hadn't been placed in the paper accidentally. In fact, the strip was rejected for publication but was left in a folder with other cartoons. A student filling in for several editors out of town at a journalism conference saw it and ran it. Still, some who saw the strip are pushing for the paper to fire Vroom, who has written the "i hate pam'' comic since last August. "Universities have a special responsibility to be opening minds and to be setting examples,'' said Gail Steinberg, a 1969 U. of I. graduate and the former executive producer of the Ricki Lake talk show. "Four weeks' suspension seems like pittance.''
School has no power over paper U. of I. spokesman Jeff Unger agreed the newspaper "should have gone further in distancing itself from the cartoon, which recalls . . . blatant anti-Semitism,'' but said the university has no power over the paper. The Daily Illini receives no funds from the school. Although students and faculty make up its governing board, the student editors run the show. "We don't micromanage,'' said Susan Cohen, an associate business professor who is president of the Illini Media Co. board. "They are learning to be journalists. You have to let them learn.'' Cohen said she thought the paper's quick response to the situation was appropriate. She was "dismayed,'' however, by several student letters to the editor that defended the strip. One student, Krzysztof Ciupka, wrote that Vroom "makes fun of everyone and everything . . . I don't see how having a joke playing off of stereotypes is grounds for this sort of attack.'' Vroom's strip has poked fun at sorority women, Democrats and Republicans, lesbians, even Jesus. It often depicts students having sex and contains foul language. But McLaughlin said the latest strip was the only one that was "definitely past the line.''
[JTR contributor's note about the above article: "The daily archives for "I Hate Pam", by Matt Vroom, stop at November 4th. The cartoon in question was from November 5th." Our comment: Hey, University of Illinois. In a supposedly free society, let the people see it, compare it to the other groups Vroom satirizes, and let the masses decide what it is. Or isn't.]
Daily Illini,
University of Illinois