Open Letter to Zapiro

Jack Bloom, author of 'Out of Step', (our review) has written a biting open letter to Jonathan Shapiro, from whose serpentine pencil emanates the Zaptrash cartoons. Zap those cartoons in the Zibi can.

Open Letter to Zapiro

Dear Mr Shapiro,

True to form, you have again unleashed your pen to lambast Israel in the most pernicious and one-sided manner.

I had hoped that you had learned from the regret you expressed recently over your representation of Ariel Sharon as a SS Stormfuhrer in Jenin.

Despite the screaming headlines, there was no Jenin massacre. Israel should have received universal praise for avoiding an indiscriminate air bombing, which led to soldiers losing their lives against a ruthless enemy hiding amongst civilians.

Your cartoon was not only wildly untrue, it was the worst form of Holocaust denial in that it trivialised the depth of Nazi atrocities and boosts those in Europe wishing to expiate their guilt by casting Jews as latter-day Nazis.

The real Nazi comparison is with the Hamas ideology, which depicts Jews as cosmically evil, to be eliminated everywhere.

This view is shared by Hezbollah, a virulently antisemitic organisation with openly espoused genocidal aims. According to its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, Jews are "grandsons of apes and pigs".

You have no comment on this, but partake in the libel of Israel as engaging in totally indiscriminate force. For you, Olmert is the "Butcher of Lebanon".

Never mind that the death toll would be far, far higher if Israel was truly intent on targeting civilians. Where is your criticism of Hezbollah for installing rocket launchers in homes? Do you know that this is a war crime in terms of the Geneva conventions, and that the guilt lies with those who use civilians as human shields?

Hezbollah deliberately targets civilians, and cheers every Israeli death from its rockets. What do you consider "proportionate" in responding to the 12 000 missiles that Hezbollah has? No other country in the world would tolerate this.

It would be refreshing if you would expose the role of Hezbollah's sponsors, Iran and Syria, who provoked this conflict at Lebanon's expense to pursue their own nefarious agendas.

Whilst lambasting Jews at every opportunity, you don't dare take on Islamic extremism in the same manner. You were very tender, for instance, on the Mohammed cartoons controversy.

Letting Arabs and Muslims off the hook is not only wrong, it shows your profound contempt for them as incapable of responsibility for their actions.

I compare this with the bravery of the Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem, who has faced fatwa death threats. In one of his cartoons, he shows Iranian President Ahmadinejad with a nuclear missile, proclaiming: "The Holocaust didn't happen... Yet!"

He understands, but you apparently don't.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Bloom

Comments

[Anti-UN]

Bravo

{clap clap}