Zaptrash Hits Rock Bottom

There really are no words to express my dismay at the new lows that Zapiro has descended to. This cartoon mocks a class at a Jewish school teaching about the suffering endured by Jews throughout our history.

I wonder if the timing of the cartoon is deliberate. Perhaps it’s his schadenfreude way of quietly celebrating the very recent suffering endured when an Arab terrorist killed 8 children at their Jewish school. The peaceful school he mocks is a far cry from these images of horror.

Zapiro has never used his serpentine pen to sympathise with the suffering of ‘the other’ in this conflict. It’s always the Palestinians...to him, the most oppressed people ever.

Below is an image of the 8 children who lost their lives in what Zapiro describes as legitimate 'resistance'.

Comments

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Steve,
Zap is certainly implying that the attack on the yeshivah was "legitimate/deserved/jusified"as the cartoon is placed within an Israeli school.

When one considers that children were murdered at the yeshivah, Zap's cartoon is one of the sickest that has ever appeared.

Of course it will be applauded by The FXI , MRN , PSC , Mail and Guardian etc.

[Benjamin]

I doubt the timing is deliberate and I don't think you can be certain that Zapiro is implying that: attack on the yeshivas was "legitimate/deserved/jusified". I think the cartoon is insensitive but I think your stretching. The implication you are making is that Zapiro believes that attacks on civilians are justified.

Zapiro, as do most satirical cartoonists, attack authority they very rarely sympathise with anyone.

[Steve]

Benjamin,
Zapiro, as do most satirical cartoonists, attack authority they very rarely sympathise with anyone.

Are you suggesting that this cartoon is not expressing sympathy for the Palestinians?

I agree with you that the timing was not deliberate. But he could have held it off for a while longer. The insensitivity is very clear.

Using a school and referring to 'resistance' leads me to conclude that he thinks the recent attack was justified.

He has previously depicted Israeli leaders as dressed as Nazis.

[Mike]

Of course the timing was deliberate.

The message is clear Jewish class rooms in Israel are a legitimate target for in them falsehoods and lies are preached.

Benjamin, how many anti-Palestinian Zapiro cartoons can you list? Zapiro does not attack everyone. He has a very definite ideological ax to grind.

Its not bad enough that the Palestinian lobby in South Africa has stolen Apartheid to compare Israel to, now they have resorted to hijacking Jewish suffering. I actually feel sorry for the Palestinian people. For it’s a denial of their personal pain.

[Steve]

Mike,

The message is clear Jewish class rooms in Israel are a legitimate target for in them falsehoods and lies are preached.

Great analysis.

[Laura]

Absolutely repulsive. The South African media as a whole is reprehensible. Yes its blatantly obvious that the cartoonist is implying that those Yeshiva students got what they deserved. He and other like-minded miscreants simply do not comprehend that the oppressors and the ones who should be equated with the nazis are the "palestinians" along with the entire Arab-muslim world in its Jew-hatred. The only people who have been forced from there homes were JEWS in Gaza because the nazi Arabs demand a Jew-free state.

[Benjamin]

Steve, Mike, and it seems everyone else...

Are you suggesting that this cartoon is not expressing sympathy for the Palestinians?

I will accept that point but only partially, It is attacking the Israel government the Palestinians are incidental. My analysis as I read it. But I am more against your position:

The message is clear Jewish class rooms in Israel are a legitimate target for in them falsehoods and lies are preached.

I don't think its great analysis I think its, sorry to be rude but shoddy (I say this as a reader of your blog please don't be offended :) ).

1. falsehoods and lies are preached

The Cartoon is in no way claiming that what is being said in the classrooms is false. It is pointing out that Israelis have been victims and they are now (in Zapiro's view) doing all these things to the Palestinians. Hypocrisy, a satirists best friend. Besides what classroom does he mean? Is this not a metaphor for the history of the jews? You admit yourself that the timing is incidental.

2. legitimate target

From two frames, one at the beginning and one at the end, you are implying that Zapiro supports the murder of children. Given his bio, his history, interviews he has given and previous cartoons (especially after 911) I find that very hard to believe.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Benjamin,
Get real!
Why has Zap decided to locate the story that is told in the cartoon within a classroom ?

Are you saying that it does not bring the murders at the yeshivah into the reader's consciousness?

You have, unfortunately, misunderstood the sick multi-faceted dimensions of Zap's cartoon.

[Steve]

Benjamin, I sympathise with your view that we are being over reactive, but I think you are wrong.

As far as the first point goes its semantics. So forget sympathy. He only attacks Israel, never the Palestinains.

I agree with you, he is not saying that falsehoods and lies are preached. He is saying that we are doing what was done to us. I.e.he is saying that we are Nazis, we are the Czarist Russians, we are the Lutherans and Catholic Church of old.

Some might say that Nazis are legitimate targets. He is saying we are Nazis. And here is a link where he made it quite clear. Nazi Sharon

He is not saying it dirctly. Perahps he doesn't even mean it. But it is implied in his cartoons whether he means it or not. And if not then he should be more responsible.

I still find the timing reprehensible.

By the way, which of his post 9/11 toons are you referring to?

[Benjamin]

I have five minutes so this is going to be very rough, but no he is not saying Israel is the Nazi's, you are missing the point of a satirical cartoon. It suppose to be outrages and even partly offensive.

I think it is more along the lines of a Tutu speech saying something like: Jews who have been victims themselves etc etc. But that might just be my take, he could be saying that you are acting like Nazi's. But even so, Nazi civilians are not legitimate targets so I still don't buy the implication.

I was actually thinking of a madam and eve cartoon so you have me their. I did go back and look and could only find this
911 Cartoon , there was this one on the Russian school shooting.

I agree on the timing, I just think it was accidental.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Ben,

As far as Zap is concerned, the more multi-faceted the potential malevolence, the better.

That is the "satanic brilliance" of the cartoon.

[Mike]

Benjamin, No offense taken.

I think it is extremely clear by the last frame that he believes that the class room is an important tool of Zionist propaganda. The lie is of course that Israel is the source not the cure for oppression.

No where do I see this as an attack on the Israeli government. Benjamin where does it point out that this is a state run and not a private school?

Likening Israel to the Nazi’s, as Zapiro has done on numerous occasions, has been declared by the UNHC, no less, as anti-Semitic. I think its really a sick thing to do.

Benjamin where do we draw the line at satire? What about Nazi cartoons or Arab anti-Semetic ones?

[Jak]

It sickens me the depths that some people can sink to. Even for Zapiro this is a new low...

[Coolio]

I support the cartoon 100% you cry abt 8 jews, we crying abot thousands of palestinians. zapiro is the best cartoonist in the country & a moral voice amidst all the madness.

you all bore me.

[Benjamin]

Mike, I think we disagree only on the interpretation of this Cartoon if I interpreted it, as you have, I would also be upset. I see Nazi Sharon in the same way, its criticizing actions and trying to point out Hypocrisy. I think you are being paranoid, I may well be naive. I would link the prescident to this Cartoon.

Thanks for the civil conversation.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Coolio,
Sorry for being so boring. Is there anything that I can do to be more interesting? Would it help if I stopped writing to Na'eem Jeenah at The FXI?

[mike]

Benjamin, that cartoon is dishonest. It implies that Israel deliberately targets civilians or at least doesn’t care about civilians. If that was true they could have flattened Gaza years ago ala Dresden.

Are you saying that Zapiro’s nazi cartoon is legitimate?

[TC]

Coolio,

There are three other differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians:

First, Palestinian "militants" deliberately target innocent civilians, whereas Israel does not.

Secondly, Palestinians celebrate the murder of innocent civilians, whereas Israel does not.

Thirdly, Palestinian "militants" started the recent fighting by indiscriminately launching thousands of rockets from Gaza onto Israeli cities.

The rockets were launched after Israel removed all settlements from Gaza and ended the occupation there. Also recall that the Arabs started the conflict by waging a genocidal war against Israel in 1948, long before there was any occupation.

Hamas is like the Ku Klux Klan. They indoctrine their children with hateful propaganda, are fanatical theocrats, have genocidal principles, and even dress like Klansmen in their white robes and hoods.

What would South Africa do if a neighbouring country sent suicide bombers into Cape Town, launched thousands of missiles on Johannesburg, and pledged to detroy all of SA's black population?

Would it give in to demands for land and remove all blacks from some areas, say Mafikeng and Pretoria? Would it even care if other countries wanted it to? Would it negotiate with genocidal thugs? Would it care if some people actually believed and supported racist propaganda? Would SA not defend itself?

[TC]

Upon reading my previous post slowly I noticed that I used such terminology as "blacks" and even "black population". A search reveals that such terminology isn't unusual, and I see it elsewhere on the site.

But on reflection talk of "blacks" and "whites" - as opposed to "Jews" "Catholics" and "Austrians" - sounds strange. Could anyone tell me whether such talk is offensive or why it might sound strange? Sorry for the digression, but I care about the proper use of words, especially where they might otherwise offend.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

In the third pic of the cartoon, Zap includes a sign : "WEST BANK BANTUSTAN", making the apartheid analogy.

It is encouraging to see, however, that a highly respected South African human rights journalist does not agree . Read Rhoda Kadalie's article "Franchising apartheid" in the online Z-word.com. (The latter also includes an interesting piece by Anthony Julius which is worth shecking out.)

http://www.z-word.com/z-word-essays/franchising-%25E2%2580%259Capartheid%25E2%2580%259D%253A-why-south-africans-push-the-analogy.html?page=1

[Benjamin]

Mike, its far too late in this post to start arguing about another Cartoon! I read these cartoons from a very political mindset, so I rarely get upset. I agree that the point Zapiro is making is that: Israel is acting irresponsibly and, if not deliberately, carelessly killing civilians. That is not anti-semitic nor is it even anti-Zionist.

I'm off to read the latest post on Egypt's wall, I don't think we are going to resolve our differences on this one.

Ps. Dresden wasn't the Nazi's it was the Brits and the American's, (Kurt Vonnegut fan).

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Benjamin,

The first pic in the cartoon has the words " ISRAEL OUR HISTORY" on the blackboard and concludes with the words " Israel gives thanks for the end of oppression." I think that you have missed the inherent anti-zionist dimension in the cartoon.
I have to conclude that you have failed to read the cartoon "from a very political mindset."

[Gary]

Actually Coolio from when we began returning to Israel, and your co-religionists started attacking us, over 20 000 Jews have been murdered.
Many of them have been children.
Since Arafat (now frying in hell) started the 'Intifada' 7 years ago, over a thousand of our people have been killed.
But you are so dishonest you don't mention this.
Nothing about the thousand Jews in Israel , mainly women and children , who have been massacred , by bomb, bullet and knife in the war of genocide against the Israeli people , known as the Intifada.
Nothing about the pregant Jewish mother and her four terrified small daughters , executed one by one by Arafatian goons at Gaza.
Nothing about the five-year-old girl, Danielle Shefi, who was shot to death at point blank range by an Arab killer, while cowering under her parents’ bed.
Nothing about the countless Jewish children murdered in the last four years and the last 80 years in Arab pogroms against Jews in the Land of Israel.
The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more. So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards Jews in the Land of Israel have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed, who would raise no hand in their own defence, had been robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs-as the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias had been robbed and slain and burned out. Bedouin Arabs passed through Israel at will-and robbed and killed Jews as a profitable thing. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Arab feudal lords in Israel organized pogroms precisely as the Czar had organized pogroms. The Land of Israel was a blighted and empty land until the Zionist Movement returned it to life.
In 1920 , Jews where masscared in Jersualem and in 1921 in Jaffa. In 1929 the entire ages old Jewish community of Hebron was massacred and from 1936 to 1939 , inspired and supported by Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany , pogroms spread across the Land of Israel , taking thousands of Jewish lives.
Considering the culture of hate , inculcated in refugee camps and in the 'Palestinian Authority' against Jews and considering the genocide by Arabs against minorities in Sudan , against the Kurd and in Lebanon , we all know that the so-called unitary state of 'Palestine' with an Arab majority , which leftwing commentators are now presenting as the solution, would lead to a second holocaust.
Arab countries take up ten percent of the earth's land area , whereas Israel is the size of the Kruger National Park.
Of the population of the Arab states , more than a quarter are probabely made up of non-Arab minorities such as the Kurds , the Nilotic Black peoples of South Sudan , the Berbers of Algeria , Tunisia and Morocco , the Druze of Syria , the Christian Copts of Egypt , and the Maronites of Lebanon.
These minorities face discrimination , and in some cases , such as the South Sudanese and the Maronites , have been subjected to horrific genocide.
Why is it so unjust that a small section of the vast Arab population - those who call themselves 'Palestinians'- should live as a minority in Israel?

[Brett]

Why is it that whenever there is "anti-zionist" post on this site, be it Coolio or Walton or whoever, it is never an intellectual argument? Coolio's posts are nothing more than graffiti. If there were an unbiased, objective observer who's only knowledge of the situation in Israel came from the posts in this blog and he was asked to comment on which side is more rational and fair the choice would be obvious. This site is about debate, not ranting and raving!

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

I attach the latest editorial from Mel Phillip's SPECTATOR blog, as it deals with the demolition of Palestinian homes. I think it is relevant sine a demolition pic is central to Zap's cartoon.

Mel writes:
"Amongst all those committed to truth, fairness and justice the BBC’s coverage of the Middle East continues to cause widespread dismay on account of its systematic distortion against Israel and credulous regurgitation of Arab propaganda. But now the American media monitoring organisation CAMERA says it has caught the BBC broadcasting an out-and-out lie. Last Friday, as the eight students who were murdered in the library of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem were being buried, BBC World broadcast an item in which reporter Nick Miles was heard to say:

In the hours after the attack, Israeli bulldozers destroyed his [the terrorist’s] family home. Later, his mourners set up Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners nearby.
But as CAMERA points out, the terrorist’s house was not destroyed by Israeli bulldozers that day. Nor was it destroyed on any subsequent day. Indeed, as of yesterday it was still standing.
One of the central accusations hurled by Israel-bashers is that Israel destroys Arab homes as a form of ‘collective punishment’. The distorted way in which this charge is framed has played a major role in fomenting hatred of and murderous hysteria towards Israel. Now the BBC appears to have gone one stage further. It simply made it up."

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

When you see the photos of the murdered children, it really strikes you just how sick Zap's cartoon is.
I do not believe that the timing of the cartoon is accidental.
It is no coincidence that his cartoon depicts an Israeli classroom. Implicit in Zap's cartoon is the message... it is reasonable to murder Israeli school kids since Israeli adults are persecuting Palestinians. This is the level to which Jewish anti-zionists have sunk in post apartheid South Africa.
It is, perhaps, one of the sickest cartoons ever produced.

[Gary]

I have just seen all the faces and all the names and I now remember that I met Doron Meherete and ate at the same table as him on Rosh ha Shana 2006.
And I must now live in a country where Jewish cartoonists say his murder is justified.
What can I say to express my real hatred of the (Jewish)leftist instigators of Arab terror, that will not be seen as slanderous or inciteful?

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

The cartoon is also implicitly stating that Israelis are behaving like Nazis and suggests that Israelis are curently waging "violent pogroms" (cossacks??) against the Palestinians.

Zap's logic is clear... Jews have now beeen transformed into Nazis. Holocaust survivors living in Israel have created a Nazi state.

What conclusions can the reader draw from the above?
It is a tragedy that some Jews survived the holocaust ? Implicit perhaps is also the idea that since Israelis are as bad as Nazis, it was no loss that 6 million Jews died in the holocaust ?

I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from Zap's drawings but I believe that it is one of the sickest cartoons ever produced.

[Gary]

ZAPIRO is also imlying that even attacks on schools with younger children- boys and girls- as per his revolting cartoon is justified.
Would we tolerate this if it incited against diaspora Jews.
Are Israeli Jews worth less?
This is in fact far worse than holocaust denial, as it transfers the guilt of the Holocaust onto the descendants of the survivors.
I cannot think of anything more sick and evil.
Never will it be clear, except in the sick minds of Israel-hating Jews, why these monsters have turned so viciously on their own people.
ZAPIRO- you will be judged one day by the higher power you may not belive in. And He does not care about political correctness or ideological fashions.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Gary,
In the South African context, many of the anti-zionist Jews would be thrown off the ANC gravy train if they did not expouse such views.

Has Zap ever ridiculed Hamas and its love affair with suicide bombing?
If he did, he would immediately be on the receiving end of the Media Review Network's / Muslim Judicial council's / FXI's wrath. Would the Mail and Guardian publish a cartoon which doubted the moral validity of suicide bombing?

When one ponders these questions, one starts to understand how South Africa's "intellectual" millieu works.

[Gary]

The truth is Anthony, that no other community, other than the Jewish community, would tolerate such abuse.
No one from any other nation could ever get away with demonizing their own people without a very severe backlash.
But the Jewish community in SA, in the main, is too pathetic to lash back.

[Gary]

Sorry I meant no other person could get away with demonizing their own nation without a severe backlash.
And no other nation would tolerate those who turn on their own like that.
I mean, hell, instead of censure, we still see article in the SA Jewish Report honouring ZAPIRO's "talent", and ZAPIRO is given platforms by the mainstream community.
Only the Jews give their enemies a platform.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Gary,
I am not sure that the Jewish community in South Africa has any influence.
What is crucial is to "unpack" the implications of the cartoon and to expose the fact that he is partisan. Zap does not have the guts to ridicule Isalmic fundamentalism / suicide bombing which are legitimate targets for a courageous satirist.
I wonder how long Zap would be employed as a cartoonist in South Africa if he satirized the above.

[Lawrence]

Zapiro continues to sink to new lows, there are no limits to his anti-Israel bigotry and that of the SA media as a whole. Why doesn't he go to Gaza where he can stay with his Hamas and Islamic jihad "heroes", put his money where his mouth is...it might not save him though, being a propagandist for Hamas that is. After all even Alan Johnson of the Jew-hating BBC was kidnapped in Gaza despite being a Palestinian propagandist.

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

Lawrence,
And Johnson was naive enough to thank Hamas for releasing him. As if they didn't organize his kidnapping in the first place.

If Zap went to live in Gaza would he have to convert to Islam ? Or would he get equal rights as a radical Jew ?

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

I have copied the following letter:

Letters CAPE TIMES
Bad timing, Zapiro
March 14, 2008 Edition 1

There is a time for politics and there is a time for pause.

You, Zapiro, have your politics, your point of view, and I have mine. We may disagree about the history, the facts and the interpretation. I am not out to justify my position, nor denigrate yours. That is politics. But now is not a time for politics. Now is a time for pause. Eight young lives were ended when students were gunned down, sitting learning in a library.

To imply, as your cartoon (March 12) skilfully does, by locating it in a Jewish house of learning, that the murders of these young Jewish students were brought upon themselves, a justifiable consequence of their own actions, is insensitive at best, blood-chillingly cruel at worst. Less than a week after the brutal killings, when the blood is still warm, when the families are still saying prayers for their loved ones, that is not the time for politics.

That is the time for pause. Just for one week, let's put aside our ideology and our history and let us all show some humanity. Death of anyone, on any side of any conflict, should never be reduced to a laughing matter.

I implore you, Zapiro, to at least give us time to mourn our dead, to heal, before you raise your serpentine pen to inflict more hurt.

David Jacobson
Executive Director
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council)

[Trudy]

Sad it is for me, an ex-Pat British Jew/Israeli, to see that South Africa is no different to all the other anti-semitic/anti-Israel 'western' democratic countries. Was it not the Jews in S. Africa, led by Janette (?) Suzman, who campaigned against Apartheid and helped bring it to an end?

And now, what do they get in excange? Not only NO thanks or appreciation from the post-Apartheid ruling clique but rather far worse attitudes even than under Apartheid.

Of course, the new S. Africa has its Jewish running dogs, but if they think that by bashing, defaming and slandering Israel, they will be spared retribution by SA anti-semites/anti-zionists for being Jews, they had better think again.

The 'Good Times' post WW2 period for Jews is running out, not only in SA but throughout Europe, Britain, the Americas, etc. Jew hatred (under the guise of 'legitimate criticism of Israel') is spreading its traditional tentacles fast all over the world, and when the troubles start again, even Jewish useful idiot running dogs like Kasrils & Zapiro, and their clones elsewhere, will not escape the torrent.

In fact, they will probably be its 1st victims, as happened to the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto (many of them converts to Christianity who had hoped not to be treated in the same ghastly manner as their former religionists).

Once they had done their Masters' will - i.e. beating, starving, killing and dragging Jews onto the cattle wagons to Auschwitz, they were all shot out of hand.

So Zapiro & Kasrils watch your backs, your comrades will disappoint your hopes and dreams without so much as a flicker of bad conscience crossing their mad minds. As for the rest of SA Jewry, please take care and be on your guard all the time so that you will not be taken too out of awares.