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On the Face in the News
Lebanese and Israelis blog
the war: edited by Michael Totten
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Re: Re: World Cup: Italy v. Germany
by Lisa Goldman
This cartoon was originally in Hebrew and meant for an Israeli audience. Israeli humour does not translate very well, unfortunately: the point of the cartoon is to make fun of Israeli prejudices and provincial attitudes. Also, just as Black Americans think it's funny to call White Americans "honkies" or "crackers," so do a lot of Israelis think it's funny to call Germans Nazis. They don't mean it literally and they don't think about it (although I agree that they certainly should). It's usually considered more acceptable, in western society at least, for the oppressed to make jokes about the (former or current) oppressers even if they are in questionable taste. In Israel it is considered "acceptable" for Mizrachi Jews to make jokes about Ashkenazi Jews, but the reverse is considered racist. If a European newspaper were to publish an anti-Semitic cartoon it would (rightfully, I think) be considered racist - a continuation of the attitudes that motivated those who perpetrated the holocuast. In other words, the cartoon may be a bit tasteless but your comparison doesn't work.
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