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Publisher's Firing Shows Double Standard in Israel/Palestine Cartooning Hank Kennedy ([link removed])


Jeff Danziger: Some Israeli Hostages Are Home After Over a Year of Merciless War

Jeff Danziger (1/20/25 ([link removed]) )

“Watch your step,” says the soldier as he and a medic lead a hostage over a mound of corpses labeled “Over 40,000 Palestinians killed…” The caption reads, “Some Israeli Hostages Are Home After Years of Merciless War.” This cartoon by Jeff Danzinger ([link removed]) (Rutland Herald, 1/20/25 ([link removed]) ) was selected by editorial page editor Tony Doris to run in the Palm Beach Post (1/26/25).

After the cartoon ran last month, a local Jewish activist group took offense at the perceived antisemitic nature of the anti-war cartoon. The Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County was so upset it purchased a full-page ad condemning the cartoon to run in the Sunday edition (2/9/25).

That Doris and Danzinger are both of Jewish descent did not deter the complainers. Neither did their politics. Doris (Stet News, 3/2/25 ([link removed]) ) describes himself as pro-Israel, as well as the Post's "only Jewish editor." Danzinger told comics scholar Kent Worcester (Comics Journal, 11/05 ([link removed]) ) that he agreed “with a great many things that the Republicans have been traditionally for,” and that he voted for George H.W. Bush twice.

For his temerity to run an anti-war cartoon acknowledging the Palestinian dead, Doris was fired by Gannett, the conglomerate that owns hundreds of newspapers ([link removed]) across the country, including the Post. Gannett issued a statement that the cartoon “did not meet our standards” and “would not have been published if the proper protocols were followed.” “We sincerely regret the error,” said the spokesperson for the Post, “and have taken appropriate action to prevent this from happening again.” Doris (New York Times, 3/2/25 ([link removed]) ) remarked that Gannet executives are “afraid of their shadow.”


** The Palestine exception
------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Rogers: Why do they hate us so much? (Gazans in a cage surrounded by missiles)

Rob Rogers (8/7/14 ([link removed]) )

Doris’ ordeal was similar to the one cartoonist Rob Rogers ([link removed]) suffered ten years ago. Rogers drew Palestinians huddled in a tiny prison, beset on all sides by missiles and Israeli soldiers. “Why do they hate us so much?” one trooper muses (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/7/14 ([link removed]) ).

This cartoon, too, was characterized by pro-Israel readers as antisemitic. Richard Krugel of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit proclaimed it something “out of the Nazi propaganda sheet Der Shturmer [sic]” (Oakland Press, 8/8/14 ([link removed]) ). Rogers' career survived the incident, but as the editorial page of Rogers’ home paper shifted right, he found himself out of a job (New York Times, 6/15/18 ([link removed]) ; Extra!, 7/18 ([link removed]) ).

The experiences of Doris and Rogers are clear examples of what civil rights lawyer Michael Ratner termed the “Palestine exception to free speech” (Real News Network, 4/27/15 ([link removed]) ). Support for Palestinian rights is deemed to be an antisemitic attack on Israel, and therefore outside the boundaries of acceptable speech. The Palestine exception is glaringly apparent if a survey is conducted of how Palestinians are treated in political cartoons, and what consequences cartoonists suffer for these artistic choices.


** 'We side with evil'
------------------------------------------------------------
Kirk Walters: Occupying the Administration Building Today Is Not the Same as It Was in the '60s.... (Administrator offering refreshments to antisemitic protesters)

Kirk Walters (10/18/23 ([link removed]) )

Political cartoonists routinely compare Palestinians and the Palestinian cause to Nazis and Nazism. Henry Payne drew Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, as pro-Nazi, with bumper stickers reading “From Rhine River to the North Sea” and “Stop German Genocide” and "Beware Elders of Zion" (GoComics, 6/4/24 ([link removed]) ). Kirk Walters showed pro-Palestine protesters as tiki-torch wielding white supremacists. One protester looked identical to Adolf Hitler (King Features, 10/18/23 ([link removed]) ).

Gary Varvel drew a student returning home for Thanksgiving dinner clothed in an “I Heart Hamas” sweater and donning a Hitler mustache. “Son,” his father frets, “your mother and I are concerned about how much college has changed you!” (Creators Syndicate, 11/1/23 ([link removed]) ).

Symbols of Palestinian identity are equated with nefariousness. Two-time Pulitzer winner Michael Ramirez (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/2/24 ([link removed]) ) explicitly placed the Palestinian flag at a rally side by side with a sign reading “We Side With Evil.” Other signs read “We Heart Terrorists” and “We Support Hamas.” Three days later, Ramirez (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/5/24 ([link removed]) ) pinned a button reading “Hate” on a keffiyeh-wearing protester.
Ramirez: I Remember When Going to College Was Supposed to Make You Smarter (College protesters with pro-"evil" banners)

Michael Ramirez (5/2/24 ([link removed]) )

Editorial cartoonists often make a false connection between pro-Palestine activism and antisemitism. After the first wave of protests on college campuses in Fall 2023, Dana Summers (Tribune Content Agency, 10/18/23 ([link removed]) ) drew a Halloween cartoon featuring a Frankenstein’s Monster labeled “Antisemitism” and a Dr. Frankenstein labeled “College Campuses,” shouting “It’s alive!”

Bob Gorrell (Creators Syndicate, 4/30/24 ([link removed]) ) had Joe Biden informing readers about “all those antisemitic, pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses.” Echoing President Trump’s description ([link removed]) of the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Biden declared, “There are very fine people on both sides!”

At Chip Bok’s “Back to School Sale for Your Pro-Hamas Student” (Creators Syndicate, 9/5/24 ([link removed]) ) the title “Antisemitism for Dummies” was sold.

Nor is this solely a quirk of the US: Canadian cartoonist Malcolm Mayes (Edmonton Journal, 11/23 ([link removed]) ) depicted students chanting, “From the river to the sea/killing Jews is fine with me.”


** 'Make Gaza great again!'
------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Payne: Odd. My Pager Just Exploded. (Rep. Tlaib with exploding pager.)

Henry Payne (9/19/24 ([link removed]) )

In one anti-Palestinian cartoon, the cartoonist made light of assassinating a member of Congress. After the Israeli pager attack ([link removed]) on Hezbollah, Henry Payne (National Review, 9/19/24 ([link removed]) ) drew an exploding pager on the desk of Rashida Tlaib, also naming her a member of Hamas ([link removed]) .

Tlaib described this as “racism” that would incite “hate and violence against Arab and Muslim communities,” and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud argued it showed that “anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia have become normalized in our media.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, herself not an Arab or Muslim, was less direct, although she also condemned the cartoon. “It further stokes the divide in our politics and does absolutely nothing to move us forward on the issues that matter,” she said (Metro Times, 9/20/24 ([link removed]) ).
Bok: Two State Solutions (cartoon illustrating how much better Gaza would be if ethnically cleansed)

Chip Bok (2/7/25 ([link removed]) )

After Trump revealed his plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, cartoonists lined up to endorse this proposed violation of international law. Dana Summers (Tribune Content Agency, 2/7/25 ([link removed]) ) had a beaming Trump announcing, “Make Gaza Great Again!” Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate, 2/7/25 ([link removed]) ) showed Trump’s future casino and riviera as an improvement over United Nations administered refugee camps. Cheekily, it was labeled “Two State Solutions.” Payne (GoComics, 2/6/25 ([link removed]) ) advertised a “Mar-a-Gaza” that will be “Hamas-free”—as well as Palestinian-free—once construction is finished.

No mainstream American cartoonist would draw Israeli soldiers as Nazis, as Varvel, Gorrell and Payne did with Palestinians. It would be considered beyond the pale for an anti-war or pro-Palestinian cartoonist to crack a joke about assassinating a leading pro-Israel politician, as Payne did with Tlaib. Cartoon endorsements of ethnic cleansing of virtually any nationality other than Palestinian would be met with quite accurate comparisons to the oeuvre of Philipp Rupprecht ([link removed]) ("Fips”), cartoonist for the pro-Nazi Der Stürmer.


** 'Missed something profound'
------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Ramirez: How Dare Israel Attack Civilians(Cartoon of "Hamas" with children strapped to his body)

Michael Ramirez (11/6/23 ([link removed]) )

The consequences for the two approaches to cartooning could not be more different. When Varvel lost his spot at the Toronto Sun (12/21/23 ([link removed]) ), it was not for his drawings of Palestinians, but rather a take on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (12/20/23 ([link removed]) ) that Jewish groups found offensive. Payne’s cartoons still run in the National Review, and he kept his post as auto critic for the Detroit News.

One of Ramirez’s cartoons (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 11/6/23 ([link removed]) ), showing a snarling hook-nosed Arab labeled “Hamas,” was removed from the Washington Post after reader backlash. Editorial page editor David Shipley said that reader reactions calling the cartoon “racist” and “dehumanizing” showed that the Post “missed something profound, and divisive” (Washington Post, 11/8/23 ([link removed]) ). Ramirez continues to be published at the Post.

Because of syndication and the absorption of many newspapers into chains like Gannett, some media markets are only exposed to one side, cartoon-wise. In Detroit, for example, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News publish under a joint operating agreement that ensures that the editorial cartoons in the News run in both newspapers. The most prominent syndicated cartoonist in the News is Ramirez, who declared Palestinians ontologically evil. This means that in the metro area with the largest Arab population in America, the political cartoons in both papers are overwhelmingly dominated by a virulently anti-Palestinian viewpoint.
Benson: Yasir Ararat (Arafat depicted as a dead rat)

Steve Benson (6/27/82 ([link removed]) )

Tony Doris (New York Times, 3/2/25 ([link removed]) ) expressed concerns that limiting the range of acceptable opinion in editorial pages is bad for democracy. “Democracy needs journalists who care about the mission and not just about page views,” he said.

Not only is it bad for democracy, it trivializes antisemitism and allows promoters of racism and ethnic cleansing off the hook. Indeed, despite acting as defenders of Jewish people, these cartoonists indulge in many of the same tropes ([link removed]) that antisemitic caricaturists use. Editorial cartoonists may have progressed past depicting Yasser Arafat as a rodent caught in a Star of David–shaped mousetrap (Arizona Republic, 6/27/82 ([link removed]) ), but there are still images of anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian racism on the editorial pages.


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