I’ve been occasionally accused of anti-Semitism in my cartoons criticizing Israel, here are a couple of examples. I drew this cartoon below during the last Israel/Hamas battle a few years ago.
My critics claimed that the helmet on the soldier resembled a Nazi soldier’s helmet, because of the jag at the base that covers the top of the soldier’s ear. I did a Google search at the time, to see what Israeli helmets look like, and they had the ear jag – still, Nazi helmets have a strong visual image. I also got complaints about the nose on the soldier being too big.
The second complaint was that I put the Star of David on the Israeli soldier’s helmet, rather than the Israeli flag, which is a rectangle with the Star of David with a blue stripe above and below. Putting the Star on the helmet implied that he was any Jew, rather than an Israeli soldier. I guess I would have done the whole flag on his helmet, if I had it to do over again.
Later, when a bunch of ships tried to break the blockade of Gaza and were attacked by Israel, I drew this related cartoon and didn’t get so much criticism – maybe because I softened the shape of the helmet over the ear (his nose is a little smaller, too).
