What's in a Name?

According to Palwatch:

Killer of 67 Israeli civilians honored by independent Palestinian TV Ma'an

Ma’an visits home of bomb maker, “heroic prisoner Abdallah Barghouti”

Barghouti’s father:
“I ask every Palestinian to follow in the footsteps of Abdallah Barghouti for Palestine and Jerusalem”

Attacks Barghouti prepared bombs for included:
Sbarro restaurant -15 killed
Sheffield Club - 15 killed
Moment Café - 11 killed
Triple attack at Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall - 11 killed
Hebrew University - 9 killed
Bus 4 in Tel Aviv - 6 killed
- more

* * * Help support the online Dry Bones Academy of Cartoon Advocacy and Activism: www.igg.me/at/drybones

Pollard and American Justice (2003)

May 22, 2003

Another ten years have gone by since I drew this cartoon about the outrageous miscarriage of American juctice in the treatment of Jonathan Pollard.

Prisoner X

Today's cartoon asks two simple questions. The first one is easy.

Afraid to Fight for Pollard (1998)

October 16, 1998

Today's Golden Oldie is from 1998. Their silence after 13 years of Jonathan's cruel and unusual punishment was despicable.

Fourteen more years have gone by.
After twenty seven years they still remain silent.

TV at Grandpa's House

This is my second grandfatherly cartoon this week.

In this one I stuck a grandchild into Mr. Shuldig's chair. It's the same old-style, over-stuffed, flower-print chair I've been drawing since 1973, but it's the first time I stuck a kid into it. No need to point out that Shuldig's TV is not a flat giant plasma wonder. And it uses "Rabbit Ears".

* * * On February 28, 2001, Dani Naveh, (Israeli Minister without Portfolio) set the record straight about what happened back in 1998. In a speech to the Knesset he officially revealed what Israelis already knew. He said that:

"...The former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, made an explicit commitment to the then-Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, to release Jonathan Pollard.

This promise was made prior to the Wye Summit and [again] during the course of the negotiations at Wye... This was not a personal promise made to a particular prime minister... This was a promise made to the State of Israel and to the People of Israel..."

-more

* * * The Israeli Prime Minister that Clinton duped back then was Bibi Netanyahu ...our current PM! Which is why I was surprised to read the recent news. Here's the item as reported by YNET:

PM asks Bill Clinton to help release Gilad Shalit

Published: July 08, 2010, 20:29

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with former American President Bill Clinton and asked him to help in the efforts to release kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity.
Netanyahu noted that Clinton has an international reputation, and recalled the release of two American citizens in North Korea, which was made possible after the former president visited the Communist state."
(Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington)
-link

Prisoner Release (1989)

Today's Golden Oldie is from January 1989.

As I write this (in January of 2009) the anti-terrorist war in Gaza is raging on, and (other than Hamas-supplied propaganda videos) we have no idea about how the endeavor is progressing ...so I thought, for today's Golden Oldie, I'd just check and see where we were twenty years ago this month.

Turns out that a President named George Bush had just taken office in the United States ...and it was time to release Jonathan Pollard (the cartoon speaks of the Pollards because, at that time, Jonathan's then-wife was also being held).

Exactly twenty years have gone by since I drew this cartoon. Another President George Bush is in office, Pollard is still a prisoner, and the stain on the American Justice system grows darker with the passing of time.

Free Jonathan Pollard!

Prisoner Release (1993)

Today's Golden Oldie is from September 27, 1993. Fifteen years ago this month. Bill Clinton is shown talking to Yitzhak Rabin a few days after the historic handshake on the White House lawn.

The "New Age of Mutual Trust" has still not resulted in the release of Jonathan Pollard, although Israel has dutifully (and insanely) gone on to release convicted murderers from our prisons in an effort to build "mutual trust".

* * * The latest obscenity is the Olmert/Barak government's apparent plan to release convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti while the continuation of Jonathan Pollard's cruel and outrageous imprisonment is a growing stain on the reputations of America,Israel, and the Clinton "legacy".

Israel Releases Convicts (1987)

Today's Golden Oldie is from 1987. I was angry back then about the Israeli government bashing our legal system, endangering our population, and whetting the blood lust of our genocidal enemies by releasing convicts from prison.

Twenty-one years have now passed and the latest news is the latest release:

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- "Israeli officials confirm a list has been finalized of 200 Palestinian prisoners to be released, including two with "blood on their hands."

The controversial move was approved at a Cabinet level and is seen as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in advance of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit this month, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

Included in the proposed prisoner release are Muhammad Abu Ali, who was convicted of killing an Israeli reservist, a Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel and Said Uteba, who planted three bombs in central Israeli cities.

Their proposed release was particularly controversial with defense and security leaders who argue it will not aid moderate Palestinian leaders and only encourage radicals, the Post reported." -more

I was angry back in 1987, but I'm beyond "angry" now.

How about you?

Capital Punishment

I decided to do today's cartoon after a "loyal reader" sent me a copy of "Capital punishment for capital crimes" by Caroline Glick. After discussing the horrifying crimes being perpetrated against us she notes that:

"ALL OF this raises the issue that polite Israeli society insists on sweeping under the rug: Israel's repeated willingness to release terrorists for live and dead hostages makes clear the need to implement the death penalty against terrorist murderers.

The criminal code permits the death penalty to be used in cases of treason, murder, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against the Jewish people. The problem is not the laws on the books; the problem is the state prosecution's refusal to use them. Regardless of the nature of their crimes, the State Attorney's Office refuses to request that judges sentence terrorists to death." -more

So are we too politically correct to protect ourselves? Is a twisted sense of morality keeping us from doing the right thing?

Your thoughts?

Olmert and Syria

After the horrifying "Prisoner Exchange" deal negotiated by the Olmert government, we now await their idea of an agreement with Syria. I believe that a total surrender to the demands of the Syrian dictatorship is Olmert's next step.

* * * My idea of the next step would be for us to kill Samir Kuntar, the just-freed child-killer and hero of the Arab World, who has now vowed to return and pick up where he left off. We need to take him out and we need to do it within the next few days.

* * * I had wanted to do a light, funny cartoon for the weekend but couldn't. Forgive me. I'll do something more "up" next week. Meanwhile, what's your idea of what our next step should be?

Prisoner Exchange

First, the Olmert government launched and then mismanaged "the Second Lebanon War" to get our two soldiers back.

Today we saw how the Olmert government mismanaged the "Prisoner Exchange" negotiations

Next we'll see the Olmert government sitting down to give land to the terrorist-supporting Iranian-backed Syrian dictator.

* * *

I am angry.
I am angry at the Israeli Knesset which refuses to remove and replace our dangerous and incompetent Prime Minister.
I am angry at local Israeli TV which attracted a huge audience by doing its best to raise our hopes that at the last minute we might see our boys return alive.
I am angry that we call the convicted murderers we have released "prisoners", as if they were Prisoners Of War rather than convicts.
I am angry at the UN and the International Red Cross and at Amnesty International for being part of legitimizing the terrorist chieftains, IslamoNazi fiends, and local dictators who work these cruel horrors against us.
I am angry.

And everyone I've spoken to this morning is angry too.

Israeli Prisoner Exchange

If Israel trades away prisoners we hold but does not insist on proof that Hezbollah is keeping our people alive aren't we signing a death sentence for any Israeli who falls into their hands?

It's a simple question.

And YOUR answer would be?