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But one of their number wasnt interested in grace or editorial standards.
I mean, if nobody else is gonna draw Trump shouting My opponents language is a disgrace!!
But three days later, Valleytweetedout the fruit of his fury.
Good morningpic.twitter.com/zVYXUfqyQk
Valleys been having a series of good mornings, by which I mean terrible mornings.
His careers going great, but thats partly because everything else is going to hell in a handbasket.
So I was happy to have that blurb.
Now, hes probably the leading critic of Zionism in American editorial cartooning.
Two things led to the change.
Second, he joined a fateful cartooning contest.
Valley had a prehistory of artistry.
But after college, he had no intentions of continuing down the visual artists path.
Partly because hes self-taught and partly because hes a unique guy.
Valley barred no holds when he submitted work to theForward, and occasionally had to be reeled back in.
Even with editorial guidance, he regularly received blistering criticism from the Jewish establishment.
Take, for example, one of his earliestForwardcartoons, November 2008s Evangelical Zionist Tours of Israel.
To which the prime minister responds, That depends.
How much money do you have on you?
The right-leaning, heavily Zionist magazineCommentarycalled that comic ferociously repugnant.
And that was only the beginning of Valleys magnetism for critique.
Its ashanda a Yiddish word meaning shame but thats the roleCommentaryfills:shandaof the Jewish world.
at him before being jailed.
From his cell, Foxman yells, The Jews did this to me!
It was the Jews!
The real-life Foxman was furious and theForwardwas barraged with calls and emails decrying the comic.
Under great pressure, theForwardopted to tell Valley they would no longer be accepting pitches from him.
And yet, Valleys legend has only grown since then.
Hes also returned to the print world for the first time since publishing his guidebook.
(Beinart neatly summed up Valleys appeal in the piece: Eli Valleys cartoons are outrageous and absurd.
Thats because were living at an outrageous and absurd moment in American Jewish life.)
All Valley has now is his comics and his fury.
Wed been watching it happen.
Wed been sounding the alarms for years now.
Indeed, Valleys comics have been getting heavier and less conventionally satirical as the Trump era grinds on.
Prior to November 8, 2016, he was contemplating a move into apolitical, surreal work.
Trumps rise has also brought him to loathe certain Jewish institutions and individuals even more than he did before.
He has come to feel that its time to excommunicate GOP-allied Jews from Jewry, altogether.
For our own safety.
That gives me, if not hope, then definitely sustenance through these times.
