Thursday, February 23, 2006

Henry Kissinger (1975)

1975 Dry Bones cartoon - Henry Kissinger
The Yom Kippur War of October 1973 was halted when Israel reversed the tide and stopped losing. We in Israel were then treated to what was then called "shuttle diplomacy". The guy shuttling back and forth trying to pressure us was U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He became the butt of many Dry Bones cartoons at that time. But when he made the outrageous statment cited in this cartoon I went for his butt with a vengeance.

That I was warning Henry with a New York ghetto phrase was totally lost on my editors at the Jerusalem Post. They did not understand that the reference to Henry's "white ass" meant anything other than the donkey on which the Messiah was to ride into Jerusalem. An advantage of working in English in a non-English speaking country.

My editor was concerned, though, about the cartoon being possibly insulting to Christians. I assured him that they'd be okay with it. The next day the Jerusalem Post got a telephone call from a publication that loved and wanted to publish the cartoon.

It was "Christ for The Nations", in Lubbock Texas.

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