"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

First there was a violent reaction to the cartoons printed by the Danish newspaper, then re-printed by others in the European Union.  Embassies burned down. Flags were burned. Death threats were issued. National boycotts ensued. People threw rocks.  Some people died.

And now? The retaliation continues -- through counterstrikes of cartoons.

You see, the Arab European League has decided that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" Meaning that, in the interest of free speech, they'll try to print the most inciteful, hate-mongering cartoons they can in order to show everyone else the power of removing such taboos. After all, they have the right to do so, correct?  Of course.

Interestingly enough, their cartoon submissions are not anti-Danish or anti-Europe. Nope. Pretty much all of them are antisemitic.

Which includes one of Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, exclaiming "Write THIS one in your diary, Anne!" Which I find funny on all sorts of levels. Not that the Holocaust or the death of Anne Frank are funny, of course. I simply think it's funny that it's a pathetic attempt to get the world's Jews riled up and expect them to do some flag and embassy burning of their own.  That and the fact that, in the cartoon, Hitler's nipples are little hairy swastikas.

Continuing further, Iran's president, in a move to not be "out-nutted" by anyone else, has decided to hold an international contest -- let's see who can draw the "best" cartoon satirizing the Holocaust! (To be fair, it wasn't the Iranian president himself who suggested this; it was a newspaper -- the largest one, actually -- run by the government in Tehran.) Again, the statement is: "You think you can offend us through your cartoons? Fine. We'll do the same to you."

My response?  Let 'em.

Let 'em have their fun.

It's not as if antisemitic cartoons are anything new. You can go back to Medieval times -- possibly earlier -- to find caricatures of Jews and their associations with the Devil.  And you can turn to mpst Arab national papers to find cartoons with antisemitic overtones -- whether they be of the hook-nosed Jew controlling the media, or whether they be drawings of Ariel Sharon covered with blood after whacking Palestinian children to bits with an axe with a swastika on top of it.

Will there be an outcry by the world community? By the Jewish community? Probably. But no death threats. No demonstrations on the street which will turn into firey riots. No flag burnings. And I can guarrantee you that there will not be a burning of the Iranian Embassy in Israel. (True. There isn't an Iranian Embassy in Israel. But if there were, it wouldn't be burning, either.)

Come on! Who are the best people at making caricatures of Jewish people?

Jewish people!

Woody Allen. Jerry Seinfeld. Paul Reiser. Robin Williams. (True. He's not Jewish. But it's fun to pretend he is.) Gilbert Gottfried. Jon Stewart. Richard Lewis. Larry David.  We're used to it! Hell, Werner Klemperer was Jewish and he played a Nazi on Hogan's Heroes! Robert Cleary was a concentration camp survivor who played... well, a concentration camp prisoner! (There's a fun scene in the Bob Crane biopic "Autofocus" where Robert is lamenting about how he has to cover up the numbers on his arm just so they could put on fake numbers on his arm.) The point is -- the Jewish community can out-do any bit of this that those who hate the Jews can do.

You know what would be great? If this "International Competition" to satirize the Holocaust actually happened. And they found the funniest one of them all and awarded it first place. And then the author unmasked himself and said "Surprise! My name is Josh Steinberg and I'm Jewish. And proud." I mean, they probably wouldn't have a sense of humor about it and they'd put a price on his head and he'd have to go into hiding forever. But for a moment he'd be proud. And so would the rest of us.

Let's see how this plays out...

(Acknowledgements to JewSchool for pointing me towards some of the content above.)