Anti-Israel DouchebloggerTM Richard Silverstein has found something that grosses him out – a cartoon dehumanizing Iranians.
And I agree. This is dehumanizing and offensive.
At least as gross and dehumanizing are the cartoons that have been coming out of the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, fully supported by the Iranian government. Here are but a few examples.
Yet Silverstein has never seen fit to criticize the contest or characterize these cartoons as gross. In fact, the only reference to the contest on his blog is a post that mentions it in passing, claiming it only as a “vengeful response to the Muhammed cartoon fiasco” – rather than what it is – a manifestation of Jew hatred.
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2006/02/27/israeli-anti-semitic-cartoon-contest/)
An Iranian newspaper devised a Holocaust cartoon contest in vengeful response to the Muhammed cartoon fiasco. In reply, an Israeli cartoonist, Amitai Sandy, has devised what he shockingly calls the Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest (IASCC). He put out a call to Jewish cartoonists around the world for submissions and has published (see the cartoons) around ten so far (the competition ends March 5th). All cartoons here are provided courtesy of Amitai Shandy. I know that when you first read this headline you had the same chilled response that I did. You said something like: “there isn’t enough of this shit in the world that a fellow Jew has to be the conduit for more of it?”
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But after actually visiting the IASCC website and viewing the cartoons for myself, I had quite a different response. Why? Well, first of all I must admit that there ARE a few genuinely disgusting cartoons. But even more importantly there are some genuinely funny ones that make interesting and valid points. Not reinforcing anti-Semitic stereotypes, but rather poking fun at those very stereotypes.
Of course, Silverstein does not seem to have any real issue with the contest or the Iranian government’s complicity in it. After all, he loves appearing on Iran’s PressTV, whose head is is appointed directly by Iran’s supreme leader.
In fact, one could conclude Silverstein is a bit of an Iran fanboy.
Seattle Times, this is the guy whose Op-Ed you just published. Shame on you.
