Operation Return. Cartoon from 24 August 2026 in CTXT
Translation of the cartoon: "Israel launches 'Operation Return to Someone Else’s Home' in the West Bank"
Israel is allowing a new generation of settlers to return to the Kadim settlement in the occupied West Bank, which was evacuated 20 years ago. They are not doing so covertly. They are driving around Jenin in vehicles flying Israeli flags, laden with furniture and building materials, some even escorted by the army and ploughing through villages and farmland in the manner of the Huns.
All Israeli settlements and unauthorised settler settlements are illegal under international law. ‘Unauthorised’ settlements are also presumed to be illegal under Israeli law, but they often receive support and funding from the Israeli Government.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, has called for the urgent deployment of an international force in Gaza and the West Bank to protect the Palestinian people, who are under constant Israeli siege, but they are just sitting around waiting.
The Palestinian population continues to suffer attacks by violent settler groups in the West Bank, who steal livestock, destroy their property and crops, and assault anyone who stands in their way, with the sole intention of occupying their land and aiding in ethnic cleansing.
During the month of August, Israel revivedthe ‘E1 plan’, a project through which Israel intends to build 1,234 homes and divide the occupied West Bank into north and south, whilst isolating East Jerusalem, disregarding the international community’s continued opposition and a legal appeal. The E1 plan wasdevised30 years ago by former Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin, but no government had dared to implement it due to strong international opposition.
As early as July 2024, these ‘workers of death’ approved the construction of 5,295 homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank – the highest number of new homes authorised, which are illegal under international law, in settlements in the occupied West Bank for more than three decades.
Back
And against this backdrop, I’m slowly getting back into the routine of returning to work – or whatever you call what we cartoonists do. Coming back from a break spent lazing about and enjoying the summer is like a reverse decompression; you have to gradually shake off that sense of tranquillity and calm and start breathing in the inert gases of everyday life again, in small doses.
After these 23 short days and years of practice, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I am fully prepared and equipped to live without working. Whether I can actually do so is quite another matter.
July began with the onset of what is now known as the migration crisis in Ceuta, whilst August gave us a breather with a historic event. The total solar eclipse on 12 August. Suddenly, the viewing glasses, science, pseudoscience and all its little quirks captured our full attention for a few days, becoming the great astronomical spectacle of the summer of 2026, much to Miguel Bosé’s chagrin.
But don’t be disappointed – next Friday, 28 August, we’ll have a lunar eclipse that will be a bit cooler to watch, and in less than a year’s time, on 2 August 2027, we’ll be able to witness another total solar eclipse, followed by an annular one on 26 January 2028.
I’m trying to give a step-by-step rundown of the news items I’ve jotted down in no particular order. I’m re-reading about Giorgia Meloni’s move, whereby she temporarily and partially suspended the Schengen Agreement with Spain at the end of July 2026 in response to the arrival of migrants in Ceuta, and Spain’s response of carrying out border checks on travellers arriving from Italy – a stance it refuses to back down from.
Israel’s butcher rejected Trump’s plan for Gaza – a potential peace agreement that Hamas had accepted and which the media had already been touting as a done deal – simply because Trump’s mouthpiece had said so.
Trump, who is always in the top ten for oddities, has signed an order reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccinations for all children in the US from 18 to 11 – seven fewer than those recommended by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In July, in yet another of his laughable antics – which sparked thousands of memes and jokes – Donald had to leave the NATO summit in Turkey hidden in a catering trolley. The ‘Cheeto’ secretly left Air Force One in a catering vehicle following a warning of an alleged assassination threat from Iran.
When it comes to politics and society, to say that we’ve already surpassed the plot of *Idiocracy* is a truism; further proof of this is the presence of a bloke called ‘Count Binface’ (Trash Can Face), dressed as an intergalactic warrior, standing as a parliamentary candidate for the English constituency of Clacton-on-Sea, in the south of England.
Whatever happened, the headline was a given. In the end, it read: “Nigel Farage wins an election in which his main rival was a rubbish bin”.
The ‘Disasters’ section has now become a regular feature. Following the powerful earthquake that caused destruction in 494 municipalities across 16 departments in Colombia, we experienced a series of swarm earthquakes down here that were felt in Granada, fortunately with far less serious consequences. However, far more worrying was the fire in Niebla (Huelva), which was part of a disastrous summer of wildfires.
A few days later, Juan Tamariz dies. It’s the sort of news that really gets to you, because people who once made you smile should, by law, be exempt from kicking the bucket.
The embers of the Ayuso penthouse scandal continue to fan new flames in the blatant property wheeling and dealing within the Community of Madrid, however much the ‘little Trump’ tries to blowsmoke up the public’s arse. Even Feijóo, who is starting to look (and think) more and more like Casado, was the first to distance himself from the leader, following the party’s call to rally round her.
And at this point, I come up against the issue of farming aura. That’s exactly when I unplug the router, put it on the floor and stamp on it, jumping up and down on it until the tiniest piece can only be seen with a space telescope.
