Even though we know this, and we are prepared for it, we complain (while continuing our daily lives).
Of course it is much easier today with air condition in homes, cars, work places and what not.

How did they do it before all this modern inventions? Maybe even King Solomon with all his wisdom were just like us, making it more bearable by complaining.

King Solomon on the Heat

Courtesy: My favorite cartoonist, Yaakov Kirschen, creator of Dry Bones cartoons.

We live in an age of a great religious war.

The Islamist enemy seeks to overwhelm and subjugate the planet. Their goal is to erase all other religions and belief systems. This attack on cultural diversity and freedom of thought has come at a time when the West is most vulnerable. Most people in the West seem to have lost their religious belief and cannot really accept that they are facing an enemy that truly believes that they are carrying out the orders of an omnipotent, supernatural being.

These Westerners, blind to the truth, are convinced that there must be some “other” motivation behind the suicide bombings, the rioting, the terrorist attacks, and the hatred! Some motive that could be satisfied by improving economies, fighting poverty, relinquishing land, or some other “rational” concession. Strangely, even the government of Israel refuses to play the religion card and to announce that we are the Chosen People living in our Promised Land, having returned from exile as prophesied in both the Bible and the Koran.

An exception is, of course, the millions of Evangelical Christian Zionists in America. A community that a majority of Jews have been taught to mistrust. If you are one of those Jews please check out CUFI, Christians United For Israel.   (ed. I agree especially with the last paragraph)

This post will be the first in a series on funnies from Israel. It can be video clips, stories I come across, experiences from the world of tourism, or cartoons that express Israel. One of Israel’s saving graces has always been its ability to laugh at itself.

I will start with something that entertained me for many years as a reader of the off-line version of The Jerusalem Post, Yaacov Kirshen’s Dry Bones cartoons.

Yaacov Kirshen

This is what Kirshen says about himself:

Another Brooklyn boy. Born March 8, 1938. Graduated from Queens College 1961. Wrote and drew funny cards for Norcross. After dismissal for loudness and jocular attitude became a freelance gag cartoonist for the former “Mad Mag” guys who were then doing “Cracked”. Moved on to doing cartoons for Playboy. Included in several “Best Of” Playboy anthologies. Fell in with the anti-Vietnam War folks and was actually elected delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago where, in spite of all the riots, was unable to get arrested. In 1971 moved to Israel, changed first name from Jerry to Yaakov, and in 1973 began drawing a daily editorial strip called Dry Bones. In 2003 the toon celebrated its 30th year in the Jerusalem Post. It has been reprinted or quoted by the NY Times, Time Mag, LA Times, CBS, AP, etc.
Forbes Mag said about Kirschen: “In the tradition of Nast, Herblock, and Mauldin.”

I loved and still love Dry Bones. They are a daring, fresh and funny look at who we are, but at the same time expressing love and concern for this country. The cartoons with a political character that I include may not necessarily express my own political opinion. Something I don’t touch on in this blog. I pick the cartoons randomly from the vast archive of Dry Bones Cartoons.

Dry Bones

The Dry Bones Main Website

Dry Bones (Yaacov Kirshen) Blog