Double Standard

Every additional day that Jonathan Pollard continues to be in prison is proof of the double standard that is used against him.

Every additional day that the Israel- Hamas War continues will bring increasing proof of the double standard that is used against us.

I use "Mr. History" to guess at how the future will judge us.

...and speaking of the future, Happy New Year 2009!

The Savoy Hotel (1975)

Today's Golden Oldie is from 1975.

I pulled it out of the Dry Bones Archives because a reader left a comment on the blog yesterday to suggest it as pertinent. He did so because he remembered the "Could we be sane and the rest of the world be crazy?" line.

The 1975 cartoon was a response to a PLO terror attack in Tel Aviv a few days earlier. In a strange coincidence, that particular Palestinian atrocity was discussed in India Today (New Delhi) earlier this month:

Mumbai Terror Attacks Similar to Savoy Hotel Attack

"Eight terrorists land on a beach from a mother ship, walk into a busy hotel in the centre of town firing AK-47s, throwing grenades. Sounds familiar? If Israel is grieving the death of its eight citizens in the November 26 attacks in Mumbai, its terror experts cannot help regard it with a sense of déjà-vu. The attacks were a near repeat of the Savoy hotel attacks of March 1975 carried out by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)."

"On the night of March 4, 1975, two teams of eight Palestinian terrorists landed on Tel Aviv beach in rubber boats. Shooting and throwing grenades, they captured the Savoy Hotel near the centre of the city. The Palestinians threatened to kill their hostages if the authorities did not release 20 Palestinian prisoners within four hours." -more

* * * So in the end the world convinced us. We pulled out of Gaza and invited them to set up a state on our border. So in the end it turns out that what they really wanted was a massive launching pad from which to vilify us, demonize us, and attack us relentlessly.

And now as our forces fight back against the terrorist enclave of Hamas-controlled Gaza, and as we hear the rising chorus of hatred directed against us, I once again ask, "Could we be sane and the rest of the world crazy?"
My answer is the same.

What's yours?

Israel Hits Back

Israel has finally hit back at Gaza. The anti-Israel choir will soon be in full song.

For the Main Stream Media the genocidal war against the Jewish State is just not newsworthy ...but the rage of those who would deny us the right to defend ourselves will find their way into newspaper editorials, be featured on op-ed pages, and be prominent in news coverage of Gaza.

* * * I had planned to run a Jonathan Pollard cartoon today, but the Israeli action against Hamas caught me by surprise. Happily, it seems, it also took Hamas by surprise.

Goodbye 2008

Yup. It'll soon be the start of the New Year of 2009. Then on February 9th, as Jews, we'll mark Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for the trees. On the evening of April 8th, we'll celebrate the Passover holiday, which marks the start of a biblical "New Year". In the fall we'll have Rosh HaShana, the start of the Jewish New Year of 5770.

With so many New Years in our calendar, maybe that's why January 1st does not seem like such a big deal to me?

Hanukka (1978)

Today's Golden Oldie is from December 25 1978.

It was Hanukka ...and it was Christmas Day.

Menachem Begin was Israel's Prime Minister and Jimmy One-Term was in the White House.

Merry Christmas

As reported in the Jerusalem Post:

Choosing your own Christmas trees from KKL-JNF forests

"I can't believe that Israelis ensure that Christians in Israel have Christmas trees! This is really cool!" We were speaking to Nathan, a student at the Jerusalem University College on Mt. Zion, whom we met at KKL-JNF's traditional Christmas tree distribution at their regional offices at Givat Yeshayahu, on Wednesday, 10th December. "My brother-in-law, who lives in Centerpoint, Iowa, is also here with his children. It's his first visit to Israel and I invited him to come with me to pick up a Christmas tree. His kids are having a great time, the air here is so fresh and it's just a beautiful day. I'm studying the history and geography of the Holy Land at the Jerusalem University College, the only Protestant institution of its kind. I'm on a two-year program and let me tell you, this is really amazing!"

"Every year just before Christmas, KKL-JNF distributes trees to churches, monasteries, embassies and the foreign press in Israel. Eli Ben-Sheetrit, KKL-JNF forester in charge of the lower Judean coastal plain, told us about the project and how it worked: "The first thing we had to do was to choose which tree would make the most beautiful Christmas tree. We decided on the Arizona cedar and as you can see, no one is disappointed by our choice." -more

Happy Hanukka (1988)

Click on the cartoon below to open a larger, more readable version of this full page Dry Bones Holiday Special:

Today's Golden Oldie is from twenty years ago.

It is a full page Dry Bones Hanukka cartoon, published in the Jerusalem Post on December 02, 1988.

Now, as then, Happy Hanukka to us all!

Gift Giving

Today is the first day of the eight-day holiday. Happy Hanukka to us all!

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi

By now we've all read that the scam apparently pulled by Bernie Madoff was a "Ponzi" scheme.

In the "Ponzi", Madoff had promised to manage investment portfolios for his clients, but he did not invest their funds...he stole them. Then, to keep his clients from knowing that he had made off (Madoff?) with their money, he delivered what his clients thought were the annual "profits" from his wise investment of their funds. To do that he simply paid them from money put in by his new clients. As long as new clients kept delivering their funds to him for him to "manage", he kept everybody happy. A kind of "Pyramid" scheme.

The more I thought about the structure of this "Ponzi", the more it seemed familiar ...and then it hit me! America's Social Security System is a giant Ponzi!! American workers have paid into the system for years, assuming that they'd get back the money they'd put in plus interest.

In fact the Federal government just made off (Madoff?) with the money and pays out benefits from the money that the new workers put in. And when the number of new workers joining the Social Security system falls and the retirees grow sufficiently in number ...the Social Security Ponzi will collapse ...and the U.S. government will replace Bernie Madoff as the holder of the Guinness record for the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

Your thoughts?

The Euro (1998)

Today's Golden Oldie is from December 1998.

Ten years ago we witnessed the birth of a brand new currency. At the end of December 1998, the Euro would replace the individual European national currencies. And the move to one common European currency that seemed so radical back then seems so natural and obvious and logical today.

Happy Birthday Euro!

Pyramid Building

The story broke in the Wall Street Journal:

Top Broker Accused of $50 Billion Fraud

Sons Turned In Madoff After He Allegedly Told Them His Investment-Advisory Business for the Wealthy Was 'Giant Ponzi Scheme'

"Bernard L. Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and a force in Wall Street trading for nearly 50 years, was arrested by federal agents Thursday, a day after his sons turned him in for running what they said their father called "a giant Ponzi scheme."

"The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a civil complaint, said it was an ongoing $50 billion swindle, and asked a judge to seize the firm and its assets. "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions," said Andrew M. Calamari, associate director of enforcement in the SEC's New York office." -more

Golda (1978)

Today's Golden Oldie is from December 1978.

Golda Meir, Israel's tough grandmother of a Prime Minister passed away exactly 30 years ago this month. I drew a Yahrzeit Candle. Yahrzeit is Yiddish for Yearly Time and a Yahrzeit Candle is lit to mark the anniversary of the death of a loved one.

When I was a kid Yahrzeit Candles were encased in heavy weight drinking glasses (like the one in the cartoon) ...which, after they had served their solemn purpose, were indeed added to the household's supply of drinking glasses.

* * *

I posted this cartoon because thirty years since the passing of Golda is a milestone in our history, or so it seems to me.

the Obama Team

We live in an age of a great religious war.

The Islamist enemy seeks to overwhelm and subjugate the planet. Their goal is to erase all other religions and belief systems. This attack on cultural diversity and freedom of thought has come at a time when the West is most vulnerable. Most people in the West seem to have lost their religious belief and cannot really accept that they are facing an enemy that truly believes that they are carrying out the orders of an omnipotent, supernatural being.

These Westerners, blind to the truth, are convinced that there must be some "other" motivation behind the suicide bombings, the rioting, the terrorist attacks, and the hatred! Some motive that could be satisfied by improving economies, fighting poverty, relinquishing land, or some other "rational" concession. Strangely, even the government of Israel refuses to play the religion card and to announce that we are the Chosen People living in our Promised Land, having returned from exile as prophesied in both the Bible and the Koran.

An exception is, of course, the millions of Evangelical Christian Zionists in America. A community that a majority of Jews have been taught to mistrust. If you are one of those Jews please check out CUFI, Christians United For Israel.

Your Thoughts?

Taking Sides

When I was a kid, a reporter was supposed to be like a camera. He/she was supposed to snoop, spy, investigate and then to accurately report the truth to the rest of us.

Journalists were supposed to be objective. They weren't supposed to "take sides".

Then, in the 1960’s, American journalists covering the upheavals of the civil rights movement and Vietnam began to believe that they could play a positive role in changing society by influencing the public through their reporting of these issues.

The goal of the reporter subtly slid from being objective, to "making the world better". The term was "advocacy journalism".

...and real journalism has never been the same since.

India Pakistan (1980)

Indira Gandhi had been prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977.
In 1980, when I did today's Golden Oldie, Indira had just been returned to office.

Mrs. Gandhi's words, which are quoted in the first three panels of the cartoon, seem more true today than when she spoke them. As does my explanation (in the last three panels of the cartoon).

In 1984, four years after returning to office, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated.

Hindu Zionists

The story is at MEMRI, the translation people.

In TV Interview, Pakistani Security Expert Accuses Western Zionists, Hindu Zionists of Planning 11/26 Mumbai Terror Attacks

"Following the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani security expert Zaid Hamid was interviewed by Pakistan's News One television channel; in it, he accused "Western Zionists and Hindu Zionists" of planning the 11/26 Mumbai attacks." -more

Flag Sales (1998)

I was rummaging through cartoons from Decembers long gone, looking for a Golden Oldie. Ten years have gone by since I did today's cartoon back in 1998 ...a few days before a scheduled visit by President Clinton to Gaza.

Ten years and we still have not learned how to deal with the incredible success of the Palestinian anti-Israeli propaganda.

Automobile Industry Financing

This whole business of giving loans to the car manufacturers rather that getting car loans from them made me curious about how and when automobile financing first began.

Turns out that when the industry was young, car dealers had to pay cash to buy the cars that they intended to sell... but the demands of trying to keep the assembly lines running regularly forced a rethink of that arrangement. The new idea was to allow the dealers to finance the vehicles they bought from the manufacturers and to offer financing to the consumers to whom they sold the vehicles.

William Durant, the founder of General Motors, was the first to introduce the concept of automobile financing – car loans.

"Durant gave ordinary people a way to buy a car when the manufacturers of the time, including Henry Ford, believed that financing a new car would be the end of America. Boy, were they wrong! Billy was a man of vision, and his vision of automobile financing materialized in the form of General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), the first large non-bank financing source for automobile loans. In 1919, GMAC branches were opened in Detroit, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto. In 1920, they expanded to Great Britain. By 1928, they’d written their 4 millionth retail contract."-more

What If?

"Hey listen to this!" said the LSW (Long Suffering Wife). Contrary to her request I did not pay attention as she read me something from the morning paper. A day or two later, while I was searching for a cartoon topic, she suggested "why don't you do a cartoon about that guy's idea?" My response was obviously "What guy? What idea?"

Turns out that what she had read me was a piece about somebody suggesting that Israel move its remaining terrorist convicts to an unfortified prison in Sderot (Gaza's favorite missile target).

"What a great idea!" I said (hearing it for the first time).

Unfortunately, the LSW couldn't remember any further details. We couldn't decide on what day this particular instance of my having not listened had taken place and we couldn't find the paper in the newspaper pile in our kitchen. So I don't know who thought of it. I won't say that no one has given his proposal some serious thought, after all that's what produced today's Dry Bones cartoon.

Gasoline Prices (1973)

Today's Golden Oldie is from December 1973. Dry Bones began on January 1, 1973 and so at the time of this cartoon the feature was just short of one year old. Gasoline prices were rising and I used a mock computer expert to deliver the punchline ...which basically says that at a certain point, people would have to seriously cut down on their driving.

Thirty five years later gasoline prices are now falling and I heard an "expert" on TV say that the reason for current lower gas prices is that when prices got too high "more people started walking."

Was my cartoon prophetic?
I haven't seen any walkers out on the highway
...but I've been looking.

Hysterical Blindness

Hysterical Blindness:
Definition from an eye surgery site:

"The term hysterical blindness refers not to a medical condition, but rather a rare psychological condition in which trauma from an injury or illness results in a patient's assumed inability to see. The emotional turmoil experienced by people suffering from hysterical blindness causes them to block off visual impulses from the eyes to the brain.

Also known as a conversion disorder, dissociative reaction, or psychological factors affecting medical conditions, hysteria presents itself as an affliction of a sensory organ, in this case, the eyes. Depression, anxiety and other emotional symptoms may also be present."

* * * I did not know whether to title this cartoon "Selective Vision" or "Hysterical Blindness". The first implies that the West doesn't want to see, the second says that the West is too paralysed with fear to see.

So what's your take on the situation?

Rain (1988)

I did today's Golden Oldie exactly twenty years ago this month, back in December of 1988.

Israel is in one of those parts of the world where there's a rainy season, and by December, if there hasn't been serious rainfall it's time to start worrying and praying for rain to water the land. Twenty years ago, when I did the cartoon, we were so overwhelmed with problems that readers laughed at my bringing up the lack of rain.

* * *

I took a cab home yesterday, and heavy with thoughts of the terror attack on Mumbai, the missiles out of Gaza, organized crime, the upcoming elections, Olmert, and the spreading collapse of the world's economy I said to the driver "What do you think of the current situation?"

He said "We haven't had rain yet. It's the first of December and we haven't had rain yet!"

I knew exactly what he meant. He'd had enough of talking about the current situation.

Obama's Team

When he left office in January 2001, President Clinton refused clemency to Jonathan Pollard,in spite of his repeated express commitments to Israel to free Pollard in return for numerous heavy concessions, in spite of his commitment to free Pollard as an integral part if the Wye Accords and in spite of the grotesque injustices of the Pollard case which includes
a grossly disproportionate sentence

Will Obama's team do something? Will President Bush? Will American Jews find the courage to speak up at last?

Your thoughts?