Democrats Rush to Rashida Tlaib’s Rescue Over Cartoon Depicting Her With Exploded Pager
“This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this.”
The story of the exploding pagers and how they wreaked absolute havoc on Hezbollah terrorists last week will be studied, analyzed, and debated long after anyone reading this is gone.
“The attack on the militant and political group Hezbollah via exploding pagers and walkie-talkies this week, widely believed to be conducted by Israel, was a novel use of a well-trodden spy tactic and a devastating intelligence blow to Hezbollah, ” NBC News reported after interviews with warfare and intelligence experts.
The tactic, of course, was condemned by The Usual Suspects including members of the so-called “Squad” of anti-Israel radicals in Congress like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who called it “disgusting” and retweeted a post from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who declared “This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent a wider conflict.”
Two days later, cartoonist Henry Payne shared the following cartoon on his Twitter/X page, which featured Tlaib acting shocked that her pager had exploded:
Cartoon: Tlaib Pager Hamashttps://t.co/wdwWCbCgmj pic.twitter.com/8AF3kA8Llk
— Henry Payne (@HenryEPayne) September 19, 2024
National Review Online also posted it as their cartoon of the day that same morning.
Not surprisingly, Tlaib being called out for her well-documented terroristic sympathies prompted the Squad and their allies to erupt once more, alleging that it was “racist” and that it would incite violence and threats against the Islamic-American community:
Thank you, Mayor @AHammoudMI, for speaking up. Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this… https://t.co/JTn2mur4Yj
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 20, 2024
Vile. Racist. Islamophobic trash.@NRO, @DetroitNews, you should be ashamed for spewing this filth, betraying any shred of journalistic integrity, and putting communities in danger. You chose hate over truth. You’ve failed your readers and your community. https://t.co/lOUs7H9DtJ
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) September 20, 2024
The way Islamophobia and anti-Arab hatred is so deeply normalized and accepted in our politics is horrifying.
It rarely receives the equal condemnation it deserves. It is inexcusable and a massive double standard.
This is disgusting. And so is the silence around it. We see it. https://t.co/UTmUn5xNPU
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 20, 2024
Anti-Arab bigotry & Islamophobia must not be allowed to be normalized. Henry Payne and the National Review should apologize immediately to @RashidaTlaib for this offensive comic. pic.twitter.com/G4xsklFy8i
— Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) September 20, 2024
Shameful and disgusting.
While civilians were maimed and terrorized, Detroit News is making racist and Islamophobic caricatures of a sitting Member of Congress and putting communities in danger.
Hate should never be normalized. https://t.co/vVTISOFj1D
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) September 21, 2024
Anti-Arab racism is so normalized that this racist cartoon ran in a major newspaper. This is ridiculous.
Absolutely disgusting & @detroitnews owns Rashida Tliab & the Arab American community an apology. https://t.co/Oq4h3qvAGC
— Nadia Rahman 駱雯 (@nadiarahmansf) September 20, 2024
For starters, the Detroit News didn’t publish the cartoon. Payne is not even a cartoonist for the publication:
The editorial cartoon depicting Rep. Rashida Tlaib was distributed by @AndrewsMcMeelSyndicate. The @DetroitNews was not involved in its production or distribution and chose not to run it. The cartoonist works for The News in a different role, as an auto critic.
— Nolan Finley (@NolanFinleyDN) September 20, 2024
Further, perhaps the real outrage was over the fact that the cartoon was too close to the truth for their comfort:
If the shoe fits… https://t.co/6fGCC7wn8M pic.twitter.com/TVN0sinygQ
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) September 21, 2024
This cartoon is evoking such extreme fake outrage because it hits too close to the reality of Tlaibs’ political agenda which is shared by the activist progressive base of the Democratic Party. https://t.co/OCKzsJHWRR pic.twitter.com/kkwxi7NhOx
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) September 21, 2024
What does “From the River to the Sea” normalize, Rashida? pic.twitter.com/69WzMIVK83
— 5th Gen AZ Family (@bullfrog35) September 20, 2024
Lastly, perhaps NRO will take down their cartoon when Tlaib takes this tweet down:
Antisemitic Jew hater Jihad Squadist Rashida Tlaib is very upset with this cartoon that was published in the National Review. Since she still hasn't taken down her false, libelous post that falsely claimed Israel bombed a Gaza hospital on October 17 where 500 doctors, adults and… pic.twitter.com/DfvsLJpEs1
— Saint James Hartline (@JamesHartline) September 21, 2024
There was also this:
Just last year, 2019, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shared an anti Semitic cartoon by Carlos Latuff on Instagram, who in 2006, came 2nd in Iran’s International Holocaust Cartoon Contest. pic.twitter.com/d6zN4IagQS
— Claire (@Claire_V0ltaire) December 13, 2020
The good news is that Payne is standing his ground. Also, the Detroit News isn’t planning on canceling him, although they’ve asked him to stop putting his Detroit News email address on his cartoons going forward:
I did reach Payne by phone who told me “Jews are under an existential threat from Iran and its Hamas-Hezbollah proxies not seen since WWII … my cartoons for Andrews McNeel have been consistently critical of Rep. Tlaib’s lack of Congressional leadership in failing to support Israel’s battle for survival.”
The Detroit News tells me they do not plan to remove Payne or discipline him in any way for making the cartoon.
However, they say Payne was asked to discontinue use of the Detroit News email and agreed, when working for other publications, given that the Detroit News has nothing to do with creation of this cartoon.
The bad news is the Outrage Mob is continuing to do its thing. Hopefully, NRO won’t back down in the face of demands for an apology/retraction.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
The cartoon was ‘over the target. America is at the “Time for Choosing” moment..
How about a cartoon for an exploding personal entertainment device. She is so ugly it is hard to believe she has any options.
The cult of alleged, contrived and fallacious Muslim grievance and victimhood is tiresome and evil. Nothing could be more perverse, obtuse and morally repugnant than casting Muslims — representing ~25% of the world’s population, and adherents of the most consistently and persistently belligerent, fascistic, totalitarian, hate-filled, violent and pathology-laden ideology on Earth — as an allegedly aggrieved victim group.
Muslim victimology theatrics and rhetoric are contemptible and are part and parcel of well-worn Muslim supremacist/Islamofascist agitprop tactics.
Applause!
The only “hate and violence” that I have seen since 10/7 in the USA is against Jewish communities – largely ignored by the Biden-Harris administration.
Islam was created by the big Mo as a religion of war and oppression dedicated to world conquest and oppression. For 500 years Islam put their faith in practice conquering the world.
Everything I needed to know about islam I learned on 9/11 and nothing that had happened in the intervening 23 years has dissuaded me from that conclusion.
As to Rep. Tlaib, if you don’t like being criticized for being a supporter of a muslim terrorist organization such as Hezbollah, I have a great idea: don’t support Hezbollah. IKR?
I know that if I were either a member or supporter of Hezbollah – as Tlaib clearly and unapologetically is – I would be deeply embarrassed by the idiocy of my organization in being taken out by a bunch of pagers, walkie talkies and surgical strikes. What a deeply stupid organization.
Imagine if AOC responded to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel by saying: “This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent a wider conflict.”
No, she didn’t say that about Hezbollah. She’s perfectly fine with rocket attacks on Israel. The more, the merrier. It’s when Israel responds, and eliminates the terrorist’s command and control, that’s when AOC has issues.
Collateral damage? Welcome to war. It comes with the territory.
That AOC is despicable doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Truth hurts. The cartoon hurts a lot!
“Show us on the pager where the cartoon hurt you.,”
That is dangerous misinformation. Tlaib is Hamas, not Hezbollah.
An appropriate cartoon about Tlaib would have her suicide vest blowing up in her closet.
Very little to choose between, there.
Nip that shit in the bud as it begins with a false premise.
Islam is NOT a race, it is a violent theocracy
Did anyone check to see if one of her pagers actually did explode? Maybe this is just an artist’s depiction of what happened and not a political cartoon.
Obviously, none of her outrage brigade read The Babylon Bee.
Or maybe they just realize they have a better chance of bullying MSM weenies.
Well… her head ‘sploded!
The left can’t stand the power of the right wing memeosphere. It’s a communications mode that’s out of their control.
They are also as humorless as the Air America left wing radio show used to be. To paraphrase Col. Kilgore, “Charlie don’t meme.”
Maybe a Dick Tuck type prank needs to get going, where folks from all over the country mail her old pagers and cell phones.
Everything I needed to know about islam I learned on 9/11 and nothing that had happened in the intervening 23 years has dissuaded me from that conclusion.
We want cartoons tat are as offense ass possible, like her using a stick of Dynamite with a burning fuse for personal entertainment.
Apparently, Tlaib’s Terrorist cousins liked to keep their pagers in their front pockets near their junk. I haven’t seen so many balls in the air since I attended my son’s soccer practice.
Or a room full of juggling clowns.
The pagers that exploded were assigned to Hezbollah members. The exploding pager next to Congresscritter Tlaib merely implies that as she is a faithful supporter of Hezbollah, she is not that different from being an actual member of Hezbollah.
Why is it “racist” to paint Congresscritter Tlaib as a faithful supporter of Hezbollah, when that is what she is? When has Congresscritter Tlaib ever criticized something that Hezbollah has done?
I think the hand wringing over the Squad’s panties getting in a twist has long since run it’s course. Few pay attention except to mock them for it.
So just what is the difference between Islamophobia and Islamorealism? Is it because of Islamorealism that Islamophobia exists? As I recall it was not the Greek Orthodox who attacked on 911. It was Islamist’s who killed over 3000 American civilians. So why is it Palestinian civilians are of greater value to the Biden administration and some congressional members than the American lives on 911.
Maybe she can’t decide whether she’d be more embarrassed to admit she had a pager that blew up or to admit that Hezbollah didn’t consider her important enough to have been issued one of their pagers.
Terrorists deserve no mercy. They should be exterminated whenever and wherever they are found, by any means possible. And their supporters should be treated the same way.
As for Islam, Islam is a racist, supremacist, totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion. For 1,400 years, the followers of this death cult have, and have always had, but a single goal: conquer the world, kill anyone who gets in the way, and turn the survivors into slaves. The civilized world had best wake up to this reality real soon.
Oh, a pet peeve of mine is the use of the word “Islamophobia” to refer to hatred of Muslims. Wrong. A “phobia” is an irrational and unjustified fear of something or someone. It has nothing to do with hatred or distaste. As for fearing Islam and its followers, well, based upon their actions of the last 1,400 years, fearing it and them is anything but irrational or unjustified.
I wonder if that other squad member is giving her turban the side eye?
talib is a terrorist
BU THEIR OWN DEFINITION
Since a pager possessed by the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon exploded it might have been considered a “badge of honor” to actually have an exploded pager – one is “in the loop”. Perhaps it is actually embarrassing that Rep Tlaib is considered so unimportant as to not be “in the loop”.
You only catch that much flak when you’re above the target.