"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

IF IT'S PRO-ZIONIST, IT ISN'T BALANCED?

A few weeks ago, I spoke about the leftist moral equation graphic novel "How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less", and it looks like I wasn't far off in my sad guesses that this was another of many modern day comics that gives the industry a bad name. This article from the Nashua Telegraph/Scripps Howard has a few more clues as to how insulting Sarah Glidden's leftist bias is to the intellect:
Sarah Glidden’s debut graphic novel “How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less” (DC/Vertigo, $24.99) registers in a lot of categories, and is charming and thoughtful in all of them.

On the surface, at least, “Israel” could be pigeonholed into that fast-growing category of the first-person graphic novel travelogue, like “Joe and Azat” and “Burma Chronicles.” Glidden’s ironically named book is about a “Birthright Tour” she and her gal pal/sounding board Melissa take to Israel. As such, the reader gets to travel with her to famous (and infamous) places such as the Golan Heights, Masada, the al-Aqsa mosque, the Western Wall and the Dead Sea.
And the writer of this sugarcoated smut says all this without clearly distinguishing between any of them. Which are famous and which aren't? I don't see the point of that absurd part in parenthesis.
It’s also something of a book exploring Middle Eastern politics, as discussion and argument about “the situation” ensues between the pro-Palestinian Sarah and her guides and fellow travelers, who hold a variety of opinions (or, like Melissa, none at all).

This places “Israel” in the fine company of other graphic novels that do similar heavy lifting about this thorny subject, such as Joe Sacco’s “Palestine” and “Footnotes in Gaza.”
Oh dear. He's comparing it to the works of an anti-Israel moonbat who's admitted he doesn't care for objectivity. Amazingly, he verifies that something is wrong with Glidden's political positions, and that she buys into the libel of a "palestinian people" that even Golda Meir said was non-existent. Why then should this be charming?

But here's the real money quote from the Nashua Telegraph article:
Glidden expects the Birthright Tour to brainwash her, and she has shields up and phasers on stun throughout. But, to her surprise, the presentation isn’t always pro-Zionist, and sometimes threatens to be balanced and reasonable.
Oh, I get it. If it's pro-Zionist, it's NOT balanced? There's where the writer of this propaganda piece really takes a dangerous swerve into hostile-to-Israel territory, and makes himself as bad - possibly worse - than Glidden. One more reason why this isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and is just as horrid as Joe Sacco's own works.

Update: speaking of which, the same moonbat propagandist who fawned over the Glidden book also fawned over Sacco's "Footnotes in Gaza" earlier in the year. Truly, absolutely shameful.

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