Paper Prints Danziger Cartoon, Publisher Apologizes Fires Editor

Comments ¹⁸

1. John Hines

   Anti-Zionism is not antisemitic. It’s anti-violent, not anti-Jew.

   1. Eric

      …except for the 99% of the time that it is. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. You know that.

      1. John Thomas

         “Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.”

         What Orwellian double-speak! You reframe a colonial-settler project as a struggle for freedom, distorting historical realities. It obscures power dynamics by portraying Zionism as an oppressed group’s fight for self-determination while ignoring the dispossession and subjugation of Palestinians. The phrase masks the reality of ethnic cleansing and occupation by making the aggressor appear as the victim. By using morally righteous language to justify domination, it follows Orwellian tactics of twisting words to disguise oppression—similar to 1984’s “War is Peace”—turning a system of displacement into a supposed movement for justice.

2. Wiley Miller

   I don’t know what he was thinking. I mean, it’s right there in the Bible and rule #1 in American journalism…Thou Shalt Not Criticize Israel.

3. Eric

   …for the “crime” of existing. You can criticize it about all sorts of things, but not self-defense or existence. Trump was “criticizing” Ukraine the other day for self-defense and its existence, and most people outside the MAGA wing of the Republican party were horrified, and rightfully so.

   The UN and other bodies have been “criticizing” Israel for decades for things that any other country would be praised for. You know that.

   In the cartoon, Danziger “criticized” the hostages for being freed, implying that they didn’t deserve it. It was sort of like when Ted Rall criticized (attacked) a bunch of 9/11 widows and first responders in 2002 or when Garry Trudeau “criticized” the victims of the CHARLIE HEBDO attack in 2015.

   Satire, when done right, is a form of non-violent violence and is deliberately offensive. The best are especially so. But don’t whine when there’s a reaction.

   1. J

      Danziger did not criticize the hostages for being freed. He criticized the disproportionate response.

      1. John Thomas

         Exactly!

   2. Eric

      “the disproportionate response.” What would be a “proportionate” response, may I ask? On 10/8/23, the Palestinians and their supporters were GLOWING.

      They were laughing and mocking jewish suffering.

      What would be a proportionate response? Killing 1200 people and going home?

      1. Kim C

         The appropriate response would not include bombing hospitals, apartment buildings and whole cities indiscriminately and saying you were being discriminating.

      2. Eric

         But they didn’t now, did they? Remember early in the war when an Islamic Jihad missile accidentally fell on a parking lot just outside a hospital? (I think it was in December of ’23) How there were condemnations of ISRAEL all over the world?

         The apartment buildings you mentioned were all military sites, which had missile launchers on the roof. So did the schools. Double duty like this had propaganda advantages. Also, there was no indiscriminate bombing.

         But you knew that.

   3. George Atkins

      Eric, you wrote “In the cartoon, Danziger “criticized” the hostages for being freed, implying that they didn’t deserve it.” As a person of Jewish heritage (through my mother), I didn’t see it that way at all. It was clearly a rebuke of the way the State of Israel has responded to Hamas’s attack. The cartoon is a criticism of Israel’s political & military action against Palestinian civilians, not a screed against Israelis or Israeli hostages. The cartoon contrasts the price Palestinian civilians paid for the Israel’s rescue attempts of the hostages.
      You could say that this Palestinians brought this on themselves. You can use the same logic on the Israelis after they first annexed territory from the local Palestinians, with England’s blessing. Israel has been annexing territory ever since, even in the West Bank, even during this latest military campaign. None of this excuses what we like to call terrorism, which has not been one-sided.

      You further wrote “The UN and other bodies have been “criticizing” Israel for decades for things that any other country would be praised for. You know that.” I don’t think illegally taking land that is lived on and claimed by other cultures constitutes praiseworthy actions. That is what we generally refer to as “imperialism”, for which many countries (including ours) have been criticized, if not condemned.

      So, an editorial cartoon that legitimately criticizes political and military actions of a country is not antisemitic, simply because the country in question is a secular state populated largely (but not exclusively) by Israeli Jews. The editor’s firing was clearly an over-reaction based on bias.

      1. Eric

         They never annexed anything with or without anyone’s blessing. Prior to the Arab genocide attempt of 1948 (five mighty armies invading the former British Mandate with the intent of finishing Hitler’s project of actual genocide), They BOUGHT every inch with cash money.

         Wars have consequences. Look at those tens of millions of innocent Germans who were kicked out of their homes right after World War II.

         You said “You know that.” I don’t think illegally taking land that is lived on and claimed by other cultures constitutes praiseworthy actions.”

         Like Blacks moving into White neighborhoods during the 1950s and ’60s?

         I could go on, but it would be pointless….

4. J

   “Gannett said that the cartoon did not meet our standards.” What standards???? Never had them. Never will.

5. Linda MacDonald

   surely this editorial cartoon is commenting on the war that has been raging most recently in Gaza. In my opinion it is about the disproportionate response of the government of Israel to the very stupid attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023. It is not anti-semitic IMO. It expresses a sense of despair about the entire situation that has been continuous since 1948. The Palestinians living in Gaza were displaced there from the very areas that Hamas brutally attacked. Generations of displaced Palestinians have watched and experienced ethnic cleansing that looks quite like what russia is attempting to do to Ukrainians, like nazis did to Jews and others, what the U.S. did, as policy, to Native Tribal people over generations. The cartoon attempts, perhaps unclearly, to speak to ongoing injustice.

6. eugene howard johnson

   this being gannett and Doris being 67 (as well as, no doubt, one ot the highest paid staffers) he’s had a target on his back for at least a decade. one less expensive buyout, one more cheaper firing for cause

7. Eric

   Here we go again. 1948 was 77 years ago. The oldest “true” refugee is that old and the rest are natives. Also, none of these pseudo-refugees have experienced ethnic cleansing. The Israelis left Gaza in 2005. Since then it has been free.

   Hamas, a terrorist group (why do I have to explain this yet again?) WON the last fee election in 2006 and staged a coup when the loser, Fatah, refused to leave.

   The Hamas government then declared WAR on Israel. VOLUNTARILY.

   Finally, There was a cease-fire that lasted from 24 to 30 November 2023 freeing 70 hostages and 150 Palestinian criminals. Hamas/IJP then ended the cease-fire and started shooting missiles again.

   The only reason this mess has gone on so long is because the Palestinians WANTED it to. The dispair is only due to the UNWRA which has been promoting resentment and hate for many years.

   1. John Thomas

      >>>”The Israelis left Gaza in 2005. Since then it has been free.”

      What a blatant lie! — You ignore the fact that while Israel withdrew its settlers and military from Gaza, it still maintains strict control over the region’s borders, airspace, and waters. This control, coupled with a blockade, severely restricts Gaza’s ability to function as a truly independent state. The blockade limits the movement of people, goods, and essential resources, effectively preventing Gaza from being free in any meaningful sense.

      Moreover, Gaza has not been free from military conflict or occupation. Israel has conducted several military operations in Gaza since 2005, often in response to rocket fire from militant groups like Hamas, which controls the territory. The ongoing blockade, coupled with periodic violence and political divisions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, means Gaza has never had true sovereignty or peace.

      This is just more, typical Israeli lying and doublespeak. – All resistance by Palestinians to 77 years of continuous persecution, murder and life in the cruel apartheid state that is Israel is completely justified.

      The vast majority of the world’s countries, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and MOST AMERICANS acknowledge and are horrifed by Israel’s GENOCIDE of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians, MOSTLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

      There is NEVER an excuse for genocide. It is the worst of all crimes against humanity and all its perpetrators must be punished to the full extent of the law.

8. Mark Mathes

   The Palm Beach Post, under Cox ownership, was home to two-time Pulitzer winner Don Wright, 1989-2008, when he retired. Don had one of the sharpest pens of the 12 editorial cartoonists I edited and represented as editor of international syndication at Tribune Media Services 1994-99. He also had one of the latest deadlines. We ate dinner after 8 when he completed the next’s day’s cartoon. Don died in 2024 at age 90.