Bigleftoutside: Let's talk about the controversial cartoon. I can't for the life of me figure out what is supposedly anti-Semitic about this cartoon. Seems to me that this cartoon speaks an undeniable reality: that the buses inside the Israeli-occupied zones often result to be coffins, as a result of bombings. To me, that cartoon is as accurate as a news photo, in some ways more accurate. There's nothing in the cartoon that cheers the idea of bombings. It simply addresses their root cause: the occupation of Palestinian lands...

Latuff: I tried to express in this cartoon that due occupation of Palestinian territories, the security wall, the settlements and shit, to take a bus in IsraHell can be deadly. That's all. But you know, my slanderers will always try to find a reason for bashing me. If I make a cartoon with a baker putting breads in an oven, people will call me anti-Semitic because Jews were thrown into ovens and such. Everything can be a good excuse.

I'm not sure if I can add anything to this, since the gentleman manages to hang himself pretty well on his own, except to say that, considering the fact that the violence began after Yasser Arafat's refusal of the Barak peace offer, it would seem that the root cause of the Palestinian violence is actually their refusal to end the Israeli occupation. A refusal that stems from their desire to hurl the Israelis into the sea and turn all of what was once Mandatory Palestine into an Arab supremacist state. Of course, this flies in the face of those who believe the Palestinians are entitled to slaughter as many innocent people as they feel like, whenever they feel like it; since, after all, they are merely "reacting" to "root causes" and can't be expected to react in any other way except through savage violence (anyone else think this line of thinking is obviously racist?). It gets better:

Latuff: ...unfortunately many Leftists are confused when dealing with IsraHell/Palestine issues, afraid to be labeled as anti-Semitic, particularly activists from the United States and Europe. That's why they try to please Zionists and anti-Zionists from time to time. Poor guys! I wouldn't like to be in their position. They can't tell the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. I suggest they take a trip to West Bank, like I did in 1999, to look at the real thing.

Well, I can tell the difference between them, even from over here in "IsraHell" (very classy, LatuffHitler); anti-semitism is a multitude of ideologies all of which preach hatred of the Jewish people and advocate their oppression and/or genocide. Anti-Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people are not a people deserving of national self-determination and empowerment and, should they achieve national self-determination and empowerment, it must be snuffed out by means of oppression and/or genocide (i.e. "throwing the Jews into the sea"). Exactly how is this not a racist ideology? Exactly what do I call someone who believes that, because I am a Jew, I am doomed to walk the Earth for all eternity without a homeland or the power to defend myself against oppression and violence? Who decrees that my people are not, in fact, a people like all others, but rather something of a lower order, destined for perpetual wandering, helplessness, and finally eradication. What do I call such a person, if I do not call him a racist? To coin a phrase, Zionism is the radical belief that the Jews are human beings, Mr. Latuff, apparently, believes otherwise.