Sydney Morning Herald apologises for Jewish cartoon likened to Nazi propaganda

Appalling judgment by the Herald. As is the News decision to publish the Anti-Muslim rant by Andrew Bolt today.
These people are becoming outrageous in their extremism.

Yeah, this is definitely an issue. I think the idea behind the picture is correct, but the execution is all wrong. It reeks of anti-semitism. Which is something that de-legitimises any kind of argument the artist was trying to put forward.

Google JIDF and wait for the penny to drop.

Anti-semitic? What absolute tosh! Yet again, nice attempt to divert the issue and smear an inconvenient truth. The whole existence of Israel and the occupation is justified by religious texts, not secular ones. Ask any left bank settler! So this brilliant cartoon is absolutely spot on to address the religious aspect that underpins the conflict. Of course Israel and Netanyahu want to play it both ways. The only thing the apology for this cartoon demonstrates is how cowered the mainstream media is by the right wing Israeli lobby.

The issue isn’t anything to do with judaism, It’s to do with Right Wing, Hardline, Conservative Governments. The reason Israel gets away with this stuff is because of the prolific lobbying they do, They have plenty of money, that’s why they get away with it. And they use religion as a tool to try get their way. But the issue is not that they’re jewish. If you use language or images that can easily be viewed as “Anti-semetic” All you do is give people ammunition to defend them. And they do not deserve to be defended for what they’ve done.

There is simply no place for imagery or advocacy that specifies religion. None at all. Netanyahu and Hamas may deserve one another, but Jews and Muslims are not automatically aligned with those forces.
We have media in Australia that is adopting extremes and taking positions far removed from community. It is unacceptable, from both sides of that “debate”.

@Facts are helpful – not really. Remove the religious imagery and this cartoon is a reasoned (and factual) critique of the spectacle of war, the horrific disproportionality of the Israeli war machine. Remove Islam from Bolt’s column and it’s still rubbish aimed at distracting from the systemic oppression of the Palestinians.

A revolting cartoon that was insensitive and reeked of anti-Semitic rhetoric that should never have been seen since the end of the Holocaust. All that was missing was a bag of money instead of a cat.
I find it baffling that anyone has the audacity to say that the cartoon is not anti-semitic. Hooked nose Jew, controlling the world, Star of David used to identify him. These were common motifs used by the Nazis!
People are so quick to denounce Israel’s actions that they are constantly using Jews and Zionists interchangeably. This leads to anti-semitism like this cartoon.

Some of these comment are a side effect of being “Fashionably left wing” without really knowing all the details.

A lot of the comments also ring true of John Oliver’s piece that Australians are comfortably racist.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertai.....2hxg5.html

It seems that being racist against Jews is even more acceptable. It’s a shame that those who are being racist, can’t actually recognise it as they shield themselves behind a humanitarian cloak. Mike Carlton is an extreme example of this in action. A racist is a racist.

The behaviours that some of these comments exhibit, are the same as those of the 1930s. It’s heartbreaking.
It seems that with the resources we have in front of us, and being on Mumbrella- knowing the ins and outs of PR and advertising, people are even more blind to accepting the PR spiels of a recognised terrorist organisation that is quite clearly using its citizens as human shields and stock piling weapons to destroy hundreds and thousands of civilians on the other side.

Israel has a right to defend itself from daily rocket fire targeted at civilians (which has been going on for months), and tunnels into its country with the intent to terrorise and murder.

But please, continue to place blame on Israel and deliver the antisemitic undertones. I wouldn’t want you to be unfashionable.

@jack: the point in each is their sectarian reference. It is deeply wrong and should not be countenanced. The specific people to be criticised in this instance are in the Israeli PM’s lodge and a five star hotel in Qatar, apparently the home of the Hamas leader.

“Antisemitic undertones”. How very convenient.

I’m going to assume you’ve been living under a rock for the last 66 years. Let me bring you up to speed on how racism works in 21st century Australia.

It’s where people such as yourself are comfortable placing such little value on precious young Palestinian lives that you’ll believe anything the IDF says.

ISRAEL’s use of human shields is extensive and documented. http://imeu.org/article/the-ne.....an-shields

Does this not cause you to doubt yourself? http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ay/5644590

Or this? http://www.theguardian.com/wor.....nd-account

Or. Any. Of. This?? (GRAPHIC) http://www.globalpost.com/disp.....ia-to-show

But please, continue to tell me about “right to defense” and “recognised terrorist organisation”. This kind of “defense” is a sickening joke. The African National Congress/Mandela were designated “terrorists”.

Nothing appalling about this cartoon at all…it is spot on, smh and mike Carlton got it right. Shame smh had to back down and apologise.

well im confused.

The cartoon is offensive because it refers religion?

surely its that religion is offensive as it causes WARS!

A lot of misguided folks out here are using their anger at what’s going on in Israel to justify a horrible cartoon that reeks of anti-Semitism. @ Jack, seeing as though you’re so fond of googling things, why don’t you google some Nazi propaganda cartoons and see some similarities.

Firstly, if they had an Israeli flag instead of Star of David that would be different. Jews & Israelis are not the same thing. You can have Jews that aren’t Israeli and you can have Israelis who aren’t Jews. Secondly, the ‘hook nose’ and the other characteristics are very similar to the above propaganda imagery.

It doesn’t matter which ‘side’ you are on in this thing, the fact is that it misrepresented all Jews being responsible for bombing Gaza and if you can see the huge anti-Jewish sentiments bubbling up in Europe and a lot of other ‘peace’ rallies then you would know a lot of people don’t distinguish between the Jewish state and Jews. Very poor form by the SMH to let it run in the first place

@Jack. I never said I don’t value life. By Hamas choosing to invest in weapons and tunnels, instead of community infrastructure and forcing their citizens to subscribe to their objectives of wiping out another nation, is sad. Innocents are dying because of it.
On the other side, the Iron Dome is amazing. It has protected thousands of civilians, not military targets, from almost 3,200 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel since July 8, and the UN even thinks Israel should share it with Hamas.

I reviewed your links, thank you. Can I suggest is that you listen to Sam Harris, he is very critical of Judaism and he doesn’t believe a Jewish state should exist. He brings an interesting viewpoint
http://www.samharris.org/blog/.....ize-israel

Hey Dave
Seriously, what shaped nose would you have preferred?

What I find most galling is News Corp never apologises for its almost daily racism, homophobia & targeting of (insert minority group here). I guess it shows the class of Fairfax that they would devote an entire editorial to an apology. Also heard conservative commentators calling for action against Fairfax under the Racial Discrimination Act! Apparently the Act is perfectly fine when it doesn’t involve News Corp!

Hamas’ basic objective is contained in their Charter – to totally destroy Israel and remove it from this earth. And to kill all Jews.
This fits in with the Islam determination to rule the world – the children are taught that all non-Muslims have to be converted to Islam, and those who refuse must be killed.
Nothing secret about this, it is common knowledge amongst all Muslims.

If there’s one good thing to come out of this Israel-Gaza fracas, it’s this:
emboldened by a torrent of Jew-hating camouflaged as geopolitics, the middle class Left in Australia have revealed themselves for all their vile anti Semitism, including Fairfax and ABC journalists. They are now exposed for all their contemptible hypocrisy.
Perversely, that unintended revelation of Australia’s worst citizens makes it worthwhile.

worth a look – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFYOLOkmaI

So, it’s not the Jewish state using remote controlled devices to bomb Gaza! Amazing! Someone better tell Netanyahu!

Why can’t Palestinians live together with Israeli’s in the State of Israel like People live together in Australia from all different walks of life? why? because the Palestinians represented by Hamas are sworn to the destruction of the State of Israel. Prior to Hamas you had the PLO led by Yasser Arafat sworn to Israel’s destruction. Israeli’s and Jews are a peaceful people and do not wish to harm innocent Palestinians. Israel are not the ones firing rockets to provoke and terrorise innocent Israeli’s. Israeli’s are not suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Palestinian cafés, market places, buses etc. Israel does not build terror tunnels to carry out terror attacks in Jordan, Egypt, Syria or Lebanon and does not plan to massacre thousands of Israel’s on the Jewish new year as Hamas had planned this year. Israel is well within it’s right to defend itself from rockets and to further fight for peace and for its existence. The Jewish people are still fighting for their existence as they did during the holocaust where 6 million Jews were massacred. How dare the SMH depict Israel and the Jewish people in the same light as Nazi’s. Absolutely Disgusting and appalling! When are the Palestinians going to understand that Israel isn’t going anywhere, the people of Israel and the Jewish nation are not going anywhere. Israel doesn’t want to deal with barbaric Palestinians anymore. Israel does not want war. Israel only wants to live in peace but this seams impossible with the Palestinians and Israelis want their government to deal with the issue and take care of business. Ever since Israel Declaration of Independence the Arabs and Palestinians have been trying to wipe Israel off the map as the Nazi’s had tried. Stop trying to make war with Israel and the Jewish nation. The Palestinians should move out to Jordan or Egypt or anywhere if they cannot live side by side or integrate into Israeli society like other normal people. They will never succeed and never defeat Israel. Am Yisrael Chai!

@dave I don’t disagree with a word you’ve said. It was poor form indeed.

@ead Thank you for the link. I read it through. I fundamentally disagree with his argument that Israel are not the “primary aggressors”. I think Harris is very pre-occupied with religion here, logically unsound at points, and betrays a superficial understanding of a topic that is really about power and colonisation – Islamist terrorism being a relevant but entirely secondary or derivative consideration. The half-century of Palestinian suffering before stone-throwing eventually gave way to the second Intifada (suicide bombs) bears this out. Hitchens might have put Harris in his place. Then, Harris isn’t the first of Atheism’s “four horseman” to have embarrassed himself this week on a topic he has no real sense of (see Dawkins’ rape tweet.) I promise that anything by Noam Chomsky or Norman Finkelstein, to name just a couple, is infinitely more factual and insightful here.

Yes, the Iron Dome is amazing. Less amazing are the tools of destruction the United States has packaged with it. This story begins with the Nakba – the expulsion of a resident Palestinian Arab population of over 700,000 from the homes and villages that had been their communities. It’s so important as Australians that we recognise and address systemic racism, colonialism, land theft, occupation, settlement and oppression when we see it. We cannot abide the use of white phosphorus, the purposeful destruction of essential civilian infrastructure and UNRWA refuges, and the wanton murder of hundreds of innocent children by an ally. That is why maintaining our current level of diplomatic relations and blind support for Israel is unacceptable. We are already on the wrong side of history on this one – alone besides the USA and a handful of minor Pacific Island states.

If you think Israel is only defending itself; that it does not intend to kill civilians, destroy their homes and violate their most basic rights; that it wants a peaceful settlement with a meaningful guarantee of the most basic human rights and freedoms for the Palestinians; then you simply have no concept of how power operates and exercises itself. Only a monumental Israeli backtrack from its program of occupation will see a just resolution to this situation. Thanks for listening.

For those that don’t get why the cartoon is anti-semitic and not simply about trying to divert away from attention of a terrible loss of lives, here’s a quick explanation.

(1) Star of David. It wasn’t shown as part of the Israeli flag but standing on its own. It’s like putting a cross on the back of a chair to represent say, Norway, because it’s considered a Christian-country with Christian values (and just so happens to have the Scandinavian cross on its flag like other Scandinavian countries). So not Israelis but Jews in general are portrayed as the aggressors. I accept the cartoonist may not have been the sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer when it comes to flags (two stripes short of a flag), but hey, that’s what happened.

(2) Big, hooked nose. I received secondary education in a comprehensive public school in Australia and we all learnt about anti-Semitic propaganda in year 9 during the WW2 unit (maybe things have changed, or the cartoonist is older than me or a late migrant). Apparently all his old-aged characters have big noses.

(3) The kippah or (skull-cap). Although many Israelis wear one, Israel has many secular Jews and non-Jews and the kippah is undeniably a symbol of Judaism (not Israel). Once again, we all learnt about hats used to represent Jews in school, but I know nothing about the cartoonist – he based his cartoon off the photos he saw and claimed naivety of the reference.

(4) The control motif. Once again, this could have been ignorance on the part of the cartoonist, but choosing the “remote control” of all devices to ignite Gaza plays directly into the Jewish conspiracy theories that are all too-well known throughout the world in this digital age. If you’ve browsed Youtube and heard of the word “Illuminati” I won’t need to explain this one.

(5) Mike Carlton is an [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] (now) a confirmed shameless anti-Semite (http://blogs.news.com.au/heral.....ewish_mat/). This is irrelevant to the cartoon but just thought I’d put that out there.

The problem with the cartoon isn’t the caricatures as much as what it could possibly achieve other than inciting sub-conscious hatred for Jews. If we show this cartoon to people around the world several months after the violence subsides what will they see? An old-Jewish man terrorising the world at the control of a button. Turn that modern remote control into a wired control panel and the cartoon wouldn’t be out of place in 1930s Germany, before the State of Israel even came into existence.

@Jack: your views on the Palestinian experience are valid, but are not really at issue here. The concern is that prominent Australian media have become increasingly strident, abusive and – in this instance – damaging in their portrayals.
No religious beliefs are intrinsically wrong.
The Herald cartoon was fundamentally wrong in its representation because it is the Israeli State that is behind these events and in particular Netanyahu.
News Ltd – and notably columnist Andrew Bolt – have run an extreme line of abuse of Muslims recently in a pattern that is unmistakeable.
We all should note the tendency of this minority of Australians that have grabbed loud hailers to shout abuse at others they wish to demonise. It is deeply unhealthy, unacceptable and ultimately evil.

Looked fine to me. Stop whingeing [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] . And stop [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]

Was this cartoon drawn by an Australian or was it a foreign ring-in? The signature – LeLeivre, I believe – looks like the signature in those awful American Oliphant cartoons the Sunday Telegraph ran in the early 1980s. Either that or the truly pathetic French Plantu cartoons the Saturday Herald ran in 2008 which was supposed to be a regular feature but was dropped after just one week. Editorial cartooning is particularly parochial – they don’t travel well and certainly can’t cross national borders. Even the cartoons by Wicking in the NT News couldn’t be printed in a newspaper outside the NT. In future the Herald should stick to publishing editorial cartoons drawn by locals.

Holy sheet – the debate is even raging here? Good stuff.

Seems like Israel is losing the PR battle big time, despite throwing heavy resources at astroturfing social media.

http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/g.....ztvky.html

Probably some lessons for you lot, and the implications scare the shit out of me. What happens when the ad industry actually starts to do astroturfing well?

All this fuss over a cartoon when the real issue is what is going on in the middle east. If only people would focus the subject and not the image.

Sorry Aussie-Autridge, but the cartoon was drawn for the SMH by an Australian (living in this country).
While on the subject of Australians, Pat Oliphant grew up in Adelaide, started his cartooning in that city and only moved to the USA after he was well established as a cartoonists.
But you are right about Wicking.

Just one other point about the cartoon. It is a cartoon about war and there was almost a war about it being published. That fight got it more attention that it originally got by being published in the Sun-Herald. It is now one of the famous cartoons of Australia and there will be stories written about it for decades. Had there been no fuss it would have quickly faded from memory.

So your saying you apologies because of a reality but what they are doing killing people by the thousands is quite ok? THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD

It is frightening what is happening in Australia now, how can anyone approve of anti semitic cartoons and propaganda? How can anyone approve of Hamas? How can anyone accept home grown terrorists. Thank god for News Corp and Andrew Bolt or we would only know that SMH and the ABC shoves down our throats

wow, imagine if there was this level of outrage every time a police office bashed an aboriginal man to death in a jail cell. any australian that wants to call any other human a racist needs to take a good hard look into our own backyard – and ask themselves what have they done to aid the plight of the oppressed who are their neighbours and countrymen? is this really any worse than a war where both sides must carry part of the blame? there’s only one side to blame in our nations shaemful problem – and that side seems more interested at shaking their fingers judgementally at strangers in the middle east. strangers going through something they could never even hope to understand.
andrew bolt is a proven and convicted racist – convicted and charged for making disparaging comments about aboriginal people. but his views are proudly printed in our nations highest selling paper, he has his ow television program. and he’s heralded as an expert on race relations in the middle east. the middle east is a mess that might never be fixed – but we could fix our own country in a single generation. except nobody cares – and that is completely racist!

You’re got to be kidding, surely?

The SMH now sees it as wrong to publish a great cartoon ‘in its original form’. What on earth does that mean? What other ‘form’ could the cartoon have.

It gets even better when the cartoon is criticised as invoking ‘an inappropriate element of religion, rather than nationhood’ by virtue of the fact that it features the Star of David and a man wearing a kippah.

Israel uses the Star of David on its national flag and keeps telling us that it is the State for the Jews. It wants the Palestinians to recognise it, not just as a State, but as a Jewish State. Israel refuses to recognise the rights of non-Jews to return to their homeland because they would constitute a demographic threat to the ‘Jewishness’ of Israel. And the SMH apologises for the cartoon containing an ‘inappropriate element of religion, rather than nationhood’!

Finally, some Israelis did, in fact, get out their armchairs and watch the fireworks over Gaza; no doubt a pleasant enough way to spend a few idle hours in Sderot. And the SMH apologises because the cartoon may have offended some people!

Pffft…. We’re not allowed to insult anyone as long as they’re religious?

Israeli people, zionists, non zionists, it doesn’t matter, were watching people die as if it were entertainment, that’s the fact. This cartoon is only anti semetic, because it displays a true representation of exactly how distasteful that kind of behaviour is (regardless of who it was). Are all jewish people like that? Probably not… But if they want to claim semitism, support israel and hang out in a representative group with a collective ideology, they should be prepared to be collectively accountable for the actions of their set zionist and non zionist. This is the israeli gov bombing these people afterall.

A once great rag, SMH is now not. Shades of Egypt, Putin,UK et al.Telling someone in private to Fuck Off is soo unAustralian?(Particularly if, in one’s opinion, their rant is mired in hatred and bigotry?!) It’s a well known fact that words kill more innocents than deliberate and repetitive, discriminating bombing. I’m no great fan of Carlton who, when in a previous life as a London DJ, wore a distinctly Pommy accent and regularly poured shit over things Aussie. However His moral stand on Gaza is hard to oppose. (If the Truth be known, Jesus was a turd to those around him – it’s all there in the New Testament). May he walk proud to “Publish and be Damned. His going another example of the power of the Jewish lobby. Likud strikes again.

Some of the comments above and the over-the-top reaction to the cartoon is proof you can’t say anything critical about Israeli policy without being labelled an anti-Semite. It’s time people and governments stop pandering to the pro-Israel lobby. What may or may not have happened in the Second World War has no relevance to Gaza today.

To those who say this isn’t antisemitism, it is. An attack on a war policy, when other countries have inflicted the same or worse without criticism, deems it as such. The actual genocide that is occurring in Syria and Iraq which is ignored deems it as such. The blatant slinging of misinformation and ignoring the policies of Hamas such as – the aim to wipe out Jews and the state of Israel, and the explicit advice by Hamas to use women and children as human shields- deems it as such.

If any of you think that any Jew or Zionist, who is no doubt the descendant of someone from the Spanish inquisition, pogroms, or the holocaust and the rest, will stay silent and think “this will blow over” as they did, you are mistaken

the SMH’s defence of its cartoonist Le Lieve is weak and worse than the cartoon itself. This cartoon could have come out of “Der Sturmer” itself. Le Leivre draws the Jew in a way that the unpleasant anti-Semite Julius Streicher himself would be proud of – grotesque features, calm and uncaring, controlling the world with a remote control, coffee, sleeping cat and even slippers.SMH says its fine because Le Leivre always draws the aged in an insulting way. Really?

Sorry basil, but you have it all wrong about Glen’s cartoon. Glen has been drawing cartoons for a long time and the person he drew in the cartoon in question is much the same as many others he has drawn. As for the inspiration for the cartoon it came from photos out of Israel not Der Sturmer. There is nothing wrong with the cartoon, it makes a point which is worth making. But there is something wrong at the SMH, especially when someone in the business office is telling the writers what to do.

Sad but true. All fear to speak now our three best cartoonists are silenced. Bill Leak, judicially murdered; Larry Pickering vilified in death; Le Lievre? Gone. Nothing to stop the torrent of lies.