There are some Jews in America who, it seems, lose all their bearings when confronted with Christian support for Israel. Building in part on centuries-old wariness of Christian motives, and in part on a strident opposition to the Christian Right on domestic American issues, there are some people who simply cannot imagine that Christians really might support Jews, and that support for a Jewish state is not merely a cover for their sinister, messianic machinations.
A ferociously repugnant example of this sentiment just appeared in this week’s Forward, in the form of a satirical political cartoon by the talented Eli Valley. It’s a fake ad for a week-long evangelical trip to the Holy Land, and it expresses all the anti-Christian fears that lurk in the heart of many an American Jew. Obese and monstrous Evangelicals are shown going to Israel, praising Hitler as a “Servant of the Lord,” and looking forward to the “mother of all Holocausts for Jews and Muslems who don’t convert.” There are fake adds for T-shirts praising the right-wing mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein — you get the picture.
There is a great deal to say about this cartoon (much of it unprintable). But it is so far from the liberal, tolerant views that I think most Forward readers adhere to, that one wonders how it got by the editors. And as for the use of grotesque caricatures playing on dehumanizing stereotypes, depicting a murderous conspiracy that lurks behind a friendly face, well . . .
Ms. Chavez,
Credit is not the lifeblood of the economy. Profits are! Please we need to be quite clear about that.