Middle East Facts Weblog

« Previous: Israel Bombs UN Observation Post being Used As a Terrorist Shield

Next: Was the “Massacre” of Qana Staged? »

An Editorial Cartoonist Who Truly Understands Middle East Politics

29 July 2006

Gary Varvel, editorial cartoonist for The Indianapolis Star since 1994, has posted a number of cartoons about the Middle East in the last few days. Mr. Varvel should be rewarded for his braveness - he calls a spade, a spade and is not ashamed to justify it.All of Gary Varvel’s editorial cartoons can be found in his blog (Editorial Cartoon Blog). Some of his recent cartoons focusing on the Middle East are shown below. Click on the thumbnails to see the originals (full-size images removed upon kind request by Gary Varvel). Enjoy!

Tags:editorial cartoon , hezbollah , iran , land for peace , syria , United Nations , united nations , un security council , World news

8 Responses to “An Editorial Cartoonist Who Truly Understands Middle East Politics”

1. jd Says:
   August 18th, 2006 at 5:44 am

   I like especially the last one, where Israel is this lovely small and peace-loving state, that is annoyed by its warmonger neighbours. Do you really convince yourself this is the way. Humm, let see two quick examples. On the side of Hamas, Israel has so far for more than 20 years in a row NOT complied with a UN resolution for retreiving from palestinian Land. On the side of Hezbullah (and just as a slight example), long long before hezbullah kidnapp anybody, Israel is violating the Airspace in Lebanon for about 10,000 times or more since 2000.. I bet Israel would wage a war against any who would do so to its airspace.. I neither like Hezbullah nor Hamas, and lots of Arabs are like me, but neither Israel nor US are helping the moderate arabs have a voice, when all they do is terrorize more and more people in the arab countries..

2. Dima Says:
   August 29th, 2006 at 6:37 pm

   Dear jd,
   Let us review the history. Israel became independent in 1948. Since then all its neighbors have been waging war against it. So far only 2 of its neighboring countries are formally at peace with it: Egypt (since 1979) and Jordan (since 1994!). Also note, that Israel has won every war with its neighbors, yet they still exist as independent countries. However, do you think that if Israel lost any one of those wars it would exist today? Israel’s neighbors such as Hamas, Hezbulla and the president of Iran have openly stated that their goal is the destruction of Israel. So I think the answer to the previous question is “no”. From all this it clearly follows hat Israel is indeed surrounded by warmonger neighbors.

3. Joe, UK Says:
   September 1st, 2006 at 8:22 pm

   Those cartoons express the truth much better than any story or article. Publish them everywhere to piss-off the islamofascists.

4. N.D Says:
   September 8th, 2006 at 11:39 am

   Dear Dima,
   You must understand that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation made from extremist members who are minorities compared with all the arab nations put together. By taking in every word Hezbollah makes and taking action against it, you must understand that you are not eliminating Hezbollah but you are instead eliminating hundreds or thousands of civilians. To eliminate Hezbollah, there needs to be some sort of Internal Affairs Organisation within Lebanon to do this without interrupting the lives of those many civilians who died as a result of Israel’s elimination plan. Thank God there was a UN resolution sought to create a cease fire among the two sides, otherwise the whole of south Lebanon would of been demolished just to eliminate an active terrorist organisation. Just like Israel has tactics, so does Hezbollah. Hezbollah would not be revealing himself to Israel during such conflict and has a very smart way of shooting missiles while hiding from Israel’s ammunition. The only people suffering Hezbollah’s actions are the civilians. I heard that may be a few Hezbollah militants had died but they will never be eliminated externally without the bombardment of South Lebanon altogether. I repeat, Internal affairs need to deal with this situation rather than externally by Israel. I really dislike the fact that some people are being brainwashed by the media and don’t take the time to understand the concept iv’e just discussed.

5. eh Says:
   September 12th, 2006 at 6:21 pm

   I think that the person who said that they love Israel and hate what other countries are doing to it but that Israel is terrerizing there country is full of BS. Because we make it known we are coming in house-by-house to find these terrorists not to find civilians, instead of just bombing all over the place like the Arab countries. Not to mention that we have a no one left behind policy. That is, if an Arab is hit in a shootout, Israel must take him no matter what. Arabs don’t and if I can voice my opinion then you can too. Maybe Arabs that agree with this should voice there opinion because this is not an Israel versus Arab fight - I don’t hate Arabs. I hate the kids and adults in the surronding countries throwing rocks.

6. hodin Says:
   October 17th, 2006 at 1:48 am

   I really wish you would consider using links instead of republishing editorial cartoon images on your site. You’re violating copyright law by doing so.

   If you think you’re the only web creative working hand to mouth, well I’ve got news for you. Each year, about a half-dozen top-notch American editorial cartoonists (and top editorial writers) lose their staff jobs at newspapers because of the crappy media consolidation and profit-taking by Wall Street. These cartoonists make their living off their art.

   Amateurs such as yourself (with all due respect) are mistakenly under the impression that they can “borrow” the images (and illegally store copies of them on their servers) for enhancing their own site, or for showing how politically hip they are, or for the love of cartooning, or for whatever reason.

   They think they are doing no harm, even going so far as to imply they’re doing us a favor by “distributing” our work to a larger audience.

   This is B.S.

   Using our work without permission is theft, plain and simple.

   If you appreciate our sweat and blood, then do the right thing and link to the cartoons at a site that sponsors them, like a news site, or the cartoonist’s own site, or our organization’s site, editorialcartoonists.com. You’d be doing us a favor. You’d be doing our craft a favor. And you’d be doing it the “respectful” way.
   Thanks.

7. MEF Says:
   October 17th, 2006 at 9:56 am

   I actually did link to Gary Varvel’s own blog in the post - but apparently you were too angry to notice.
   I have contacted Gary Varvel and he agreed with you and asked me to remove the cartoons.  Instead of removing them (in which I’d have to remove the whole post, because it would be pointless, I made thumbnails out of the cartoons and linked to the cartoons on Gary’s blog).  The thumbnails might prove to be a good middle ground, because you can’t really see the cartoons, but it might pique people’s interest.
   I truly do appreciate your craft - I think you guys are very talented, both artistically and politically. Trust me - when putting up the cartoons I had and have no intention to hurt you or your organization.

8. hodin Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 2:20 am

   First, let me apologize for the undue harshness of my initial comment. Whereas my cartooning occasionally benefits from the view from a high horse, in general communication tends to suffer.

   I applaud you for your concerted effort to contact Gary and make things right. To my knowledge, there is no Fair Use restriction on the use of graphic thumbnails. It looks like it worked out very well for the both of you. Bravo.

   And thank you very much for your work hosting an open discussion on very important topics. Best of luck to you.

Feedback

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website