Nice to see the Kyunghyang Shinmun’s editorial cartoonist apparently has his finger on the pulse of Middle Eastern cartooning. That or he just reads The Guardian:
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
17 Comments
He obviously reads the Guardian because he’s completely ripped off Steve Bell’s cartoon style. And what’s up with the anti-Semitism in Korea? Do these people even have a clue? I’d like to have a beer with him and see how much he really knows about history in the Middle East. Maybe we can meet up at the Hitler Bar….
Could someone provide translations of the first caption in the comic? I can read the rest of them. (I’m always a skeptical when words like “Anti-Semitism” / “Zionist” pop up, so I’d like to know more before deciding who needs ignoring.)
I remember reading that white-haired crank Kim XX and his Jewish conspiracy tropes at the JoongAng Ilbo and thinking that there may be no media on earth less qualified or competent on Middle Eastern affairs than Korea’s.
This is Iran’s proxy war designed to obfuscate their nuclear troublemaking. It’s a nice irony that they have nullified Kim Jong-il’s brinkmanship.
Revised map of the Middle East.
The rest are simply the names of Arab countries (+ Iran) surrounding Israel and connected by a Star of David drawn with red paint by President Bush, who is seated on the back of a figure representing the U.N.
I suppose the argument could be made that the symbolically bloody Star of David is an anti-Semitic reference, but that’s not in the caption at any rate.
(Gasps) You mean Israel DOESN’T function as an adjuvant of the empire in the Middle East, and the UN DOESN’T serve to facilitate the “birth pangs of the new Middle East” (Rice)?? Well I guess I need a beer and a chat!
By the way folks, many of those opposed to Zionism are Jewish. This is no secret.
“Iran’s proxy war” - that’s hilarious! Always fun to hear from a Bill O’Reilly fan.
A necessary history lesson.
Interview with General Gur of the IDF, hero of Entebbe, and of Israel in 1978:
Q-Is it true [during the March 1978 Israeli invasion of Lebanon] that you bombarded agglomerations [of people] without distinction.
A-I am not one of those people who have a selective memory. Do you think that I pretend not to know what we have done all these years? What did we do the entire length of the Suez Canal? A million and a half refugees! Really: where do you live? …we bombarded Ismailia, Suez, Port Said, and Port Faud. A million and a half refugees…Since when has the population of South Lebanon become so sacred? They knew perfectly well what the terrorists were doing. After the massacre at Avivim, I had four villages in South Lebanon bombed without authorization.
Q-Without making distinctions between civilians and noncivilians?
A-What distinction? What had the inhabitants of Irbid [a large town in northern Jordan, principally Palestinian in population] done to deserve bombing by us?
Q-But military communiqués always spoke of returning fire and counterstrikes against terrorist objectives.
A-Please be serious. Did you not know that the entire valley of the Jordan had been emptied of its inhabitants as the result of the war of attrition?
Q-Then you claim that the population ought to be punished?
A-Of course, and I have never had any doubt about that. When I authorised Yanouch [diminutive name for the commander of the northern front, responsible for the Lebanese operation] to use aviation, artillery and tanks [in the invasion] I knew exactly what I was doing. It has now been thirty years, from the time of our Independence War, until now, that we have been fighting the civilian [Arab] population which inhabited the villages and towns, and everytime that we do it, the same question gets asked: should we or should we not strike at civilians? [Al-Hamishmar, May 10, 1978]
from http://leninology.blogspot.com/
Far more people than just O’Reilly say that Iran is directly involved in this (admittedly right leaning writers mostly from what I’ve read-the left just blames Israel and the US). Iran sponsors Hezbollah and is a partner with Syria. Iran proxy war? Sounds plausible to me, especially as their leadership would be happy to wipe Israel from the face of the map.
“I suppose the argument could be made that the symbolically bloody Star of David is an anti-Semitic reference…” I’d say a very good argument.
Trachys, if “adjuvant of the empire in the Middle East” is your code for Israel being a proxy power of the U.S., you’ve already had enough to drink.
Funny how that is. When Israeli defence leaders admit targetting civilians (in the past), it’s a big deal. What about the numerous Palestinian and Arab military leaders who have always sought to hit civilians? It’s just business as usual.
And at any rate, I believe he’s got the power relationship mixed up. As any fan of Middle Eastern cartoons will tell you, it’s the Jews who control the “empire,” not the other way around. You know, if we were to ignore for a moment the blatant Jew-hating, it’s almost touching in a way, like they almost believe the United States is basically a good country that’s just being manipulated by outside forces.
Funny thing is, I occassionally hear people here make similar arguments, blaming the impending collapse of the Korea-U.S. alliance on “evil Japs” whispering in Washington’s ear.
Laugh away trachman, then read up on your Hezbollah history and get back to us.
Trachys quoted from Lenin’s Tomb, a blog where “most but not all contributors are revolutionary socialists.” Dude, you killed more people than fascism, but you guys lost in 1989. Get over it. The only places where your ideology still exists are a tropical island known for its stogies and supplicating visits by Hollywood film directors and a dysfunctional dynastic tinpot personality cult (loved by the Film Actors Guilld, I might add).
The irony of a guy quoting Leninists making spurious allegations about me and Bill O’Reilly was probably lost only on Trachys, who I concede may have been drunk when he wrote — or drunk when he chose his world view.
“Your revolution failed, Lebowsky.THe bums lost.”
I certainly read the cartoon as being anti-Semitic. Dogbert is right on the money with his “Arab nations around Israel + Iran” comment. Significantly, Israel itself is not named on the map. Nor is Kuwait, which we all remember Bush Senior rescuing some years ago.
I’m disappointed in the anti-Semitism I see around the world, including here. I remember how, at my old hagwon, my most advanced class of elementary teachers read through Shylock’s monologue “hath not a Jew eyes? [etc],” and I was dismayed to see that most of them empathized not with the Israelis, but with the Palestinians, despite the murderous death cult that has enslaved that people.
I think one could argue that the state of Israel, founded in the aftermath of western guilt over centuries of European pogroms and persecutions culminating in the Holocaust, should probably never have been formed. It was also formed in bloodshed and terrorism (against both the British and the Palestinian Arabs). On the other hand, many Jewish immigrants also purchased land quite legally, and this has often been conveniently forgotten by those who wish to expand the scope of their grievances. Whatever one’s views of the origins of the modern state of Israel, it is ridiculous to expect, as do Hamas, Hezbollah, and the regime in Tehran, that all six million Jewish Israelis, most of whom were born in Israel, should pack up and leave.
It is a great shame that so few nations give Israel the moral support it needs. Anti-Americanism throughout the world will cause people to take the opposite position of the US on any given issue, regardless of its merits or lack thereof. A couple millennia of anti-Semitism trends in the same direction, in this case. While Korea hasn’t really partaken of the latter (except, perhaps, during the Japanese rule), I think it is guilty of the former.
Nathan,
You echo my thoughts on the issue almost to the letter.
Trachys: “Iran’s proxy war” - that’s hilarious! Always fun to hear from a Bill O’Reilly fan.
Trachys: [Al-Hamishmar, May 10, 1978]
I’ll take Bill O’Reilly over Al-Hamishmar any day of the week. Note that the Arab media publishes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as fact, and suggests that Israelis use the blood of Arab children to bake their bread.
When in fact they use the mucus of Arab children to spread on toast in South Korea. You think it’s called Isaac for nothing?