NOVANEWS
What’s a Pro-Boycott Cartoon of Stephen Hawking Doing in a Jewish Paper?
When I posted the cartoon below under the title Dontcha just love Jewish humour?, quite a controversy broke out.
In my ignorance I had assumed that the cartoon was straight-out pro-Israel but one correspondent put me right that the cartoon was actually ironic and that the cartoonist, Eli Valley (who apparently is very right-on), was really very anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. Another reader thought that the cartoon was just what it appeared to be – very pro-Israel and anti Stephen Hawking and the Boycotters. There was also talk about this or that piece of anti-Israelism being but a cover to promote what was, in effect, a pro-Zionist line line (albeit Zionism-lite)
As so often, I got a headache but I’ve found the subsequent article below pretty forthright. I must say, I particularly liked the author’s argument about Israel (and therefore, Jews) being singled out for special condemnation. It’s a hard argument to counter.
British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking waded into the Israel debate last week by announcing his decision to boycott an academic conference. Eli Valley offers his own unique graphic take on the controversy.
