4 Years Ago – One of the Greatest Cartoons Ever
Capturing the delusional Middle East policy of Obama-Kerry perfectly, as the 2014 Gaza conflict raged.
On July 31, 2014, Legal Insurrection cartoonist A.F. Branco posted what was, by far, the most viral cartoon he’s done for us, Crash of Civilization.
It took place as the 2014 Gaza conflict was in full swing. Here were some of our posts in the days before the cartoon, including:
- UN Official admits Hamas firing rockets “from the vicinity of UN facilities”
- Media cover-up of Hamas crimes starting to unravel
- Gaza ground war: More tunnel warfare, Hamas may have body parts of dead Israeli soldier
We also covered the generally high Israeli morale, Video: Israeli troops on break from fighting sing “The nation of Israel will never give up”.
But we also covered in the days prior to the cartoon the efforts of John Kerry to halt the fighting on balanced terms, which was favorable to Hamas which started the conflict by non-stop rocket firing:
- John Kerry to the rescue (of Hamas?): Seven-day “truce” proposed (Updates – no truce yet)
- Kerry ceasefire proposal “was everything Hamas could have hoped for” (Updates)
Sure enough, Barak Ravid, a well-regarded reporter for the left-wing Israeli Haaretz newspaper presents a chilling tale of John Kerry’s complete incompetence in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Kerry’s latest cease-fire plan: What was he thinking?
The draft Kerry passed to Israel on Friday shocked the cabinet ministers not only because it was the opposite of what Kerry told them less than 24 hours earlier, but mostly because it might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal [the political head of Hamas who lives in Qatar]. It was everything Hamas could have hoped for.
The document recognized Hamas’ position in the Gaza Strip, promised the organization billions in donation funds and demanded no dismantling of rockets, tunnels or other heavy weaponry at Hamas’ disposal. The document placed Israel and Hamas on the same level, as if the first is not a primary U.S. ally and as if the second isn’t a terror group which overtook part of the Palestinian Authority in a military coup and fired thousands of rockets at Israel.
It gets worse, as I suspected Kerry is seeking to make Hamas a post-war power, Ravid reports:
On Saturday, the State Department distributed photos of Kerry’s meeting with Qatar and Turkey’s foreign ministers in Paris. [See video above] The three appear jovial and happy-go-lucky. Other photographs show Kerry carousing romantically with the Turkish foreign minister in the pastoral grounds of the U.S. ambassador’s home in Paris, as if the Turkish official’s prime minister didn’t just say a few days ago that Israel is 10 times worse than Hitler.
The secretary of state’s draft empowered the most radical and problematic elements in the region – Qatar, Turkey, and Hamas – and was a slap on the face to the rapidly forming camp of Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who have many shared interests. What Kerry’s draft spells for the internal Palestinian political arena is even direr: It crowns Hamas and issues Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a death warrant.
…. Ravid at Haaretz notes that Kerry seems delusional (emphasis added):
Kerry isn’t anti-Israeli; on the contrary, he’s a true friend to Israel. But his conduct in recent days over the Gaza cease-fire raises serious doubts over his judgment and perception of regional events. It’s as if he isn’t the foreign minister of the world’s most powerful nation, but an alien, who just disembarked his spaceship in the Mideast.
The cartoon (featured image) captured Kerry’s delusional attitude precisely. It shows John Kerry mediating between Hamas and Bibi Netanyahu.
Hamas’s demand was Death to All Jews. That is an actual Hamas demand. The Hamas charter calls for killing all Jews, and Hamas Imams call for the same.
Kerry asked Bibi to at least meet Hamas half way.
The cartoon worked at so many levels, and it went viral.
It had over 100,000 shares on Facebook, and that’s only counting the direct shares. It probably was shared several times that if you count people who didn’t link to the original but just posted the image.
The cartoon was reposted at dozens (if not hundreds) of other websites. Scroll through this Google image search for page after page of posting of the cartoon.
People forwarded me the cartoon to call it to my attention, not realizing (despite the text in the upper left) that it was ours. On more than one occasion I heard people I didn’t know talking about it — and I of course interrupted, hey, that’s OUR cartoon.
Tony has had many great cartoons. But there is none other that has so captured the essence of a political and historical moment. In my humble opinion.
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Comments
Awesome as always! And, what a contrast to compare then to now.
I was not for Trump, but I am so thankful he is supporting Israel, and mending the relationship with our ally in the region who shares our nation’s love of liberty and the right of people to live free.
(BTW–I think you mean 2014 in the by-line….not 2104. 😉 )
I was not for Trump in the primaries but got on board as soon as the choice was down to Donald versus Hillary. He is working out much, much better than I expected but I would have settled for less as long as it was not the Clinton agenda with its judges, regulations and foreign policy.
Your comment is representative of me and many in my circle. We held our noses voting for Trump but there was no way any of us could vote for Hillary. While we’re disgusted with much of his tweeting and public statements, policy-wise he is getting so much done that has been over-all good for our country.
I am just relieved to see that people are waking up to the bad character of Hamas. Someday there will be case studies about the collective insanity that resulted from several generations of raising children to murder their neighbors.
Several generations? Try several centuries!
14, if I’m counting correctly.
Tricky when dealing with the Arab calendar, in which a “century” is really a few weeks short of 97 years.
It reminds me of the Israeli invasion of Fatahland in 1982, when every time the IDF had Fatah on the ropes, the UN would call another ceasefire, and Israel would foolishly agree. The enemy would use the opportunity to regroup, recover, move troops to where they were needed, and then of course break the ceasefire at the time most convenient to them. And the Israeli government fell for it every time, so as not to look like the bad guys, which they did anyway just for being Israel.
I also recall the photo that appeared on front pages everywhere, of a cute little Arab boy in a hospital bed, covered in bandages, supposedly the victim of IDF phosphor bombs or something. Turned out the photo was from the Lebanese civil war a few years earlier, but only maybe 0.5% of those who saw the original photo saw the retraction. Pallywood version 1982, before the word was coined.
In 1983 Zev Chafets wrote a book called “Double Vision: The Media’s War on Israel”. After re-reading it a couple of years ago I realized nothing has changed, it was always as bad as today. The only difference is the internet, so more people are aware of “Pallywood” and their friends in the media.
One of my favorite Branco cartoons! It captures the ludicrous inanity of Hanoi John and the rest of the Obamites perfectly. (However … has it really been four years?)
Branco’s cartoon is great – except for his not sufficiently capturing kerry’s post-plastic surgery resemblance to one of the Muppets.
Ever since I saw this great cartoon I have used its message in debates with my liberal friends. When they start their “Can’t we meet in the middle” crap, I mention this great cartoon. It shows them the absurdity of “Meeting in the middle” as a negotiating tactic.
I adored this cartoon then and adore it now.
Branco is a genius and he is still turning out genius level material.
I have been a fan for a long time and hope he continues to enlighten and delight us for many years to come.
My idea of compromise is that we asked for CHL in all 50 states, but settled for 25 additional shall issue states since Slick Willy got us all riled up and organized in 1994. That is compromise that I can live with.