Daily News Cartoonist Mangles the Truth

    Political cartoonists often reduce complex international issues to simplistic images. In the process, unfortunately, they sometimes sacrifice accuracy in order to make a humorous point. Three recent cartoons about the Middle East by Signe Wilkinson, editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News, exemplify this problem.

    On January 21, Wilkinson drew a disappointed-looking Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing near a dead dove, clutching an olive branch in its mouth. Netanyahu is saying to Clinton, " 'Jump start?!' Oh, I thought you said 'drop kick' the peace process!"

    In Wilkinson's view, then, Israel is to blame for the absence of Middle East peace. Even though Israel has given up the regions where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside; surrendered 80% of Judaism's holiest city, Hebron; offered to withdraw from additional territory; released imprisoned Arab terrorists; given the Palestinian Authority millions and millions of dollars in tax revenues; initiated negotiations to give the PA an airport and a seaport; and even refrained from creating any new Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (although the Oslo accords do not prohibit Israel from doing so) --despite all this, Wilkinson still blames Israel and says not a word about the PA's constant violations of the Oslo accords.

    Wilkinson's February 18 column delved into Israel's domestic affairs. A stereotypical Orthodox Jew, with beard and sidecurls, is manning a booth with a "Welcome to Israel" sign. Two other Jews, one labeled "Reform" and the other "Conservative," are pointing angrily at a notice on the booth which reads, "The only Jew is an Orthodox Jew." The Orthodox Jew behind the counter is saying, "So? Get your own homeland."

    Wilkinson's unfamiliarity with Orthodox attitudes toward non-Orthodox Jews is glaring. Orthodox Jews do not claim that non-Orthodox Jews are not Jewish. They contend that converts to Judaism who do not embrace Jewish traditional ways may not be sincere converts. Furthermore, Orthodox Jews in Israel are not telling Reform or Conservative Jews to "Get your own homeland." They have never proposed keeping non-Orthodox Jews out of Israel; nor have they have ever proposed keeping non-Orthodox converts out of Israel. Their concern is over whether or not the state should recognize as Jews those individuals who have undergone conversion ceremonies but not adopted traditional Jewish lifestyles. This view is, of course, the subject of much controversy within Israel and in Diaspora Jewish communities. While efforts are underway to resolve the dispute in an amicable manner, Signe Wilkinson has poured gasoline on the fire with a cartoon that badly distorted the issues at stake. A third troubling cartoon appeared in the Daily News on February 18. Wilkinson drew President Clinton delivering a speech, saying "We must show Saddam Hussein that weapons of mass destruction are wrong, wrong, wrong!" Behind Clinton, on the podium sat, four generals and row after row of huge American missiles and bombs. Wilkinson was suggesting that it is hypocritical for President Clinton and other Americans to oppose Saddam's development of weapons of mass destruction, since the United States itself possesses many of those same weapons. This is moral equivalency at its worst: Iraq and the U.S. both have dangerous weapons, therefore both countries are immoral. It's like saying that cops have guns and robbers have guns, so cops and robbers are morally similar. Evidently Wilkinson does not understand that what matters is not the type of weapons you have, but what you do with those weapons. These days, all sorts of countries have all sorts of weapons. Decent, civilized regimes use their weapons only as a last resort, and when they use them it's in order to defend freedom and democracy. Barbaric, evil regimes use their weapons for aggression, to stamp out freedom, and to spread their totalitarian rule. That's the difference between America and Iraq, between good and evil.