Comments on: Pat Oliphant cartoon viewed as Anti-Semitic

By: Lizze Moss

Lizze Moss — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:48:44 +0000

I, as a Jew take this very offensively, How dare someone compare us to those who killed our families and destroyed us. When Ted Rall talked about the lines representing the Isreali flag, I looked back and it does look like that. I am only 13 years old, but still I want people to know that this is so not appropriate, and you would not like it if someone was bashing on your religion.

By: Steve Casper

Steve Casper — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:24:35 +0000

I understand the idea of cartoons as entertainment. I also understand that generally speaking in an editorial cartoon the subject may get lambasted by said cartoonist. Are the Israelis so sacred that they cannot be the subject of a cartoon such as this?
There are simply too many people that confuse such simple issues. Just because you disagree with the political policy of Israel does not make you an anti-Semite. This is total nonsense.
I can understand that this might have offended certain people but
there again that’s kind of the point of any editorial cartoon it just depends on who the target is on any given day. I personally applaud Oliphant and the paper for having the courage to run this especially since most liberal papers would gasp at such a notion.
Lastly, many Americans are waking up to the fact that the Palestinians aren’t necessarily the bad guys all the time and are beginning to see the situation for what it is. Just because we don’t agree with Israel it doesn’t mean we are “Jew haters” as someone said earlier. Bravo Oliphant! Bravo 1st amendment.

By: Garey Mckee

Garey Mckee — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:30:13 +0000

OOOps. My apologies to both Darrin and Wiley. I’m very easily confused.

By: Wiley Miller

Wiley Miller — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:06:15 +0000

Darrin was referring to Mr. Stone’s post, Garey, not mine.

By: Garey Mckee

Garey Mckee — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:49:52 +0000

I don’t think Wiley was making a comparison, I think he was stating a fact.

By: Jim Lavery

Jim Lavery — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:54:30 +0000

I don’t think the intentions matter as much as the result. In fact, if the intention WAS there for the one I would think it was a worse offense–even more so in that there are those who think the unintentional one was bigoted, intolerant and racist anyway and that editor and toonist fired, but they’re OK with the apparently intentional one.

By: Darrin Bell

Darrin Bell — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:28:13 +0000

“â€œIt is up to them, however, to smarten up, not for the cartoonist to dumb-down and insult the intelligence of the majority of the readers.â€

Of course thatâ€™s exactly Sean Delonasâ€™ rationale as well, ”

These comparisons fail for one reason: Sean says he didn’t mean to make the connection between Obama and a monkey. Oliphant seems to have meant to say Israel’s acting like jack-booted Nazis. The monkey thing was BESIDE the point for Delonas, the Nazi thing WAS the point for Oliphant.

By: Wiley Miller

Wiley Miller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:32:30 +0000

“Gee, another Jew hater in the left wing media, what a surpriseâ€¦.NOT.”

Thanks for illustrating my point.

By: Robert Stone

Robert Stone — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:07:14 +0000

Gee, another Jew hater in the left wing media, what a surprise….NOT.

But the cowards at the Washington Post and other left wing media don’t dare run cartoons that might “offend” Islam.

Any double standards exposed? It’s a joke.

By: Steve Greenberg

Steve Greenberg — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:02:31 +0000

I’ve written my take on the matter on my blog, at
http://blog.cagle.com/greenberg/

Basically, no, it’s not anti-Semitic, but it is strongly anti-Israel, and no, it’s not an attack on the Jewish faith but a commentary clearly aimed at the state of Israel… many times, cartoonists confuse the use of the Jewish star (representing the religion) with the star and blue stripes of the Israeli flag, and often use the wrong symbol. in this case, though, the context is clear enough.

At the same time, Jews have reasons to be disturbed by the imagery, based on the vicious stereotypes they’ve historically faced in cartoons (and which are widespread in today’s Arab media) and the specific goose-stepping pose Oliphant used.