Applying the Old Incentive Switcheroo to Anti-Semitism

So what do you do if you’re a Jewish cartoonist in Israel and the following happens:

a. A Danish newspaper commissions artists to draw editorial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad, and said cartoons set off a furor in the Muslim world.

b. Iran responds to said furor by putting out a call for anti-Semitic cartoons about the Holocaust. (Sure, that’s a non sequitur of a response to the Danish cartoons, but what the heck.)

Amitai Sandy, a 29-year-old graphic artist and comic-book publisher in Tel Aviv, came up with the following solution: a new anti-Semitic cartoon contest, with the submissions drawn by Jews themselves.

“We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!” Sandy said. “No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!”

This is reminiscent of how Planned Parenthood responds to abortion-clinic protestors: by soliciting donations based on how many protestors show up. Here’s a link to the Israeli anti-Semitic cartoon contest website; here’s a Reuters article about the contest. (Thanks to Michael Fried for the tip.)

For what it’s worth, I’d like to take this opportunity to commend the commentors on the previous post, about women’s hockey and BMI: there was plenty of disagreement but, goodness, it was handled civilly. May we all move forward in the same spirit.