Jonathan Shapiro, a.k.a “Zapiro,” is a talented and witty editorial cartoonist hailing from South Africa. His drawings frequently poke fun at South Africa’s ruling elite, and that of the world in general.
Yet Shapiro shares and promotes the fervent anti-Israel sentiments that enjoy political favor in South Africa (much as in Europe). His cartoons often cross the line between anti-Israel criticism and outright anti-Jewish bigotry, as in this latest offering, which appeared in South Africa’s Cape Times:
The cartoon refers to a recent “hot mic” incident involving U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, in which the latter called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “liar.” Instead of being outraged–as most American observers were–by the evident hostility expressed by Obama and Netanyahu towards their Israeli counterpart, Shapiro celebrates Sarkozy’s errant remark.
Shapiro’s cartoon does not refer to a specific act Netanyahu has committed, or about which he is alleged to have lied. In the background, we see a group of downtrodden Palestinians being led away from their homes at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers–marked as such by the Jewish Star of David on their helmets. That image might refer to allegations–largely untrue–that Israeli solders expelled Arab civilians in 1948, when Israel was forced to defend its existence against invading armies from neighboring Arab states. But nothing remotely similar has happened on Netanyahu’s watch. The cartoon is, therefore, itself a lie about Netanyahu–and a criticism of Israel’s very existence, not just Netanyahu in particular.
Shapiro also chooses to portray Netanyahu not as an Israeli, but as a Jew–the stylized Jew of Yiddish folklore, as portrayed in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (itself a loose interpretation of Tevye the Dairyman by the great Jewish writer Shalom Aleichem). Shapiro is a better artist than a lyricist: he makes Netanyahu sing about “persecuting and dispossessing Palestinians just as others have done to us Jews,” which does not even rhyme, but serves to reinforce a false parallel between Jews and Nazis. In endorsing Sarkozy’s insult, therefore, Shapiro is not just attacking the state of Israel, but the Jewish community in general.
It is not the first time Shapiro has attacked an Israeli leader with hostile, misleading, and frankly antisemitic imagery.
In 2002, when Israel launched a counter-terror operation in the West Bank following a string of brutal and deadly mass terror attacks by Palestinians, Shapiro rushed to endorse false Palestinian claims of a “massacre” in the Palestinian city of Jenin. In doing so, he portrayed then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a Nazi standing atop a pile of Palestinian dead and wounded:
Shapiro has treated virtually every other Israeli leader the same way. For example, he portrayed then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a butcher during the Second Lebanon War–a defensive war in response to kidnappings and shellings by Hezbollah terrorists:
Shapiro is Jewish himself, a fact he frequently uses to dismiss charges that his work is antisemitic. He is the epitome of the phenomenon of the “self-hating Jew”–a misnomer, because the character that term describes typically dislikes other Jews, and admires his or her own performative self-righteousness. Shapiro is also willfully ignorant of the facts of the Middle East–a claim I can confirm from personal experience of having encountered him at public debates about Israel and discussions of his work.
Yet Shapiro’s work is currently on display at the world-renowned South African Jewish Museum, of all places, because the small and beleaguered South African Jewish community is often at great pains to highlight the contributions of its members to the broader society. That is especially the case when those contributions–no matter how dubious–are popular within South Africa’s political and media elite, which community leaders hope to appease. Members of the Jewish community who are offended by Shapiro’s cartoons are calling for the exhibit to be taken down, but the museum is unlikely to satisfy that demand, lest it be (falsely) accused of censorship.
The general lesson to be drawn is that in Diaspora communities–whether in South Africa or the United States–statements of official Jewish support for powerful political or media figures ought to be interpreted in the context of minority politics. Even in America, many Jews feel a sense of social and political vulnerability–a feeling that is outdated, perhaps, but which stems from real experiences of prejudice. Jewish community leaders therefore often prefer to downplay differences with important leaders–such as President Obama–than to see those differences become potent political issues, even when those differences are stark.
The recent special election in New York’s 9th congressional district, in which Democrat icon and former New York mayor Ed Koch supported Republican Bob Turner to send a message of disapproval to President Obama, is the exception that proves the rule. (Indeed, Koch quickly stepped back into line, and endorsed Obama’s re-election.) The “rule” is the behavior of Jewish organizations like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, which have joined Democrats in calling for Israel to be neutralized as a political issue in the 2012 contest. The Republican Jewish Coalition’s executive director, Matt Brooks, rejected that call–and in doing so, displayed political courage that is unfortunately rare in the Jewish world.
The fact that a Jewish museum would honor an offensive, anti-Israel, Jew-baiting cartoonist–solely because he is a Jew who enjoys a certain political power and status–is shocking, but not unusual. It is also a reminder that politicians who choose to support Israel should do so on the merits of that policy, and not necessarily with any hope of attracting broad Jewish support.
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