Achtung!

In view of Germany's recent history, and having committed in living memory the most massive and sadistic true genocide in world history, the slaughter of more than a third of the world's Jews,  you'd think they'd opt out of indulging in the same antisemitic libels that were used to justify the extermination camps.  

Or at least wait until the last of survivors of the martyrs had died off. The present global population of Jews has still not reached its pre-Holocaust level.

But the German media group that owns Politico saw fit to publish a cartoon there, that could easily have been lifted intact from Der Sturmer, the German World War II obscenely libelous antisemitic publication of Julius Streicher, one of the original Nuremberg Trial defendants, who was hanged for "crimes against humanity," even though he was technically merely a journalist, albeit a rabble-rouser on steroids.

He drew some of his inspiration from the Jew-phobia of the Middle Ages that led to their expulsion from such countries as Spain and England and sparked gory persecutions in Europe and elsewhere. 

It appears that their cartoonist Sean Delonas, whom Vanity Fair once called "the worst cartoonist on the planet," may have subconsciously borrowed from similar sources.

Nothing positive is achieved by name-calling or by impugning his artistic expression, no matter how pathological or at least ill-informed. And although he created the lurid, despicable and implicitly pogrom-affirming imagery, (though he may not personally condone what it evokes) he should not be blacklisted. 

His craft requires that he draw straight lines, not think straight thoughts.

It's always a bad idea to "cancel" artists. Art, in all its forms, must be allowed to breathe freely, even if its breath is poisonous flame. Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound were among the rogues gallery of antisemites who rightfully have not been banned from concert halls and library shelves.

Artists are for the most part amoral, intellectually shallow narcissists who resort to shock value in the absence of meaning. Movie makers use the similar artifice of special effects when they are too lazy, clueless or bored of substance. 

They just carry out the orders of their Muse. Delonas does caricatures; Hitler did watercolors.

Ironically, he did people with the capacity for decency a favor by reviving their dormant awareness of the global scapegoating of Jews that has undergone countless cultural iterations over the centuries. It never went away or retreated from contemporary events, and it still sits well with many  aligned and non-aligned nations.

Politico removed his cartoon for one reason only: it was awkward from an optics standpoint.   

The offending cartoon did have some unintentional educational value, however. It disproved the false contention of many of Israel's harshest critics that its supporters are trying to shut down criticism of its alleged human rights abuses by making the terms Israeli and Jewish interchangeable, thereby rendering anti-Israel activism synonymous with antisemitism.

That erroneous association was made, perhaps subliminally, by the artist, but actual antisemites will jump at any chance to subscribe to this false equivalency.

Delonas, who worked for the New York Post's Page Six feature from 1990 to 2013, has a history of what may euphemistically be termed "controversial" cartoons. They are not merely crude lampoons. 

The proverbial "canary in the coal mine" alerts unwitting  miners to toxic gas so they can escape, though the canary is sacrificed. Delonas remains on his perch, but noxiousness is still takes its toll. 

His Politico expurgated illustration depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an enormous nose, squatting on a mountain of blood-spattered cash. He was also wearing blood soaked prayer shawls and skullcaps on a boat with the Hebrew word for "enemy" falling off a waterfall into Iran.

Aw, it must just be that he has a thing for noses, whether hooked or flat: an equal-opportunity degrader. 

Historically, antisemites have always maliciously caricatured Jews with hooked noses exaggerated to the point of deformity and defamed them with canards about money worship. These portrayals go back more than a thousand years—long before Benjamin Netanyahu's mother was pregnant.

So it's Israel's critics who are guilty of conflation, not the other way around.

The calculated ambiguity of meaning is both a sword of belligerence and a shield against accountability. It functions like a card in the confidence game of three-card monte.

There certainly is a risk that when charges of antisemitism are made reflexively and without rhyme or reason, the accusation loses its sting and even its moral authority. But was that the case when worshipers, claiming they were harassed and felt endangered when they exited their synagogues, were confronted by screaming anti-Israel demonstrators?

As a remedy, the City Council passed a veto-proof bill that will permit the NYPD to establish a security zone around houses of worship of all faiths. Its opponents cited First Amendment free speech rights as a diversionary smokescreen. 

The Democratic Socialists of America contend it will "expand the capacity of the NYPD to police and surveil Black, Brown and immigrant New Yorkers, jeopardizing the safety of protesters..."

All enforcement and protective measures should cover all New Yorkers on a non-sectarian basis.

So far, only synagogues have been targeted for mass protests, although practitioners of other religions have been individually victimized. Would the First Amendment principle still be held inviolable by the synagogue protesters  if in other instances, the  politically ideological and spiritual affiliations of  the role players were different?

Delonas' cartoons are not the message; they are the medium. He is not a neo-Streicher, despite superficial similarities.

Yet Nazi ideology has re-emerged from universal and absolute renunciation, to carry messages, somewhat veiled, that are no longer unthinkable, but have largely shed heir stigma and been welcomed by mainstream communication outlets.

Politico, through its German parent company, owes reparations (in the sense of making repairs, not monetary penalties) beyond a pro-forma retraction. Their retroactive disclaimer that Delonas was an independent contractor whose cartoon in question, couldn't get under their limbo stick of standards, is a cover-up. 

He's nonetheless a talented guy. Can't take that away from him. 

Maybe he can get a gig with the International Criminal Court, the European Union or the United Nations.

Democracy dies in forums.  And shutdowns.

From Oct. 1 to April 1, the federal government was "partially" shut down twice for a combined 91 days. For affected workers, it was "total," and their creditors were totally unwilling to show them any mercy. 

Members of Congress, from the conservative "Freedom Caucus" to the progressive Democratic Socialists, blithely went on hiatus, and were seen, with smiles wider than the sky, breezing past long airport lines on route to Disney  World.

It's been suggested that their salaries should also be withheld, as a humbling reminder that they too are government employees. The difference is that for them (they all partake of elitist perks), salary is just an insignificant fraction of what they rake in.

For the duration and extending a calendar year beyond future shutdowns, all their insider trading privileges (never legal for the rest of us) should be suspended.

Sean Delonas should do an album of cartoons centering upon Congressional arrogance and hypocrisy. He doesn't owe us penance, but still it would go a long way to redeeming him in the eyes of his critics.