speaking of something that will be interpreted as mean but I swear I don’t mean it that way, is it weird to anyone else that pinning a Jewish star to the clothing of Israel politicians is an accepted visual signifier? I’ve seen it a bunch this week, and it strikes me as sort of odd.
Is it really that odd? It is after all part of the Israeli flag and hence just as unambigious an visual shortcut as putting a stars and stripes pin on an American politician would be. The cartoon Tom linked to is shown above and it’s not clear which particular Israeli politician is intended (if any) to be allergic to the Arab Spring, but thanks to the Israeli flag pin the joke/trenchant political commentary isn’t lost. For cartoonists not particularly good at caricature or those operating for an audience unlikely to be familiar with what any Israeli politician looks like such a shortcut is essential.
It may be mildly strange or distasteful for those who’d sooner see a star of David in it than an Israeli flag, but considering the alternatives of depicting Israeli politicians, where even well intentioned cartoonists can run into anti-semitic stereotypes quickly, it is a fairly neutral way of showing their Israeliness. Lazy and unoriginal yes, but at least it’s inoffensive, which seems to be the best you can hope for with editorial cartoons. Where it does get squicky is when a cartoonist uses it on a non-Israeli politician, to show they’ve been bought by the Israel lobby. That does reek a bit too much of the protocols of the elders of Zion.
Branko Collin
May 31, 2011 at 8:36 amWhat’s weird is that it isn’t an Israeli flag, which has two added blue bands, but just a star of David, which was once used as a way of marking people for the gas chamber. So yeah, it is weird, and possibly anti-Semitic. Probably an honest mistake though, because the blue on white colour scheme suggests that the artist was aiming for the flag (the Nazis used black on yellow).