"GRAPHIC NOVELIST" DIDN'T LIKE ISRAEL BEFORE, DOESN'T NOW EITHER

There's this very saddening item in recent news of an American Jew named Sarah Glidden who put together a graphic novel called "How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less", and it didn't surprise me that it reeks of hostility to the Jewish state, and a weird obsession with "palestinian" Arabs. In this Haaretz article (via Newsarama) about little miss Glidden, it may say she "stopped worrying" and "started loving Israel" but if this is any suggestion:

The author doesn't try to conceal her critical attitude toward Israel, but admits that she has developed an obsession about the country.

"I think there are a lot of American Jews who are similarly obsessed. Part of the reason, I think, is that if you are an American Jew, whether you are secular, Reform or Conservative, you are raised being told that Israel is your country too, and you can move there, and be a citizen, so it is a place that somehow is important to you. I always had this feeling that I have to have a relationship with Israel, and sometimes I didn't want to have this relationship, when I would hear the news and get upset, or people would be talking about Israel and I was wanting to defend it, and I would be ashamed about what the government there was doing, much in the way that I'm ashamed about the United States sometimes, when it does things I don't agree with."

When Glidden visits the Golan Heights in the book, she is shocked by the Zionist propaganda awaiting her in a visitors center there; she visits Kibbutz Degania and is angry that the stories of the pioneers' heroism ignore the Palestinian residents who were there before them; she is rescued by the skin of her teeth from the frightening crowds at the Purim parade in Holon ("Stereotype No. 142: Israelis love to push. Status: confirmed" ); and in Jaffa she is angry that the tour guide prefers to present the mixed city's history via entertaining tales, rather than by discussing difficult incidents in its past.

At the same time, however, Glidden is also surprised to discover that the Israeli guide is willing to answer tough questions too and to deal with criticism; indeed, she conducts conversations with Israelis that often surprise her. When she sees a group of soldiers up close, she is astonished to discover how young they are. And in the middle of the trip, in Tel Aviv, without advance warning, she has a sort of emotional breakdown.

"When I came here I wanted to receive confirmation of the fact that Israel is the bad guy in the story. I wanted to know that I could remove it from my life once and for all," her comic incarnation confesses in the book, under the monument built by sculptor Yigal Tumarkin in Rabin Square, to one of the Israelis accompanying the group. "But now I don't know any more. Suddenly I understand why Israel did some of the things it did. You're good people. At least some of you. Or maybe I'm simply getting brainwashed here, just as everyone warned me would happen!"

Okay, I think this is all we need to know that she tries...and fails to convince she's really on Israel's side, and doesn't buy into the libel that Britain if anyone started several decades ago. The problem is that it's just so jumbled and ambiguous, like the woman can't decide where she stands. If anything, I do think she's got a problem with moral equations.

(Notice how she doesn't mention Orthodox Judaism in her allusion to religious sects? Does that suggest she's got a problem with them, or even dislikes Hasidics?)

Here's another interview on Comics Alliance, and looking at it, it seems like she's repeatedly hinting that she wants the "palestinians" to be brought into focus (hence, her obsession), and thinks Israeli guides like Yad Vashem's are constantly leaving it out. Plus, there's this to consider:

...it was incredible, but that was the strongest example of actual propaganda and, you know, like Gil says, it is actually propaganda, because it was used during the '90s when Israel was considering giving back the Golan Heights. It was a movie made to make people reconsider that and turn against that idea. It was almost like a historical document of Israel in the '90s."

So she's in favor of giving it back to an enemy, Syria, with no respect for Israel? And I assume she doesn't support the Jewish bible and history either?

One more telling thing is a little revelation made by the Huffington Post Monitor blog, whose blogmaster also noticed what I did about young miss Glidden believing so strongly - or obsessively - in the palestianian narrative, yet that doesn't keep commentors on Arianna's site from coughing out hate.

And what does that tell us? That Glidden, clearly a leftist, has succeeded brilliantly in brewing up a masterpiece of moral equivalence. No need to bother about this tripe then. She's got to choose one side only, research more carefully what's right or wrong, and decide whether she supports Jewish identity or not. Otherwise, I don't think she's got a leg to stand upon. And her bizarre attitude is so galling, that's one more reason why I want nothing to do with her work.

One more thing worth noting from the article in leftist Haaretz:

"I thought there was no way DC Comics was going to be interested in someone like me. I'm a beginner; [I thought] they only publish comics about superheroes and fantasy. But I told him what it was all about and he bought a book and went away. Two days later, I got an e-mail saying that he was an editor at Vertigo publications [a division of DC specializing in comics for adults], and that they wanted to publish it. Only then did I realize that Vertigo does many things that are political. It was a dream come true."

Yeah, if you're a leftist. For this is also a company that's been making its politics clearer in recent years, and it's getting disgusting. That's why it's not really surprising that they've agreed to publish such a peculiar item.