Monday, August 31, 2009

Bibi and Mr. History

Bibi Netanyahu, Obama, and the judgement of history : Dry Bones cartoon.
Israel's struggle for survival is fought on a "minute to minute" basis. Everything is urgent and immediate.

As we watch our current Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, attempt to resist the pressure exerted by yet another American President, I have the feeling that "we've been in this movie before" ...and for one brief moment I wondered how the longer view from the perspective of history will judge him ...and us.

So I drew today's cartoon.

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Swedish Future

Sweden's Future is Islamist: Miss Sweden in a Burqa (or Burka) : Dry Bones cartoon.
The cartoon shows a future Miss Sweden in a burqa, the body-bag in which Islamists want to imprison all women. The demonization of Jews and the Jewish State continues in full force. The insane Islamist antisemitic incitement has now commandeered the European press. The end will, of course, be the Arabization of Europe. Here's Alan Dershowitz commenting on the latest outrage out of Sweden:
Sweden's shame over Israeli 'organ theft' nonstory

Why won't its government condemn the outrageous article that accused Israeli soldiers of harvesting Palestinian organs?


Cambridge, Mass. - "The Swedish government has refused to condemn a "blood libel" published by one of Sweden's leading newspapers, Aftonbladet.

The article claims that Jewish soldiers in Israel killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. The writer of the article, Donald Bostrom, has acknowledged that "he has no idea whether the accusations are true." Yet a widely read Swedish newspaper was prepared to publish this undocumented and highly volatile accusation without requiring its author to present any credible evidence.

This false accusation is reminiscent of the medieval blood libels that falsely accused Jews of killing Christian children in order to use their blood for religious rituals. It is also reminiscent of the notorious Czarist forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. One expects this sort of thing from Iranian or Syrian newspapers, but not from Swedish papers.

Not only has Foreign Minister Carl Bildt refused to issue a personal condemnation of the current "organ libel," his foreign ministry explicitly disavowed the denunciation that was issued by Sweden's ambassador to Israel, who had called the article "shocking and appalling." In a self-righteous statement, Mr. Bildt claimed that condemnation of the article would be inappropriate because freedom of expression is a part of the Swedish Constitution." -more

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mideast Peace (1991)

(1991) Dry Bones cartoon: talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon from 1991.

The bizarre delusion that the Middle East would settle down and be peaceful if only the "Palestinian problem" were solved continues to this day.
Yikes!

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Yale Intimidated

Yale Surrenders to Threat of Islamist Violence : Dry Bones cartoon.
1. Yale University Press announced that they are censoring a book that they are about to publish. And they said that they had been coerced into taking this action because of having been intimidated by fear and threats of violence.

2. The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms defines terrorism as:

"The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological."

3. According to that definition, Yale and other American Universities are victims of terrorism. They are being intimidated by the threat of violence. They are being coerced into aiding in the pursuit of the political, religious, and ideological goals of Islamists.

4. When will the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI take action?

* * *

Idea: If Yale is afraid to publish the Danish cartoons (in a scholarly work about the Danish cartoons) why don't they put the cartoons up on a website and print the web address in the book?

If you haven't seen the 12 innocuous Danish cartoons click here.

If you haven't seen my previous posting about Yale, click on "Dry Bones at Yale?".

* * *
Your thoughts?

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

August (1977)

Psychiatrist Congress in Jerusalem ... in the heat of August (1977) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August 24, 1977.

I usually start my day by walking to a neighborhood cafe and slurping down some coffee while browsing the local newspapers. This morning I turned to the guy at the espresso machine and asked if the air conditioning was working properly. He said that he'd already checked, and it was indeed "working at full blast". "It's REALLY hot out there today" he continued, "What was the weather forecast?". "I don't check the weather forecasts" I grumbled, as I continued to search the local press for topics for cartoons. "Well it IS August you know" he said.

Later in the day, back in my studio, I began to search for a Golden Oldie. And found one. It's about the weather. About heat ...in August.

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Lockerbie Outrage

Lockerbie Bomber : Dry Bones cartoon.
The news as reported by the Reuters News Agency:
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - "Scotland, unaccustomed to the hot spotlight of international diplomacy, fought to justify its release of the Lockerbie bomber on Sunday, after a U.S. official angrily accused the country of rewarding terrorism.

Scotland, which is part of the United Kingdom but has its own devolved powers, including its own parliament and a separate legal system, has been under assault since deciding on Thursday to free Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan who carried out the Lockerbie airline bombing, on compassionate grounds.

The head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, wrote to Scotland's justice minister on Saturday accusing him of making a mockery of the rule of law and saying his much-criticised decision "rewards a terrorist"." -more

* * *
So do YOU think he'll be dead within 3 months? Nu?

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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Sunday Mail: DryBones at Yale?

Letters From Dry Bones
Posting a cartoon every weekday leaves no room for me to simply share news, ideas, and other stuff with you. So welcome to 'Sunday Mail: Letters from Dry Bones', the new, once-a-week Dry Bones feature.

Letters From Dry Bones
Item One: Fear at Yale:
The news about Yale that you might have heard this week was about the Yale University Press decision to remove images of Mohammad from a book that they are about to publish. The book is called The Cartoons That Shook the World. Instead of claiming an academic or scholarly motive, they were honest enough to explain that the censorship was entirely due to fear of Islamist violence.
Letters From Dry Bones
Item Two: Courage at Yale:
A story that you probably never heard is that Yale is the only university on the entire American continent with an institute for the study of antisemitism. It is called YIISA (the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism.) And that brings us to Item Three:
Letters From Dry Bones
Item Three: Dry Bones at Yale:
I am proud to share with you that I have been appointed a Fellow of the Yale Initiative. I will be doing a scholarly work for YIISA on the relationship between cartoons and antisemitism. Yup. It's Dry Bones at Yale. Stay tuned for further developments!

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Friday, August 21, 2009

More Than Elections

Iraq, Afghanistan, and democracy : Dry Bones cartoon.
There are two fundamental mechanisms which any democratic system must have.

The first is a method that ensures "Majority Rule". Usually through the holding of fair elections.

The second is a mechanism which prevents the majority from using its power to violate the rights of the individual or of minorities.

Discussions of the current democratization process in Afghanistan and Iraq simply report on the number of votes cast. They tend to ignore the question of protection of the rights of individuals, minorities, or unpopular viewpoints. Missing the whole point of real democracy.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Antisemitism (1991)

antisemitism (1991) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August 1991.

I decided to see what was happening 18 years ago and this cartoon turned up. It is unfortunately totally appropriate.

Today's news is about "Aftonbladet" which claims to be the leading daily newspaper in Sweden and in Scandinavia, with a readership of more than 1.5 million. The paper has just published a brand new version of the classic antisemitic blood libel. Here's the report from Israel National News:

Swedish Tabloid: IDF Kills Arabs to Trade their Organs

(IsraelNN.com) "The tabloid Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s most popular newspapers, published a report Tuesday that claimed IDF soldiers execute Arabs in Judea and Samaria, harvest their organs and sell them. The report carried a photograph that purportedly shows the body of a victim of such an execution, with a large scar running from his chin to his abdomen. It notes the IDF’s explanation that the scar is from an autopsy which is routinely performed on people who are killed in fighting – but seems not to give it much credit and prefers a completely unsubstantiated claim by Arabs regarding forced organ harvesting." -more

A newspaper in SWEDEN!!!??
Yikes!
Your thoughts?

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Israel's Image

Israel's Image : Dry Bones cartoon.
A friend called me yesterday and he asked when it was that Israel had ceased to be the brave little David fighting off an axis of Giant Goliaths.

After mulling this over, I realized that our image as a mighty power was, in fact, part of the demonization and defamation of the Jewish State. Antisemites have always fantasized about Jewish Power. Anti-Zionists are no different.

Your thoughts?

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Funny Money (1984)

Funny Money (1984) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August of 1984.

I did this cartoon 25 years ago ...using Solomon the King and his advisor to mock Israel's printing up of unbacked money to please the public and win votes.

I posted it because of the current American government's printing up of "funny money" to spend its way out of the economic meltdown.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Fear

Shana Tova : Dry Bones cartoon.
Panic about the H1N1 Swine Flu virus seems to be gripping the world.

Here's a story from The Times of India:

TV channels told not to spread swine flu panic

"NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting ministry officials have cautioned TV channels not to create panic about the H1N1 influenza that is rapidly spreading across India.
"We have conveyed our concerns to leading media organisations, including TV channels. We have no issue with creating awareness, but we have told them not to create panic about swine flu," an official of the information and broadcasting ministry said."
-more

And here's a panic-stimulating piece from Israel Today:

Israel could be hit hard by swine flu

"Israeli Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Avi Yisraeli warned that a quarter of all Israelis could contract swine flu this winter, and that as many as 700 people could die from the virus.

Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset's Labor, Welfare and Health Committee on Monday, Yisraeli said that if the H1N1 virus spreads like regular flu, Israel could face a serious outbreak this winter that its health infrastructure would have trouble handling.

Yisraeli said most of the predicted deaths would be among youth and pregnant women. He also said that Israel is short about 4,500 hospital beds to deal with the number of people expected to catch the virus." -more

* * *
So are you scared or prepared? Nu?

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Friday, August 14, 2009

Rejecting Israel

Dry Bones cartoon: rejecting Israel, Quiz Show.
The just-concluded Fatah general assembly, (in which the organization met for the first in about 20 years) rejected recognition of the Jewish State. This was no surprise. It has always been the Palestinian position.

In a recent interview with PLO (Fatah) officials prior to the meeting:

JERUSALEM – "Senior members of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah have announced that their group will never recognize Israel and will continue to call for war against Israel.

“Fatah does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, nor have we ever asked others to do so,” said senior Fatah member Rafik Natsheh, a close associate of Abbas.

Media reports, according to which Fatah has recognized Israel and has called on Hamas to do the same, are false, Natsheh said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

“It’s all media nonsense. We don’t ask other factions to recognize Israel; we ourselves do not recognize Israel,” he said."- more

These are the Abbas, West Bank, Palestinian Authority "moderates"!

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Road Safety (1999)

(1999) Dry Bones cartoon: Road Safety on Israeli Highways.
Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon done ten years ago this month in August of 1999.

Ten years ago I was trying to get some "color" into my black and white line drawing cartoons. The most extreme attempt can be seen in today's drawing. There are five "colors", each represented by a texture: White, Black, Vertical Lines, Dots, and the Horizontal Lines in the neckties. In retrospect I think that it works.

The last ten years of trying to cut our alarmingly high road accident rate however, has not worked!

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Swine Flu Fever

swine flu fears are growing, may affect Haj: Dry Bones cartoon.
By the "Fever" in "Swine Flu Fever" I am referring to the wave of flu fear washing across the Middle East. The upcomming pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca may be a casualty:
"TEHRAN/JEDDAH — As swine flu fears are growing, Iran has banned `Umrah during the holy fasting month of Ramadan while Saudi Arabia ordered mandatory measures for pilgrims during hajj.

"We will have no pilgrims in Saudi Arabia during the month of Ramadan," Health Minister Mohammad Bagher Lankarani said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, August 5.

He said Iranian pilgrims will leave Saudi Arabia before the start of Ramadan, expected on August 22.

Lankarani said restrictions will also be placed on Iranians going on hajj, expected to begin on November 19." -more

* * *
Meanwhile, here in Israel we're taking a much more "pro-active" approach. In order to stave off the H1N1 virus, a plane-load of kabbalists has circled the country, praying, reciting incantations, and blowing trumpets and rams horns (shofars) while aloft. The story, as reported in Ynet:
"On Monday morning an Arkia airlines plane took off from Ben Gurion Airport carrying rabbis and kabbalists and flew over the country in a flight aimed at preventing the swine flu virus from spreading in Israel through prayers.

The purpose of the flight was to "stop the epidemic, thus preventing further deaths," explained Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri whose father, Rabbi David Batzri had initiated the flight. "We are certain that because of our prayers danger is already behind us," he added.

During the flight the passengers blew the shofar seven times and said prayers intended for abolishing illnesses." - more

Fighting the Flu
I found this photo in coverage by JerusalemOne.

* * *

So how is Swine Flu Fever in YOUR part of the world?

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Syria Attacks Lebanon (1989)

Syria Attacks Lebanon, The World Looks the Other Way.(1989) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August 17, 1989

Twenty years ago this month, Syrian artillery pounded Beirut and the world looked the other way. Beirut soon began to look like a ghost town as thousands fled the country by sea to Cyprus.

* * *
The shot heard round the world:
"The "Shot heard 'round the world" is a phrase that has come to represent several historical incidents throughout world history. The line is originally from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" (1837), and referred to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Later, in Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, the phrase became synonymous with the shot that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and plunged Europe into World War I." -more

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Iranian Show Trials

Iranian Show Trials - Jewish Settlements : Dry Bones cartoon.
The term "show trial' term was first used in the 1930s. In a show trial the authorities have predetermined the guilt of the defendants ...and stage a highly visible trial whose only goal is to present the charges and the verdict to the public as a form of intimidation. Defendants are often tortured prior to appearing in the court-room to obtain signed "confessions of guilt".

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Friday, August 07, 2009

Swine Flu

Swine Flu : Dry Bones cartoon.
Genocidal violence against Jews has been always been instigated by the spreading of demonizing lies and insane libels. And it continues to this day.

The bizarre antisemitic incitement by Palestinian officials (both in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the "moderate" Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority on the "West Bank") continues.

In the very latest libel: Palestinian authorities have accused Israel of spreading AIDS, STDs, and supplying "Aphrodisiac chewing gum" to innocent Palestinian youth:

"Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan said recently that Israeli intelligence officers are behind the smuggling of sexually stimulating drops and chewing gum into Gaza to "weaken and destroy" Palestinian youth and the social structure, according to Palestinian news agency FPNP ("Firas- Palestine News Press")

Shahwan claimed that a parent had complained to police that his daughter had chewed the Israeli gum and suffered "side effects." He said that Hamas police had subsequently arrested the distributors, confiscated the aphrodisiacs and confirmed that the drugs had been supplied by Israeli intelligence.

This accusation is one more example of the continuing PA campaign by both Fatah and Hamas to demonize Israel based on libels by officials, who accuse Israel of trying to poison or corrupt Palestinian youth. For the last 10 years, the Palestinian Authority Fatah leaders have been disseminating the libel that Israel spreads AIDS and sexually-transmitted diseases among Palestinian youth, turns them into drug addicts and has a special intelligence unit devoted to distributing drugs to Palestinian teenagers.

One PA official even accused Israel of distributing sports shoes that cause the wearer to become paralyzed, and perfumes that cause drug addiction." -more

"Paralyzing Sports Shoes?"

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Thursday, August 06, 2009

American Blacks (1979)

American Blacks turn against Israel(1979) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August 23, 1979.

I drew this cartoon exactly thirty years ago this month! I grew up in an America in which Jews and Blacks were allies. The fight for equal rights for American Blacks had been watered with Jewish blood and fought for with Jewish idealism. It was a painful experience to witness the revisionist history and antisemitic libels of the Black Muslims creep into the rhetoric of Black "activists" and Christian preachers.

It was an angry cartoon.

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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Growing Problem

Dry Bones cartoon: Michelle Obama's Organic Vegetable Garden.
The story:
"When First Lady Michelle Obama planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn in March 2009, she hoped to both set an example of healthy eating and to grow tasty edibles for her daughters and husband. But Michelle's organic dream has been dashed by a nasty toxic legacy lurking in the soils of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It turns out that a previous Presidential gardening team had used sewage sludge for fertilizer." -more

The cartoon:
I haven't done a six-panel Dry Bones cartoon in years ...but the length of the script forced me to use the format again ...and I'm pleased with the result.

The title of the cartoon:
"Growing Problem" has a double meaning. The second, subtle one, is a recognition that on many fronts, things seem to be going wrong for the current administration ...and at an increasingly rapid rate ...and that this is indeed a growing problem for Obama.

Or is it just me?

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Jerusalem Boycott (1980)

The world capitulates to Arab threats and moves their embassies from Jerusalem, Israel's capital city (1980) Dry Bones cartoon - .
Today's Golden Oldie is from August 27, 1980.

Back in 1980, capitulating to Arab threats, the nations of the World bowed their heads and moved their embassies out of Jerusalem, Israel's capital city.

In 1995, the US Congress voted to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but the move was never carried out for political reasons. In June, President Obama postponed moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for an additional six months. Meanwhile the U.S. is represented in Jerusalem by the U.S. Consulate ...which does not recognize that it is in Israel.

The U.S. Consulate's Jerusalem website has no reference whatsoever to Jews or to Israel, promotes Palestinian causes, and has an Arabic version of the site but no Hebrew version.

Years ago I had my U.S. Passport renewed in Jerusalem. In order to avoid using the word "Israel" they did not stamp the place of issuance as "Jerusalem, Israel" ...instead, they stamped it as having been issued in "Jerusalem, Jerusalem".

Your thoughts?

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Monday, August 03, 2009

Obama's Stereotyping

Obama figured that what a cop would want would be ...a beer?: Dry Bones cartoon.
In response to a previous Dry Bones cartoon about Obama and the bias he showed towards the Cambridge Police Department, a loyal reader named Louise Cohen dropped me a note saying:
"So he invites them to get together for a beer. What a stereotyper O is. Hmmm... how can I calm down an Irish guy and a black guy? Of course, offer booze... Now the woman who made the 911 call says (and the tapes verify) that she never described the suspicious guys by race and she has been maligned.

A woman who lives in Cambridge? Let's invite her over for herbal tea."

Your thoughts?

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