EV, writer and producer of satirical comic strips, produced another one designed to enliven the senses and expand the mind. Or piss you off. Or amuse you. It may well offend you so don’t look at it if you are sensitive. You can decide by taking a read (click on the pic):
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It’s EVs style to illustrate by hyperbole.
“Now Zionist is like a dirty word on the mouths of the anti-Israel and/or anti-semite crowd.”
Now? This has been true of the radical left since 1967, if not prior. Check out the positions of radical leftist organizations towards Israel at that time. Things really have not changed much.
Journalist David Greenberg notes:
“Marxism had always denied the legitimacy of ethnic nationalism, but after World War II, to deny the nationalist aspirations of the peoples who had come under Soviet dominion, Communist propaganda actively promoted the conflation of nationalism and racism. And when Soviet Jews began clamoring to emigrate, the USSR zeroed in on Zionism in particular, likening it to Nazism. Following these cues, Arab propaganda, which had once denounced Israel as a pawn of the Bolsheviks, now compared Israel’s democracy (in which Arab citizens had civil rights and representation) to South Africa’s apartheid regime and Nazi Germany.â€
Going back even further, during the heyday of the old left, nascent Zionism was seen as reactionary because it would worsen Jewish otherness by impeding our assimilation, distract Jews from the more worthy goal of revolution, and promote capitalism.
The latter assumption came from Marx’s view that Jews were a crude race synonymous with the evils of profiteering. Indeed the historical problem with Zionism for the left has not been the oppression of the Palestinians but Zionism’s perceived “reactionary role in diverting the Jewish masses from the class struggle in their respective countries.â€
Following in Marx’s rhetorical footsteps the Soviets defined Zionism as a chauvinistic, bourgeois and reactionary (conservative) – but not as racist, even though they claimed from time to time that Zionist leaders co-operated with the Nazis. Quoting American Communist Daniel Rubin, Zionism is “an extreme form of Jewish bourgeois nationalism.â€
Dr. Hyman Lumer, a prominent spokesperson for the Communist Party, USA and editor of the official party ideological journal, Political Affairs believed there would eventually be no synagogues left in the Soviet Union. “Will this mean that the Soviet Jewish people have suffered cultural genocide? Not at all. What it will mean is that they, like other Soviet citizens, have advanced beyond adherence to religious superstition, that they no longer have any use for religious institutions and practices, that religious distinctions between Jews and non-Jews have vanished.â€
This is the history of the radical left. Learn that history and fight for your self-interest and the interest of your fellow and sister Jew.
Exactly, Sheela, I think the same way, criticizing some of Israel’s policies and questioning the legitimacy of Israel are two very distinct things. The lines are just too blurred nowadays and people get away too easy with such comparisons. The question is what can we do about it? Whenever I read or hear someone make Israel/Nazi comparisons, I feel a certain impotence. The facts don’t really seem to matter, the noise against Israel is too great. We are not even allowed to be outraged by such comments without being called “Zionists”. When I was growing up, Zionism was the movement that established and supported the creation of the state of Israel. My mother, who lived in Israel during the sixties, referred to herself as a Zionist, proudly. Now Zionist is like a dirty word on the mouths of the anti-Israel and/or anti-semite crowd. Their poison against Israel and Jews seems to be everywhere, especially in the Internet and Universities, the places where the younger generations get their information. All this makes me want to drop everything and move to Israel. I always thought about how it would be to move there, but never too seriously. Recently, with the way things are I’ve been reading about aliyah more and more.
He draws brilliantly, but he has to be careful that his point is clear! And what he really means! I am happy to see I am not the only one confused. I thought he was a proud Jew and a Zionist. Isn’t he? Has he turned? Is he into Marxist Universalism now? The guy has power, and he needs to be careful what he steps on, with his big feet. He may be releasing things too fast. He should run them by CK and you people, first.
Hey, come to think of it, maybe he’s referring to me. I’m out there protesting The Occupation (you name it — Iraq, the territories beyond the Green Line, Tibet), fighting for immigrants’ rights, labor rights, civil rights, affordable housing, environmental protection/preservation… but when someone starts comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and her supporters to Hitler, lo and behold! I morph into a wild, savage green monster destroying everything in her path and wishing J. Edgar Hoover were still in office! I am irrational! Unstoppable! And I violently crush ANYONE who dares to question Israeli Government Policy!!!!!
Actually, what I really do is politely interject and say, “Hold on a minute, I think you’re overstating things just a bit.” But I guess to some folks, it’s the same thing.
Didn’t Marvel Comics have a “She-Hulk” story line at one point?
Precisely, Sheela and WEVS1.
“Do some American Jews really think things like this?”
Yes, the self-loathing ones who are far too common on the radical (and hipster) left.
Am I missing something here? I only saw a few other cartoons of EV’s so I’m not really sure of his general angle. I can’t figure out if he’s spoofing the Far Left’s stereotype of even the most progressive Jews as hypocrites when it comes to Israel, or endorsing it. The cartoon’s so wildly over-the-top I might be missing some subtle irony, I hope that’s the case.
Because if he IS endorsing this perception, then the guy is obviously clueless. I have NEVER met a progressive Jew who at the very least did not accept criticism (not to be confused with condemnation) of Israel. Most are quicker to criticize than their goyishe colleagues. (Jeez, hasn’t this guy ever heard of the J-Street Project?)
I don’t think that guy is Jewish, BrazilianJew. He seems to have some deep problems with Jews.
But yes, there are some Jews who think along those lines. Ironically, some of them refer to themselves as “progressive Jews.”
The comic is simplistic and some of the comments @ jewcy are just baffling.
” Nowadays, the older generation of Jews seems to live in dread that younger Jews will realize how evil Zionism and the State of Israel really are while younger Jews often raised in Hebrew school on stories of positive Jewish achievements and the greatness of Israel suffer severe cognitive dissonance whenever confronted with the reality of increasing legitimate hostility towards Jews because of the crimes of Zionism and of the State of Israel.”
I’m sorry, I grew up in Brazil, the Jewish community there is much smaller and much different than the community here. Do some American Jews really think things like this?
As I’ve told EV, it strikes me that he misses what a “progressive” Jew would do. Those among us who have occupied that word tend to the left not only on social issues in the US and the world, but almost always with respect to Israel as well.
Other than that, as can be seen at the original link, this comic brings out some happy anti-Semites who are glad to see the every-day Jew as some sort of vile, vicious and violent creature. As a follow-up to EV’s last comic with the Diaspora Jew depicted as a monster, there is much to learn from this artist about stereotyping to the extreme.
It’s a nice comic, but it paints a very simplistic picture. Life ain’t in black and white.
…Well, except when they’re in black ‘n white comic books.