Times Backs Away From Offensive Cartoon
January 28, 2013 17:04 by Pesach Benson• Martin Indyk confirms the Obama-Netanyahu duo’s “bad chemistry.”
• For more commentary/analysis, see staff-eds in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Age, plus Daniel Gordis and Frida Ghitis.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Iran arrested a number of journalists, accusing them of collaborating with opponents of the government. CNN has the big picture, while the BBC describes intimidation against its Persian personnel:
The authorities are attempting to put pressure on BBC journalists by arresting their family members in Tehran, it says, and false Facebook pages have been set up where presenters and other staff members admit to allegations of sexual misconduct and working for the M16.
• Although Iran denies anything happened at Fordow, Israeli officials “confirmed” to the Times of London that there was a major explosion at the impregnable nuclear site.
One Israeli official said: “We are still in the preliminary stages of understanding what happened and how significant it is.” He did not know, he added, if the explosion was “sabotage or accident”, and refused to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft were seen near the facility at the time of the explosion.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Clashes continue in Egypt, Morsi declares state of emergency, three provinces under curfew. AP updates the situation.
• Even if Hezbollah was behind the Bulgaria bombing, EU designation of it as a terror group is still unlikely. European Union officials quoted by the EU Observer sound every bit like pencil-necked bureaucrats with their heads buried in the sand.
An EU diplomat said: “It’s difficult to say what will happen until Bulgaria files its report. The way these things are phrased could be very important. There could be lots of ifs and maybes or it could contain very concrete elements.”
He added: “Hezbollah plays a very important political role in Lebanon.”
• Worth reading: Twitter’s Speech Problem: Hashtags and Hate. While we’re talking about France, a survey found 39 percent of the French think Jews have too much power in business, and nearly half question their loyalty.
• The Israeli cabinet voted to recognize previously illegal Bedouin villages. YNet says its part of a larger effort to better regulate Bedouin settlements.
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
DAVID STONEFIELD
7:47 pm
Jan 28, 2013
I’ve become increasingly fed up with the attitute of the Sunday Times vis-a-vis Isreal and the Jews. I wrote to them yesterday cancelling my subscription. I won’t support anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organisations.
Gerald Scarfew is being disingenuous in saying he didn’t know that it was HMD. Why should that make any difference?
If you look at the Sunday Times yesterday it full of stories from around the world of populations being terrorised and murdered by their own countries. But editor of the ST only feels it is necessary to highlight Israel.
I concluded my letter to them: “shame on you”.
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Andrés Rosendo
11:06 pm
Jan 28, 2013
What a coincidence! I also wrote them an email saying “shame on you”. Congratulations!
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debbie grimson
9:43 pm
Jan 28, 2013
What can we do to stem the tide of such dangerous comments and cartoons for being published in the first place? Is there no more professionalism among journalists any more?
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Rosie
11:27 pm
Jan 28, 2013
If The Age (Melbourne, Australia) response is any indicator, nothing will change re Sunday Times. Many here cancelled subscriptions but their attitude hardened over the years. It’s as if they have a special ‘Israel section’ in their paper. They have indeed no shame nor responsibility or desire for balanced reporting.
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mach1
6:37 pm
Jan 29, 2013
Middle east reporting across the UK press is broadly pro Israel. That does not mean that Israel is exempt from criticism.
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emes
1:30 am
Jan 29, 2013
Does anyone remember the furore when Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician demonstrated his “islamophobic” film/cartoons to the world? – there was an uproar from the muslim sector where violence ruined areas in the Netherlands and the hue and cry bled into this country with the Labour Government telling him to leave – saying his views were “an incitement to hatred and discrimination!” – Don’t see any government input into the Sunday Times discriminatory cartoon! -you also won’t see any violence from the Jews, we have more discipline and rationale against the rape of our religion, Israel and political agendas. Let the antagonists shoot themselves in the foot! the main body of readers WERE Jews!
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mach1
6:40 pm
Jan 29, 2013
False comparison.
If the cartoon had criticised Judaism per se as the film criticised Islam then you’d have a point.
It doesn’t. It criticises the actions of one politician on one policy.
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Asher Garber
3:07 am
Jan 29, 2013
I guess the Scarfe and the London Times are saying that one can’t avoid drawing Jews without those fat noses.
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mach1
6:41 pm
Jan 29, 2013
He’s a cartoonist. He deals in individual caricature not racist sterotyping. Have you seen his other work? Just as brutal, just as nasty.
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JDS London
1:38 pm
Jan 29, 2013
I was very indignant about this cartoon but having slept on it I don’t think Scarfe is an anti-semite, at least not a rabid one. I am even prepared to believe that he genuinely did not know it was HMD. I seem to think that many of his cartoons are blood soaked too,
One trouble with the cartoon though is that Scarfe is writing from his home in Barnes or Richmond or wherever. If he was living in Israel, a country the size of Wales surrounded by countries who say that they want to wipe it off the map and that its iinhabitants are descended from pigs, he’d have a fuller view of the situation. Good satirical cartoons seem to hit the nail on the head – this one just seems to miss it.
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steve mann
7:21 pm
Jan 29, 2013
I dont agree- he knew only to well what and when the day was.
I dont believe for a minute he is not aware of Israels situation-
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emes
3:21 pm
Jan 29, 2013
Yes there has been a half-hearted apology from the Times and they are looking into the matter by going to the “Jewish Board of Deputies” – well, with the Board of Deputies recently making the decision to become more affilliated with Oxfam, I think this meeting will end up resembling more of a love-fest with smacks of hedonism as desert! – As for Gerald Scarfe feeling that he had ‘gone too far’ in his cartoon, he has been in the business long enough to know the limiitations of his craft and, Mr Scarfe, there is an eraser at the end of your pencil!
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Jeffrey
3:28 pm
Jan 29, 2013
The police definition of a racist attack is that it is racist if the victim feels that it was racist. Many, probably most of the Jewish community think that this cartoon was anti-Semitic. Thus, according to the definition that applies to every other minority group, it is anti-Semitic. Gerald Scarfe’s intention (which was clearly malevolent) does not count.
Even if Gerald Scarfe did not realise that it was Holocaust Memorial Day, which I find difficult to believe for someone who bases his livelihood on daily news, the editor of the Sunday Times knew that it was. There is no excuse for publishing this cartoon. I do not read the Sunday Times. Has Scarfe published any cartoons about Syria?
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mach1
6:36 pm
Jan 29, 2013
This was a cartoon entirely consistent with Gerald Scarfe’s work throughout a 50 year career.
It is a criticism of one politician for one policy. That’s all. Stylistically it does not differ from the ferocious cartoons he has done of George Bush, Tony Blair and last week President Assad drinking the blood of children.
His view is that the Netanyahu is building the security of Israel on the blood of Palestinians. Whether you agree or not, it’s an honestly held opinion stated in a free press. That’s all it is. Israel must grow beyond conflating any criticism of the state with anti-Semitism.
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steve mann
7:18 pm
Jan 29, 2013
So Scarfe regrets the timing of his cartoon- No he does not- There was no better time for him to produce it than on Holocaust day. It produced maximum flack- which is exactly what he desired.
The man is and I would say it to his face- A.LIAR.
As I wrote to the editor saying- I did not need to buy the Times to see cartoons like that hideous one – All I need to buy are certain Saudi papers- They print similar ones daily!
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Ron Thompson
1:23 am
Jan 30, 2013
All the criticisms of Israel regarding its treatment of the Palestinians and its ‘occupation’ of the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza only make sense if there is a genuine will to peace and the openly, convincingly admitted recognition of Israel’s right to exist, as a Jewish State, by all its neighbors and the Palestinian people and their various leaders.
Absent this will to peace and this recognition, the criticisms of Israel which do not recognize this state of affairs are fundamentally immoral and illegitimate, and do not deserve to be taken seriously by any fair-minded persons.
Ron Thompson
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