Cartoon Wars

Iran has made good on its threat to publish satirical cartons targeting Israel, the Holocaust and Christians in retaliation for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in the Western press. Irancartoon.com has published the first submissions.

But in fact one cartoon, depicting an Arab in a concentration camp, was drawn by Australian Michael Leunig. The prisoner wears the serial number 7256, which is the number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The contest is sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri.

A second artist, Moroccan Derkaoui-Abdellah, has drawn the hand of Islam sketching the dove of peace, while the hand of Denmark erases it.

The most controversial cartoon compares interned Jews in Auschwitz with Israel's current role as occupier (and camp prison guard) of the West Bank. View the cartoon here.