South African Cartoonist in Public Spat Over Zionism
December 5, 2012 13:41 by Pesach Benson
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Today’s Top Stories
1. Press reports say the US and Western allies are preparing contingency to attack Syria if Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons. The Times of Israel says the intervention may include Israel, Turkey and Jordan. That’s one way to get Ankara and Jerusalem to play nice again.
2. South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (better known as Zapiro) got into a public spat with South Africa-Israel Public Affairs Committee chairperson David Hersch. SAPA was on hand:
Zapiro later said he was indeed against political Zionism.
“I think that whatever notions of religious Zionism existed in the 19th century were already perverted by Theodore Herzl and company in order to ethnic-cleanse a land that had a lot of people, who were living there over a period of hundreds of years.”
Here’s Zapiro’s recent take on the Palestinian statehood push before the UN vote, published in the Mail & Guardian:
3. I’ve lost track of the number of times Iranian leaders have called for Israel’s destruction. Turns out Human Rights Watch is divided on the question of denouncing Iran for inciting genocide. For most people, the question’s a no-brainer. But this is HRW and executive director Ken Roth. David Feith (Wall St. Journal, via Google News) explains:
Mr. Roth’s main claim is legalistic: Iran’s rhetoric doesn’t qualify as “incitement”—which is illegal under the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948—but amounts merely to “advocacy,” which is legal.
“The theory” to which Human Rights Watch subscribes, he has written in internal emails, “is that in the case of advocacy, however hateful, there is time to dissuade—to rebut speech with speech—whereas in the case of incitement, the action being urged is so imminently connected to the speech in question that there is no time to dissuade. Incitement must be suppressed because it is tantamount to action.”
Mr. Roth added in another email: “Many of [Iran's] statements are certainly reprehensible, but they are not incitement to genocide. No one has acted on them.” . . .
Mr. Roth, when asked to comment for this article, said that a Human Rights Watch committee may review Iran’s rhetoric, but in his view Tehran isn’t inciting genocide and claims to the contrary are “part of an effort to beat the war drums against Iran.” In other words, Tehran will continue to call for Israel’s obliteration—and Human Rights Watch will continue to sit back and watch.
Feith brilliantly takes apart Roth’s logic. Read the whole thing.
Ruedi Mueller
3:16 pm
Dec 05, 2012
It is clear that the uprising in Syria does not change that country’s tension with Israel; yet does it increase the risk of conflict ? I worry much more about the beginning instability of Jordan, a country that has its own Palestinian issue.
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Mustafa Hussein Obama
3:42 pm
Dec 05, 2012
It is good that the Islamic countries are in their summer of conflict with each other. What hand directs the Muslim world to destroy itself or is it that they are just to stupid to understand that a world without Islam would at least be free of fear of destruction.
The new Pharoah Moursi is just about ready to be embalmed and placed in his sarcophagus with his personal property buried with him in his hole in the ground.
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Lynette
3:33 pm
Dec 05, 2012
It is time to have some honest reporting out there of Israel’s achievements for a change to counter all the lies. How about reading http://blogs.jpost.com/content/time-be-proud-israel and passing it on.
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Mustafa Hussein Obama
3:35 pm
Dec 05, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Carole
3:48 pm
Dec 05, 2012
Yet again.. Jewish conspiracy.
If only it were true- we could rule the world
Mwahaha
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clivel
6:03 pm
Dec 05, 2012
What disgusts me the most about sycophants like Zapiro (and the ever obsequious Ronnie Kasrils), is that the only effect their one sided anti-Israel rhetoric has is to add fuel to the rising tide of anti-Semitism in South Africa.
Nevertheless, there is something more than a little ironic when Zapiro says “perverted by Theodore Herzl and company in order to ethnic-cleanse a land that had a lot of people” and then sends his children to a Jewish days school called Herzlia.
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Spin Dr
7:35 pm
Dec 05, 2012
Re: human rights watch. Strange use of the English language: “advocacy” – advocating (recommending) a policy. “Incite” – to stir up, to urge on to action. The stirring and urging have been accomplished. Now he is stating his intentions to institute the policy of genocide but we dare not call it by its true name.
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Sylvia fellerman
8:57 pm
Dec 05, 2012
What do we jews expect, can’t we c that the
World will always blame Zionist and Jews
Mo matter whether we do good or bad
They forget that without us they will be poorer
In every way
We will always be here no matter what as we
Have seen off many evil regimes throughout
The centuries
Israel is a mirical, the anti- Semites r afraid
So they try to lie and lie what else can they do
Evil will be destroyed eventually.
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Martin Kantor
10:54 pm
Dec 05, 2012
Well, Mr. Roth, is supplying Hamas and other terrorists advocacy or incitement? My view is that the supplying of arms to a puppet state to carry out unprovoked attacks on another state is much more than just advocacy. Provoking and abetting a war against innocent civilians, in my view, is incitement to genocide and should be addressed by the United Nations. (except that this august body is held captive by the combined Islamic powers).
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george Forrai
6:34 am
Dec 06, 2012
So, HRW thinks “advocacy” of genocide is legal but “incitement” is illegal. So, where does ADVOCACY + ARMING Hamas and Hezbollah to kill Israelis ( and,of course, go all the way by killing ALL of them if they only could) fit into their lexicon ? Perhaps “not nice ” would describe that by HRW’s standards.
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rebel yells | Madame Pickwick Art Blog
2:01 pm
Dec 06, 2012
[...] falls. Every indication is that it is not heading in a positive direction for Israel.” Read More:http://honestreporting.com/israel-daily-news-stream-12052012/2/ —• Asharq al-Awsat‘s Tariq Almohayed says the chickens came home to roost on the Egyptian [...]
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emes
1:51 am
Dec 07, 2012
Syria, fa dreisach dayn cop!
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South African Cartoonist in Public Spat Over Zionism | Blogs about Israel aggregation
9:45 am
Dec 09, 2012
[...] Continued on Page 2 [...]
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