Nowadays I don't do a lot of cartooning on International issues, particularly anything having to do with Israeli-Middle Eastern affairs. Every editorial cartoonist knows from experience that if they stake even the most subtle position on any given issue regarding the Middle East they'll risk facing the wrath from irate letter writers. Take, for example, one response I received after drawing a cartoon marking Ariel Sharon's massive stroke...

This is not to say comments like this turn me off from drawing on Israel, but if enough people complain to my editor, which is always the case regarding anything having to do with Israel, then I start hearing demands from my masters to be more "nuanced" in my approach to such subjects. Unfortunately, and I know editors will back me up on this not so nuanced declaration, when one chooses to satirize or critique policies carried out by the state of Israel one must be prepared to face some local backlash, such as being branded as anti-semetic.

This week I kept myself in the safe zone as each of my 3 cartoons dealt with the Canadian connection to the conflict between Israel and the Lebanon based Hezbollah. Generally speaking, my targets were this week's most vocal complainers. Bill Graham complaining about Stephen Harper choosing not to mince his words by saying Israel's bombardment of Lebanon was a measured response to aggression by Islamic extremists. who complained endlessly about the Canadian effort to rescue them from being killed by rocket attacks. And finally the media, cocooned in the bubble around a travelling Stephen Harper which seemed complain to about his every word, from abandoning Canada's traditional stance of indifference in the mid-east, to his government's handling of the evacuation.

It wasn't easy to criticize Stephen Harper for much of what he said and did this week. It was refreshing to hear a Prime Minister lead without a script and it was noble of him make available his jet to rescue stranded Canadians. From wishy washy Liberals, to whinning media, to evacuees complaining about not being fed on a rescue ship, it was far easier to satirize those who were complaining than ridiculing Stephen Harper.