The point of a comic is to make a point… and Oliphant made his, that Israel is slaughtering poor helpless Gazans. Whether you want to call that anti-Semitic or not is irrelevant. The Palestinians have become expert at how they portray themselves as helpless victims in the media, and they are effective at censoring any coverage that shows otherwise (remember the Reuters reporter who was threatened with death if he showed the picture of an Israeli solder being dropped to his death from an apartment balcony?). The mainstream media like Oliphant have blindly bought into it.
Anyone seen the video of Hamas fighters being transported in a UN ambulance in Gaza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ONKb9J2YeU)? Gee, maybe there is a reason Israel sometimes fires at these positions? Anyone discuss doctored photos and news reports in the US mainstream media (http://www.zombietime.com/reutersphotofraud/ and http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp)? How about ABC editing out the end of an interview with a Gazan 4 year old girl - ABC played the segment where the devastated young girl says “I woke up and my four year old sister next to me was dead.” but left out the part where the girl also says: “I say, Hamas is the cause in the first place, of all the wars.” (full interview with the girl is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoi0TGyx_uA).
So pardon me if I am offended that yet another mainstream media person - whose cartoons influence many readers - is also taken in by this crap. Where is some honest, in depth reporting like Walter Cronkite instead of accepting the news bites fed by questionable sources? Oliphant is guilty of perpetuating bad reporting and incorrect ideas, and his cartoon lends no help to a real discussion of the problems faced by Israelis and Palestinians alike.
The point of a comic is to make a point… and Oliphant made his, that Israel is slaughtering poor helpless Gazans. Whether you want to call that anti-Semitic or not is irrelevant. The Palestinians have become expert at how they portray themselves as helpless victims in the media, and they are effective at censoring any coverage that shows otherwise (remember the Reuters reporter who was threatened with death if he showed the picture of an Israeli solder being dropped to his death from an apartment balcony?). The mainstream media like Oliphant have blindly bought into it.
Anyone seen the video of Hamas fighters being transported in a UN ambulance in Gaza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ONKb9J2YeU)? Gee, maybe there is a reason Israel sometimes fires at these positions? Anyone discuss doctored photos and news reports in the US mainstream media (http://www.zombietime.com/reutersphotofraud/ and http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp)? How about ABC editing out the end of an interview with a Gazan 4 year old girl - ABC played the segment where the devastated young girl says “I woke up and my four year old sister next to me was dead.” but left out the part where the girl also says: “I say, Hamas is the cause in the first place, of all the wars.” (full interview with the girl is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoi0TGyx_uA).
So pardon me if I am offended that yet another mainstream media person - whose cartoons influence many readers - is also taken in by this crap. Where is some honest, in depth reporting like Walter Cronkite instead of accepting the news bites fed by questionable sources? Oliphant is guilty of perpetuating bad reporting and incorrect ideas, and his cartoon lends no help to a real discussion of the problems faced by Israelis and Palestinians alike.