[lbo-talk] Moroccan wins Iran's Holocaust cartoon contest

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Thu Nov 2 11:19:08 PST 2006


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Lovely. Questioning the reality of millions of death is the
> equivalent of (stupid) cartoons about a prophet?

Well, it's not quite like that. There is a symbolic equivalence:

--In the west, arabs are portrayed as terrorists hiding behind Muhammad's robes.

--In the arab middle east, zionists are portrayed as terrorists hiding behind the Holocaust's robes.

It's not about history. It's about how historical facts are used. The Holocaust immunizes the zionist state from any charge of unethical behavior; it has become an object of worship and unquestioning obedience. If you condemn the zionist state for any of its actions, you are told that "you want to throw the jews into the sea" and that you are an anti-semite, just like the anti-semites who were responsible for the Holocaust. I think this is the chemistry of this thing.

As my 23-year old son remarked recently, "Do you notice how when they talk about Israel, they never talk about religion?"

This is true. They don't. They talk about democracy and they talk about the Holocaust.

That's why there seems to be an asymmetry between the anti-Arab and anti-zionist cartoons, but in fact, there isn't.

Joanna



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