I will never tire of repeating it, there is no group more whiny, sensitive and victimised than the pro-Israeli warmongers. They continue to invoke Godwin's law over and over again. They do not argue or dialogue about anything in particular. At any demonstration, opinion or cartoon that does not fit in with their political views, they just scream: Anti-Semitism!
If not long ago the cartoons that generated this whining were allusive to the genocide that Israel is committing in Palestine, now they extend to any of the cartoons of the war that Trump and Netanyahu have mounted with Iran and that is already spreading throughout the area.
The thing is that now they've taken it out on a cartoon by Sean Delonas, a guy who does some really cool satirical illustrations, by the way.
The Washington Free Beacon took notice this week of a political satire published in Politico's cartoon carousel and commissioned its senior investigative reporter, Alana Goodman, to write about it. That's the thing about having too much time on your hands and nothing important to investigate. As The Daily Cartoonist recalls: Free Beacon executive editor Eliana Johnson worked for Politico before joining the Free Beacon.
The result was this story with the headline:"Politico publishes cartoon showing Trump and Republicans in Jewish prayer shawls and blood-stained kippahs, surrounded by bags of money".
Alana Goodman, who saves me the trouble of having to describe the scene (I just add the bold letters), writes:
"The cartoon, drawn by former New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas, shows the lawmakers aboard a rowboat with the sign "Ship of the Neocons" - a pun on Bosch's painting The Ship of Fools -that is about to plunge into a waterfall(Iran). A blood-stained money bag crowns the mast(from which a flag with the text 'Mission Accomplished' flies), and the word 'Amalek', referring to a historical enemy of the Jewish people in the Hebrew Bible, appears in the background.
Netanyahu, depicted with an exaggerated nose, is also shown wearing a Jewish prayer shawl covered in blood and eating at a blood-stained table, while Trump, also wearing a Jewish prayer shawl, is drawn under the word "Amalek".
The cartoon plays on typical anti-Semitic clichés about Jews secretly controlling events - in this case, the decision to start the war in Iran - and resorting to financial exploitation to do so. The exaggeration of Netanyahu's nose, depicted in a grotesque and cartoonish style, echoes long-standing attempts to dehumanise Jews".
That's it, that's all there is to it. If there is money, blood, any symbol or historical reference and/or a cartoon-style nose, like everything in a cartoon, it is already anti-Semitism because potatoes and the cartoonist is a Nazi, the medium that publishes it is Nazi and the Jews are persecuted and on the verge of extinction. That's all, my friends. You don't need any more for the murderous behaviour of your government, supported by many of your sympathisers, to be legitimised and for the debate to be that a cartoon has been drawn where one of the many alleged offences is to include Bibi's nose.
The Free Beacon, which is very pro-Israel and undisguisedly devoted to Israel's propaganda, says it does not support Politico's"overwhelmingly negative coverage of Israel". They don't take kindly to plurality and dissent and to the existence of media that do not agree with Israel's "news" dictates and that question them.
Sean Delonas has written about it on his blog. In a post entitled "Neocon smear campaign", he closes by calling Alana Goodman "a vile and untalented person":
The neocons, who advocate for war, have been harshly criticizing me and fellow journalists lately for our anti-war stance. As is typical, neocons avoid confronting the core issue, which is the war with Iran that Israel instigated, and use their typical slander and smear tactics to attack those who oppose the war. Israel-First Alana Goodman, a pro-war fanatic at the neocon publication the Washington Free Beacon (owned by major AIPAC donor Paul Singer) is leading the latest series of attacks against me.
Max Blumenthal, an award-winning journalist, stated that Alana Goodman, whom he referred to as a “desperate neocon zombie,” had been stalking him for the past decade without any success. He continued that she is, “An admirer of the late genocidal fascist Meir Kahane...”
Goodman has also expressed her support for the “killing” of individuals she deems terrorists. Ms. Goodman, are the Palestinian children murdered in Gaza terrorists too? Just asking.
Goodman implied Netanyahu’s “exaggerated” nose was “age-old efforts to dehumanize Jews.” All the figures have exaggerated features — it’s a cartoon. More exaggerated noses are found on Senator Ted Cruz and the GOP elephants than on Bibi. Is that anti-Semitic as well? An anti-Semitic connotation of the word “Amalek” was alluded to by her. Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent comment about Iran was, “Remember what Amalek did to you. We remember and we act.” Am I not allowed to quote Bibi?
Her publication also contacted Politico for publishing my cartoon. Does Politico have the right to disagree with Goodman? This is likely an effort to censor my and other journalists’ anti-war reporting. Can Goodman provide a single example of me attempting to get her or another journalist banned? So much for the Free Speech and the US Constitution. Unlike Goodman, I’m enough of a journalist to link to her column below.
Both Goodman and I worked at the New York Post and the Weekly Standard. Did she inquire with any of our shared colleagues regarding the accuracy of her defamatory remarks? Nevertheless, because of our mutual ties, I will refrain from resorting to personal insults and slander against this truly untalented and vile person.
The author of the illustration, who graduated from the New York Academy of Art and studied at the Du Cret School of Art, is known for his controversial cartoons, famously having been the cartoonist for the "Page Six" section of the New York Post between 1990 and 2013. His cartoons are currently distributed by CagleCartoons and published worldwide. An award-winning painter and illustrator, his work has appeared in the nation's leading newspapers, magazines, books, television and Broadway. He created the altar painting for St. Agnes Church in New York.
Sean Delonas's work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian - National Museum of American History, the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Newseum, the Museum of Comic Art, the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, and the Billy Ireland Comic Book Library and Museum, and has been exhibited at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Concord Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Humour in trouble, a collection of cases
Cases of cartoonists who have had problems of some importance because of their cartoons or satirical illustrations. There are also some stories of other people who, without being cartoonists, have got into trouble for sharing them.
