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"If you want to indicate Israel, why not use the flag? " Putting aside whatever other issues might exist with this particular painting, I find this logic problematic. Israel itself does not always use the "two bars" (e.g. on its airplanes which carry the bombs that destroy Gaza) and it's a wonder what might happen to our ability to depict Zionist oppression through art if Israel were to simply remove the bars themselves. In most cases, we judge the meaning of a symbol by its context. We rarely assume that a symbol -- any symbol -- has some sort of intrinsic meaning. A swastika at a Buddhist temple does not mean the same thing as as a swastika on someone's armband at a white supremacist rally. A Christian cross around the neck of a Christian peace activist does not mean the same thing as a cross that is on fire that appears on a black family's lawn. An Islamic statement of faith scrawled on the wall of a mosque does not mean the same thing as when it is put on a black flag that accompanies a video of a gay man being thrown off a roof in Iraq. Similarly, a Jewish star on a synagogue, around the neck of an observant Jew, or likewise does not mean the same thing as a Jewish star on the flags, machinery, uniforms -- or politicians -- associated with the brute forced displacement of non-Jews. Symbols mean different things depending on how/where/when they are depicted. Here there is such a symbol on a caricature of Netanyahu, who is depicted as a cartoon dog leading around Trump, who is blind. The lengths one has to go to assume there is some sort of anti-Semitic aspect to that imagery (that it is like the dehumanizing pictures that Julius Streicher used or something) is a blatant reach. Artist could have avoided giving Trump a yarmulke, though. Not sure why that was necessary and I concede that that single motif does unnecessarily add a discriminatory dimension to the picture and undermines what I maintain is a pretty straightforward and reasonable line of argument about Israel and Trump. Amith R. Gupta On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 8:41 AM A.R. G <amithrgu...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'll admit the Trump skullcap is sketch but the other elements really > aren't. It sounds like the AJC and the Times (and fellow comrades) are > splitting hairs so as to read in anti-Semitic themes in what is plainly a > cartoon about Netanyahu leading an idiot President. I do not see anything > anti-Jewish about depicting Netanyahu or Israel as America's attack-dog. > > That Nazis and others use such imagery for their own nefarious reasons > should not be a reason to read it in to anti-Zionist art, which was the > thrust of the concern voiced in HuffPost. > > > > On Mon, Apr 29, 2019, 12:57 AM mkaradjis . via Marxism < > marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > >> ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** >> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. >> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. >> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. >> ***************************************************************** >> >> "And the yarmulke on Trump’s head, what point does that make?" >> >> I think it suggests that America is being run by a Jew, and that's why it >> is so strongly supportive of Israel. >> I usually agree with Amith on these issues, but I think here the cartoon >> is >> pretty disgusting. >> >> On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 2:48 PM Ken Hiebert via Marxism < >> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: >> >> > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** >> > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. >> > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. >> > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. >> > ***************************************************************** >> > >> > I don’t know what the cartoonist intended, but the cartoon has problems. >> > There is a distinction to be made if you want to indicate Israel with a >> > Star of David. On the Israeli flag it appears between two bars. By >> itself >> > it might indicate Israel or it might simply indicate someone or >> something >> > Jewish. >> > If you want to indicate Israel, why not use the flag? >> > >> > And the yarmulke on Trump’s head, what point does that make? How does >> > that help anyone to understand the relationship between the US and >> Israel? >> > >> > ken h >> > >> > >> > >> > _________________________________________________________ >> > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm >> > Set your options at: >> > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com >> _________________________________________________________ >> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm >> Set your options at: >> https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
