Middle East and Conrad
Conrad’s cartoon depicts Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a Jewish Star of David on his sleeve, ominously fixing a machine gun on blindfolded Bush men, their hands tied behind their backs. However scurrilous the cartoon, the objections do not challenge Conrad’s First Amendment rights. The question is one of fairness, civility, and political culture. Political cartoons are not means to be taken literally. Cartoons caricature. They trade on grotesque exaggerations. But are there no limits to graphic perversions?
If there are any hostages in the long and painful process of finding peace in the Middle East, they are the citizens of Israel who from Israel’s rebirth on struggle against the gradual amputation of their sovereign state. If there are any threats, they come from Arab nations who seek to put Israel on the table, not to sit with her around the table.
A political cartoon on the editorial page of a leading newspaper is no sniggering comic strip. It is meant to illuminate dark issues and to help disentangle the complexities that knot people into angry foes. In this instance, Conrad’s cartoon has confounded the issues and heaped fuel on the fires of hatred. This is no call for censorship. It is an appeal to Conrad’s conscience.
RABBI HAROLD M.
SCHULWEIS
Encino
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