The Middle East Mess: A Brief Cartoon Survey

The main thing bothering me right now as a cartoonist is: what the hell can I say about the mess in the Middle East? I feel like I keep side-stepping the issue by finding domestic issues to do cartoons about—prisons, police brutality, Botox, and so on.

I do know that I'm really pissed off by all the cartoons that seem to imply that all Palestinians are violent psychos who want their children to blow themselves up for no apparent reason (see particularly offensive example by Brian Fairrington on www.cagle.com ). This approach condemns Palestinian violence but more importantly pretends that it has no source other than madness and cruelty--a view Tony Auth nicely contradicts in his cartoon version of the story, "The Creation of Militants." And this Flash animation by Mark Fiore tries to show both sides by depicting the violence as an endless (but escalating) feedback cycle.

But I honestly don't know that I have any particular insight into the matter. And I really don't want to just draw a sad-looking/dead dove... So for now I'll leave you with this final thought from The Boondocks.