Today's Seattle Times published five letters to the editor critical of the paper's coverage of Israel's security fence. Three of the letters mentioned Tony Auth's grotesque Star of David cartoon. My letter is at the top of the page, they added the headline "'Fence' cartoon has strong links to Nazi propaganda" My original unedited letter:
I was dismayed to see in Saturday's Times the Tony Auth cartoon that depicted the Star of David as a fence imprisoning Arab civilians. This is an apparent reference to the security fence which Israel has determined is necessary to construct in order to prevent terror attacks from the West Bank.Thanks to Mike Silverman for sending me the image and citation for the Nazi poster, and to Honest Reporting for information about the fence. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 06, 2003 10:46 AMIn fact, the fence does not "imprison" Palestinians, it merely secures Israel's eastern boundary with the West Bank. Although the fence restricts some movement, legal Palestinian passage through official gates remains completely free. By ignoring the fence's justification as an anti-terror measure, the cartoon shows an utter lack of context.
Sadly, falsely depicting the Star of David as a prison is neither clever nor innovative. As you can see from this image of a Third Reich propaganda poster, the Nazis published such images long before the Seattle Times ever did [source: Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II, by Stacey Bredhoff ]
Perhaps the Times might also publish the Nazi poster -- not to endorse it, of course, but in order to put Tony Auth's anti-Semitic statement in its proper perspective. And in the future, I hope the Times will show better judgment when selecting editorial cartoons for publication.
Great letter Shark man. You hit the nail on the head i.e. the total lack of perspective (and concurrent misinformation) as to why the fence/wall is the bare minimum that the Jewish State should do to protect its citizens).
Off topic, check out Maureen Dowd's anti Semitic rant (she uses the term 'neo Con' 11 times) in todays New York Times.
Posted by: Joel on August 6, 2003 11:49 AMIt is sad and incredible how fast anti-semitism is gaining respectibility as long as it is being pracitced by the Left. One only has to look away for a moment for all the hatred to come out once again. And when people complain about it we are told that it just an another editorial cartoon and that the Jews should not be so sensitive and thin-skinned. (I wonder if Blacks would be told the same thing, if they were to complain about an offensive cartoon or editorial, probably not.) There is nothing left to do except to boycott and protest, non-violently, at these newspapers and any other media that publishes such trash. Thanks Stefan for alerting us. I would not have believed such a bigoted cartoon could be run in a major American newspaper.
Posted by: David All on August 6, 2003 02:19 PMAlthough, I am not jewish, I find the things "published" by the "left wing" of the media is repulsive at times.
I would like to thank you for pointing out how intolerant/hypocritical the left can/will be.
I make it a point to read your blog daily. Thanks again for your hard work and eye for details!
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