Gerald Scarfe, anti-Semitic? No.

So, that Gerald Scarfe cartoon, then. I don’t like it much, but then I like cartoons which make me laugh, (and especially so if they have animals in them). McLachlan, Honeysett, Rowson et al – and on a daily basis of course, Matt. I’m always at a bit of a loss with those big cartoons in the broadsheets which are attempting to tell me something very meaningful and make me stroke my chin. This one made me averse because it seemed to encapsulate the shrieking hysteria of the metro-left; translated into words, it says: ‘Netanyahu is building walls out of the blood of murdered Palestinian innocents!’, which is exactly the sort of statement you could expect from, say, George Galloway, perhaps whilst he was prostrating himself before the kindly and liberal-minded leaders of Hamas.

But anti-semitic? I don’t think so. I don’t quite see that. The difference with the Ward statement (from previous blog) is pretty clear: It is Netanyahu, not ‘the Jews’ who is being held culpable. Rightly or wrongly. I assume I’m in the minority on this site and some will say this is a self-interested defence. I assure you it isn’t.