This is possibly the most accurate political cartoon to come out of this Israel-Hamas conflict, but you likely haven't seen it because The Washington Post deleted it after complaints from their anti-Jewish readers.
Seriously, they deleted this 100% truthful cartoon.
The Washington Post published then deleted a political cartoon depicting a spokesman for Hamas after the paper received backlash. Many readers felt the cartoon, which was published on Wednesday, was racist and offensive.
Opinion editor David Shipley even issued an apology:
As editor of the opinion section, I am responsible for what appears in its pages and on its screens. The section depends on my judgment. A cartoon we published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved, was seen by many readers as racist. This was not my intent. I saw the drawing as a caricature of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel.
However, the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that. Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times.
In this spirit, we have taken down the drawing. We are also publishing a selection of responses to the caricature. And we will continue to make the section home to a range of views and perspectives, including ones that challenge readers. This is the spirit of opinion journalism, to move imperfectly toward a constructive exchange of ideas at all possible speed, listening and learning along the way.
Bro, we live in strange times. You can't even draw up hard-hitting factual political cartoons these days without being labeled a racist. I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter which side of this conflict you're on, this cartoon should hit home for everybody. Instead, the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel crowd can't accept the truth so they just complain that it's racist and WaPo takes it down.
What a shame. This political cartoon would've gone viral real quick. Honestly though, now that it was pulled, it will likely become even more of a viral sensation.
Thank you, censorship!
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