Intifada and Lag Ba'Omer (1988)

Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon that I did twenty years ago in May 1988. It was, like today, the day of Lag Ba'Omer eve. That evening, like tonight, Lag Ba'Omer bonfires would be lighting up Israeli cities, towns, and villages.

To understand the cartoon it is necessary to understand that in December of 1987, masked thugs began distributing threatening leaflets to Palestinian Arab businessmen. These leaflets demanded that the businessmen close their shops and offices to support the anti-Israeli tire-burning and the stone-throwing attacks on Israelis ...or suffer the consequences. This attempt to crush the then friendly relations between Jews and Arabs was called the Intifada and was a complete success.

The Intifada is now celebrated by Hamas as its founding act. The name Hamas, in fact, first appeared in an Intifada leaflet less than six months before today's Golden Oldie was first published.