Mainstreaming Jew-hatred: Politico tries out being the new Der Stürmer
Politico’s got a lot of competition these days in the Jew-hatred sweepstakes, but it’s definitely in the running (hat tip: commenter “TJ”):
Politico published a cartoon on Friday featuring anti-Semitic imagery in an attempt to criticize the war in Iran. The image depicts President Donald Trump, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Republican members of Congress wearing blood-covered Jewish prayer shawls and yarmulkes.
The cartoon, drawn by former New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas, depicts the lawmakers aboard a rowboat labeled “Ship of Neocons”—a play on the Hieronymus Bosch painting Ship of Fools—that is about to plummet over a waterfall. A bag of blood-smeared money crowns the mast, and the word “Amalek,” a reference to a historical enemy of the Jewish people from the Hebrew Bible, appears in the background.
Netanyahu, depicted with an exaggerated nose, is also shown wearing a blood-covered Jewish prayer shawl and eating from a table covered in blood, while Trump, also in a Jewish prayer shawl, is drawn underneath the word “Amalek.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who is not Jewish, is depicted wearing a yarmulke and a Jewish prayer shawl and holding a bottle of blood. Graham and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), also drawn in a blood-covered Jewish prayer shawl, have supported the Iran war and are longtime supporters of Israel.
Follow the link to see the cartoon.
This sort of Jew-hating propaganda is not extraordinary. On the contrary, it’s ordinary in the sense of having a long history. It shocks us because most of that history has been outside the US, but the appearance of such a cartoon in Politico, which is not a traditionally anti-Semitic site, is both a sign of how mainstream Jew-hating has become (at least, among what passes for our political punditry) and how dedicated many people are to spreading and promoting it further.
The cartoon was removed, but only in response to a furor from readers. I believe that Jew-hating is still very much a minority view among people in the US but that it’s growing, especially among young people. And there’s no dearth of people trying to spread it and mainstream it in the media and social media. Some of them are foreign actors with their own agenda and some are homegrown.
Even in the US, this has been building for a long time. It’s not just an old story that harks back to Nazis and way earlier, it’s been a story even during the time frame in which I’ve been writing this blog. For example, Trump and Netanyahu got similar treatment in a 2019 cartoon published in the international edition of the NY Times, for European consumption. You can see it here (and if you have X, you can see the revolting responses even back then, very typical of online Jew-hatred and its intensity and vile nature):
On April 25, 2019 The New York Times published a story with a highly anti-Semitic cartoon picturing Israel PM Bibi Netanyahu as an animal with a Magen David leash held by US president Donald Trump.
It's time for our generation to make sure that anti-Semitism is prevented. pic.twitter.com/FosC7SprAS
— Rudy Rochman (@rudy_rochman) April 27, 2019
I wrote this post about that cartoon at the time. I also wrote this on the subject. That latter post also features a 2003 cartoon about Sharon which is bloodcurdling and based on a Goya etching. I suggest you read both posts, but here’s part of the latter:
It was early in 2003, during the Second Intifada, when Palestinians had been deliberately targeting and blowing up Israelis civilians (including Israeli children) at a rapid clip for three years. The wall had been started but was far from completion at the time the cartoon was published (January of 2003). One would think that if anyone was going to be depicted as deliberate and ghoulish child killers it would be the Palestinians, who not only supported suicide bombers who murdered children but who purposely used their own children as sacrifices, putting them in harm’s way (see also this) to make it more likely that defensive retaliatory measures by the Israelis would result in the inadvertent death of Palestinian children.
But ghoulish Palestinians wasn’t the image Brown was after (and here the reference is to the famous Goya work “Saturn Devouring His Son“):
See? He’s naked, except for that little Likud rosette instead of a fig leaf. Not a kippah or a Jewish star in sight. So that makes the blood libel perfectly okay.
The cartoon was so highly thought of that it was awarded the 2003 first prize by the British Political Cartoon Society. In his acceptance speech, “Brown thanked the Israeli Embassy for its angry reaction to the cartoon, which he said had contributed greatly to its publicity.”
To repeat: I wrote that in 2019 about something that happened in 2003.
Now for a few words about Jew-hating itself. It puzzles a lot of people, and rightly so, despite the gazillions of words that have been written on the subject trying to explain it. Today, commenter Richard Aubrey asked:
Thomas Sowell has suggested that the Jews have been the “minority middleman” in a number of societies. The same is true of Indians in Africa, Chinese in SEA, Cubans in the Caribbean. Some of the same difficulties are encountered; “clannish, money grubbers, snobs, etc” And, sometimes, violence.
But Jews have about two thousand years’ of hate-generated tactics and accusations to be used against them. It’s different when there’s such a supply to draw from, I suspect.
That being said, why does it light up like kerosene when introduced onto a campus? Is there some need to hate, awaiting only a suggested target? Wny?
I probably will write more on the entire subject, but for now I’ll keep it very brief and say that it’s multi-determined and serves many needs in the haters, and although it waxes and wanes it morphs and persists. But in terms of that first paragraph about the Sowell quote, hating Chinese or Indians involves groups that are among the most numerous on earth. Hating Jews involves hating a very tiny but very prominent group. The Jews – both as a group in terms of monotheism, and as individuals in terms of achievement in fields such as science or popular music – have been far more influential on human history than would might expect from their actual numbers (numbers which people tend to greatly overestimate). Despite their tiny numbers, Jews have been dispersed around the world, and so their small size, prominence, and geographic spread have been fertile soil in which the hatred can grow.
But in the end, explanations which have a spiritual dimension are also compelling. If you believe in the demonic, Jew-hatred partakes of the demonic. It also has historic roots in the two religions it gave birth to, Christianity and Islam, although that has waxed and waned and changed over time, too (I probably will write at greater length about that at some future point, too). It often rears up in societies that are troubled, because Jew-hating is an easy and parsimonious way to cast blame and channel frustration. And the US is certainly troubled at the moment.
NOTE: I doubt Politico would publish any cartoons critical of Mohammed, because they know that could get them killed.
On why this despicable hatred breaks out on college campuses, we can look to the radical left funding groups, who also, according to DataRepublican and others, fund the leftist demonstrations which happen one after another, with a new “cause” replacing the previous one. The objective is the destruction of western civilization and the U.S. Hating Jews is a tool used in their revolution.
The leftists foolishly think they can use Islamic fanatics and then control them after the fall of western governments. I think otherwise, as the Islamic fanatics are even more fanatical than the leftists.
On an amusing historical note, the Der Stürmer Wikipedia page says that even the Nazis were embarrassed by it, and tried to limit its availability during the Berlin Olympics. Sadly, Politico has no such shame.
Banned Lizard:
Well, they did remove it, but only because people complained. When they published it, they either were unaware of how awful it was or didn’t care.
I’m afraid it goes back thousands of years, but I will never understand it.
I dont get how axel springer can let this go out despite his expressed statements
There is one Jewish Country – Israel and Israel has more Arabs in it than Europe has Jews. Apartheid indeed.
There are 56 Muslim countries and 30 or so Western countries that are totally in the clutches of their Muslim populations. The US is closing in on this. The next Democrat president will let in millions of Muslims without any question whatsoever. Then it’s Aliyah time for American Jews.
So Israel is outnumbered at least 86 to 1 and it is not getting any better. Pray the regime falls in Iran and the Iranian people throw Shia Islam in the dumpster forever and ally with Israel.
Are they merely ignorant
https://x.com/YoniFreedhoff/status/2037558028610801915?s=20
Well put John Galt III.
I believe it is demonic. Satan is seeking to undermine God’s plan.
Further recent proof of this: Tucker Carlson said he was mauled by a demon in 2023; this coincides with his opposition to Israel – which has only grown since. What better vessel than someone with a large audience who was previously not a stark raving lunatic.
Prayers for the United States of America and Israel. God Bless the Jewish people.
@John Galt III: When it’s Aliyah time for American Jews, where are American Christians supposed to go? People here of Christian faith or of no faith largely fail to realize that the threat is also aimed at them.
This:
“I believe it is demonic. Satan is seeking to undermine God’s plan. DisGuested
“Jew-hatred partakes of the demonic. It also has historic roots in the two religions it gave birth to, Christianity and Islam, although that has waxed and waned and changed over time, too…” neo
Judaism certainly gave birth to Christianity but not to Islam. Islam is Satan’s reaction to Christianity. That view is buttressed in Genesis 16:12 when predicting about Ishmael “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
Israel traces back to Abraham & Sarah’s son Jacob.
Islam claims descent from Ishmael, who was the offspring of Abraham & Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.
Even the part that states “he shall dwell over (&) against all his kinsmen” is fulfilled in the ancient Bedouin saying, “I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.”
BTW, the Bedouins are pastoral nomadic or semi-nomadic Arab tribes, the closest culture we have to those in Jacob and Ishmael’s time.
On a more mundane level, it appears that Mohammed was largely ignorant of both Judaism and Christianity; he knew what little he did because of what he picked up in passing from his neighbors. He got a lot of basic theology wrong, while claiming to be bolting on an addition to the Christian faith.
What he did know was the pagan practices of the local Arabs, since he was one.
Hating is fun, like fighting for justice (and winning) is fun.
There are people who do not love their neighbors,
And I hate those people. (~Tom Lehrer)
… and everybody hates the Jews.
The oppressor/ oppressed axis always has an element of the successful being the oppressors, which is unfair, unjust, and thus good to hate.
Because Jews are so often part of the elite, when the elite do something bad for normal folk, like supporting socialism or open borders or banning prayer in school, there are usually Jews making among the best arguments for it. The Jews are always the Other to non-Jews, and most tribes, us, look to blame their own problems on the Others, them, the problem causers. Not fair, but tribalism human.
The Democrat Demonization Strategy needs a target, or targets, to hate. It’s been Trump for 10 years, but that ends in 2028. It was so fun, for so many, to hate Trump so righteously. The Jews are always politically convenient target for the Dem Demonization that they need to generate unified hatred so as to get votes. It’s the hatred that leads to Dem Derangement Syndrome.
Um, er, that would be Isaac, Geoffrey.
No problem. You’re in the ballpark…(unless you have a particularly perverse spellchecker…)
Still luv ya’!
Ishmael’s immediate descendants would have been a lot like the Bedouins, Barry: semi-nomadic tribes living outside Canaan.
For those who might be interested in a contemporary description of Islamic teachings in its early years, here’s St. John of Damascus (d. 749 A.D.). He considered Mohammedans to be influenced by Arian heretics. Among other things he says of the black stone, the Ka’aba, “This stone that they talk about is a head of that Aphrodite whom they used to worship and whom they called Khabár. Even to the present day, traces of the carving are visible on it to careful observers.”
http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx
Pingback:Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate's Cove
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…Flying Axel!
And so…Taqiyya, German style?
(Or perhaps one might say it’s springtime for Springer…)
when you look at it, that way, it does look rather foolish,
Islam does seems to filter much of Orthodox judaism’s customs, as well as many of the stories not only about Abraham but David and Solomon and the like
and yet come to entirely wrong conclusion, and much of the World accepts it,
it appropriates Yahweh for Allah, and follows through on many a score,
certainly in the culture from python to even dave allen in the Emerald Isle, I believe Ricky Jervais is likeminded in the modern era, there is a sneering against Christianity, which was a defense against Islamic encroachment, but then again, we know what a slim reed the Church of England has turned out to be, how much of their faith is enduring, even how much do they even adhere to the Faith,
Yes Prime Minister, with it’s cynicism, showed how bishoprics, are selected,
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5t4iz7
add to this the modern academy the pressure of oil money funded lobbies,
Sky News the Murdoch station is nearly as terrible as the BBC or ITV, maybe it wasn’t always,
they swallow Hamas propaganda by the bushel,
One must keep in mind, though, that—AFAIK—according to Moslem doctrine, Islam, being the TRUE religion, PRE-DATES both Judaism and Christianity, the latter two being derivatives, or even perversions, of the former.**
(Remember: secular chronology has nothing to do with it.)
** Note that this may not be the doctrine held by all Islamic clerics.
I do not favor “newspaper eisegesis,” that is, taking Biblical books, passages or verses and imposing them on current events in an effort to support a Biblical analysis of those events. Having said that, it is hard to ignore the congruence between the state of the world and certain prophetic pronouncements to be found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, not to mention the utterances of Jesus as recorded in The New Testament. In particular, there is that bit about His return at a time when it was as in the days of Noah when most people were going about their lives, despite God’s observation that the entire Earth was corrupt and filled with violence. As much as I don’t want to think we are there yet, I can’t reject it out of hand. But that’s just me. You might prefer to think otherwise.
apparently so, now those who are islamognosists, like Robert Spencer point these details out, even a skeptic like Tom Holland, who caught a lot of flak, from the unsurprising suspects,
it could be as in Matthew 24, when Jesus makes his prediction, one is struck how few the modern day prophetsdwell on that passage, there have been many similar times to those prophesied since thee 1940s
then again modern day biblical scholarship is derisive of traditional accounts,
I didn’t notice the Amalek reference until the end, these were the ones who sought to wipe out Israel, out of Canaan, right, some have made the connection between Amalek and the Palestinians,
a novel by Ronald Bascomb, had the insurgent group, dubbed as the Children of Canaan, a sort of Hamas type outfit, the villain is a barely disguised heir to the Hussaini clan, the skunk at the garden party if the Husseinis and his kin including Arafat, had not been around, what might have happened,
I think I mentioned the teleplay with Miss Gylenhaal, who is currently making a hash of frankenstein’s mythos, which does much equivalencing with the Palestinians, even though her family is a victim
Barry Meislin, 2:54 p.m., that actually IS the standard Islamic doctrine.
Related:
A pair of remarkably insightful, sobering, clear-eyed posts featuring Pierre Rehov. (These are also relevant to Neo’s post, “Why are so many people on the right dissatisfied with Trump”.)
“The War on Civilization: ‘Israel Cannot Outsource Its Survival’;
“A Conversation with Pierre Rehov”—
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22392/war-on-civilization
H/T Powerline blog.
“Iran’s Fantasy of Strength: When Bazaar Tactics Collide with Reality”—
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22383/iran-fantasy-of-strength
@Barry Meislin: One must keep in mind, though, that—AFAIK—according to Moslem doctrine, Islam, being the TRUE religion, PRE-DATES both Judaism and Christianity, the latter two being derivatives, or even perversions, of the former.
Barry Meislin, Kate:
Yes, as Kate says, that is “standard Islamic doctrine.” Which is why Muslims don’t speak of conversion to Islam but of “reversion” to Islam, reversion to one’s true spirital nature.
Most Westerners don’t realize how bizarre Islam is as a religion. It’s not fundamentalist, it’s Fundamentalist. The Quran wasn’t just dictated by God to Muhammad. The Quran exists, has always existed and will always exist throughout eternity as a perfect divine object.
This applies to all Muslims, not just conservative ones.
Then it gets worse. The Quran has some poetic passages, but a substantial portion of the book hits my ear as closer to the hateful ravings of a demon rather than the word of God. IMO Muslims aren’t crazy. They believe a crazy book and act accordingly.
I recommend all Westerners read the Quran.
Correct on all points, huxley.
And on the topic of this post, Jew-hating, it’s in the Qur’an, which all Muslims must accept as eternally divine and true.
Islam is therefore fundamentally constituted as the immutable, final revelation of God. There can be no further prophets. No major modifications.
Those who assume Islam is basically like Judaism and Christianity, which have moderated in militancy over time, assume Islam will too.
They are mistaken. Islam remains a barbaric warlord religion with a barbaric warlord founder as it was in the 7th century because it can’t change without breaking down.
I suspect this is why so-called moderate Muslims are unable to do anything about the jihadists. The moderates know that the jihadists have the moral high ground in Islam.
— Geoffrey Brittain
To be fair, though, the attitude summed up in that aphorism is actually a common default in nomadic/tribal cultures all over the world. We see it whenever the only glue holding a society together is blood ties.
— Barry Meislin
One thing that worries me is precisely something that worried me at the start of both the Afghanistan and (esp.) the Iraq operations: do the Western leaders understand that the opposition believes in their faith?
In Iraq, it quickly became apparent that no, they didn’t. They made exactly the mistakes I feared they would. All their plans for how to settle the fighting and rebuild something better required that that Iraqi enemy be willing to treat religion as many Westerners do, and they just were not. The same thing happened to a lesser extent in Afghanistan.
The Western ruling class is hyper-secular, and they have a hard time getting their mind around the fact that many people really believe their religions. This makes their plans go awry.
I don’t know if Trump is like that. He isn’t part of that bipartisan ruling class. Buit we can be sure of one thing: even the American-sympathizing Iranians are not like the Western supersecular elite class. That has to be taken into account.
And yet, and yet…
…in the aish.com site, search for “arab”…
https://aish.com/#
I did that, Barry, and nothing came up. It’s a Jewish site. Why would it?
There’s nothing I am aware of in either Jewish or Christian foundational writings that says “Subdue or kill all the Arabs.” The reverse is that the Qur’an and all the other sunnah documents do call for subduing or killing all non-Muslims. Muslims who take these things seriously are required to believe this is righteous.
“The dog that did not bark.” ?
Hmm.
Try this:
https://aish.com/search_gcse/?q=arab#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=arab&gsc.page=1
So all our Muslim allies currently helping us against Iran, not “real” Muslims, or are they just biding their time to stab us in the back so they can subdue or kill all non-Muslims, despite some of their own people currently getting killed due to their helping us?
Saudi Arabia still has religious police and sharia law, last I checked, and the Quran and Sunnah are their constitution. Remember all those articles by Mark Steyn about Wahabbism? They’re still doing all that. They seem to take Islam very seriously indeed. Qatar, for example, bases its constitution on sharia law and has capital punishment for apostasy. Not “serious” Muslims?
And Somaliland, the Muslim breakaway republic featured here two weeks ago, also not “real” Muslims, or also just waiting to stab us in the back and subdue or kill all non-Muslims?
Either we’ve badly chosen our alliances, or we’re painting with a bit too broad a brush, or we’re playing “true Scotsman” games with other peoples’ religions. All three can be true at the same time, to some extent at least.
Niketas Choniates:
Or maybe you’re just nitpicking as usual. No one is arguing that all Muslims are all the same all the time.
“Include me out” of any “we” you use in these discussions.
@huxley:No one is arguing that all Muslims are all the same all the time.
The comments are up there, they say what they say. Perhaps there’s mental nuance not being expressed in some of the blanket statements but I don’t read minds…
maybe you’re just nitpicking as usual.
There are Muslims on the front line of this war in a way that we are not and I think that’s worth remembering. Yes, I know there could be “sleeper cells” or whatever but however many of those Iran may have in the US they probably have tens or hundreds more within their neighbors. The lives of Muslim civilians are on the line in a very direct way that ours are simply not.
Re: the Thomas Sowell comment: it is usually not the occupants of China or India who are hated; it is the overseas groups of each country.
The Indians who monopolize trade in East Africa and the overseas Chinese in Indonesia or the Philipines are the original targets of hatred and it spreads from there. That said, the Jews have been a target longer.. Also the envy of financial success and access to power, where simply perceived or real seems to be a source. It seems that some individuals need to blame others for their own inadequacies and the targets handed to them by manipulators are welcomed with a sigh of relief.