Marcy Winograd sent the following letter to the editor of the Daily Bruin at UCLA after the newspaper apologized on Monday for a cartoon mocking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it had run that day.
Dear Editor Tanner Walters:
As a UCLA alumni and recently-elected California Democratic Party delegate to Assemblyman Richard Bloom’s 50th assembly district, I take exception to my assemblyman’s casual and capricious use of the label anti-Semitic to describe a political cartoon recently published in the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
Bloom’s statements were published in the Santa Monica Lookout.
The cartoon your newspaper rightfully published mocks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for supporting a newly-passed Israeli law that retroactively legalizes settlements on Palestinian land and shows the Israeli leader crossing out the word “not” in “Thou shalt not steal”– one of the Ten Commandments and foundational beliefs of the Jewish faith.
Let’s be clear. The cartoonist is not mocking the Jewish faith but rather suggesting that Netanyahu has no respect for deeply held Jewish values that would never sanction Israeli tractors slicing Palestinian homes to ribbons in a matter of minutes.
Following Bloom’s heavy-handed published attack on the cartoon and newspaper staff, I read the Daily Bruin’s note from the editor to the reader:
As a newspaper, we take responsibility for our mistakes and apologize for them, so that’s what we’re doing here. Running this cartoon was an error that we deeply regret. It is wrong to use religion or religious tenets to criticize political policy. And it’s wrong to perpetuate harmful stereotypes – intentional or otherwise. We strive to understand the community that we cover. So as part of our ongoing education, we are reaching out to local religious leaders to help our staff understand the historical context behind these kinds of hurtful images.
I ask that the Daily Bruin not encourage self-censorship by subjecting its staff to a one-sided meeting with religious leaders who seek to conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel. Additionally, I urge the newspaper’s editors to refrain from apologizing again for engaging in a worthy political debate that raises important questions about the right of Palestinians to live with dignity in their homes.
Bloom’s attacks on the student press only serve to chill speech and provide cover for the far right in Israel that seeks to annex the entire West Bank and force Palestinians to live forever as second class citizens under colonial occupation. This would further inflame tensions in the middle east, jeopardize the safety of those living in the region, and undermine human rights everywhere.
Marcy Winograd
Santa Monica, CA
|| … Bloom’s statements were published in the Santa Monica Lookout. … ||
Given that the two universal (or at least Judeo-Christian) ethical values are presented in the context of (supposedly secular) Israel and its King, I’m deeply disturbed that Mr. Bloom:
– reduces them to “Jewish religious tenets”; and
– “pulls a hophmi” and anti-Semitically reduces Jewish culture, ethnicity, people, nation and civilization just to religion.
Awesome! The rise of anti-BDS orthodoxy and legislation will be an incredible flop – as it targets nice Jewish boys and girls who speak out against it. Fun times ahead!
Perhaps the cartoonist could have come up with an alternative cartoon featuring the newest ie 11th commandment = Thou shalt not accept criticism of Israel under any circumstances.I think Kim Jong Un has this as his one and only North Koreancommandment .
With regard to the “supposed Anti-Semitic (LOL) cartoon in question I note an article in a site called forward.com , an American Jewish support site ( America first you understand) which states:
“A cartoon called anti-Semitic that was published in the University of California – Los Angeles student newspaper has been strongly condemned by civic and campus organizations, among them a pro-Palestinian student group”
http://forward.com/fast-forward/363091/anti-semitic-cartoon-of-netanyahu-published-by-ucla-student-newspaper/
For whatever reason , and it does seem to stand out as a missed opportunity , the writer of the article does not then go on to name the said “pro-Palestinian Group”. Is this because it is a figment of their Hasbarism or is in fact because it is simply another one of those Jewish American pseudo “Peace” groups which because it flags up it`s “wanting peace” and “wanting negotiations” with the Palestinians can be conveniently flagged up as “Pro -Palestinian” when it suits.
Je suis charlie anyone. As if…
Not only is the cartoon not anti-Semitic, but it is actually pro-Judaism. The only people it should make uncomfortable is people masquerading as Jews. And around the issues of Palestine/Israel, the problem is not Fake News, but Fake Jews.
Who are Fake Jews? Jews who, regardless of how ritually observant they are, are what I refer to as “70% Jews.” Who are “70% Jews?” They are so-called, or self-styled Jews who nonetheless do not follow three of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not bear false witness; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not kill.
I’ve been asserting exactly what this cartoon asserts for the last couple of years, and I’m sad that people don’t invoke this idea more frequently. The cartoon in fact gives me hope, although the faux-outraged response is all too predictable. Real Jews, people who believe they don’t get to pick and choose among the Ten Commandments, or selectively turn their observance of all the Commandments on and off, should be calling out Zionists on this hypocrisy. In fact, “70% Jews,” whose self-proclaimed leader is Benjamin Netanyahu, are a greater threat to Jews and Judaism than any Palestinians, or even all Palestinians. Which do we think actually matters to our God, that we occupy a certain piece of real estate, or that we obey all of His Commandments (None of which is that we live in Canaan, or Palestine, or Israel.)?
I do not make a religious argument because I am religious (I’m not. Maybe I’m even, at best, a 30% Jew. But according to Rabbi Hillel, who I’ve yet to see anyone effectively rebut, that’s the essential 30%. Note also that I don’t demand or even ask that Israel take me in, or protect me. Why would I? Israel, and Zionists everywhere, endanger me and every other Jew, and endanger Judaism.), but because the Zionists assert that Israel, right or wrong, must be defended at all costs, because Jews need their own land. I’d have a harder time arguing against that if Israel was in fact protecting actual Jews. But apparently, most Israel so-called Jews are in fact “70% Jews.” And for me, that makes them, effectively, “0% Jews.” The Ten Commandments is a contract, not a menu. So I use this argument against those who claim they are 100% Jews, when they are only 70% Jews. Not good enough to make any demands based on Jewishness. One of the oft-cited horrors of the Holocaust was Rabbis forced to piss on a Torah. Yet the majority of Israeli Jews, without any hesitation, in fact with some glee, piss on the Ten Commandments. How does that stack up against worshipping a Golden Calf, in God’s Eyes?
This cartoon is anti-Semitic? Just the opposite. What’s actually anti-Semitic, as in, a real danger to real Jews and real Judaism (Not the fake 70% kind.), is the policies of the Israeli Right, along with their aiders and abettors.