"} 73:{"position":22,"content":"

Jokes can be costly

The debate over rejoicing seemed to have cost at least one X user his job. Howard Feldman, who wrote about local politics for News24, a news service in South Africa, posted on the social media site Tuesday, calling the attacks “genius” and “very cool” for their precision. He also joked, “From the liver to the knee …” — a reference to the Palestinian nationalist slogan “From the river to the sea.”"} 74:{"position":23,"content":"

A few hours later, he posted a letter from News24’s editor-in-chief terminating his column and explaining, “News 24 can in no way be associated with writers who glorify violence, which you did, in my opinion.”

"} 75:{"position":24,"content":"

Feldman responded: “And just like that @News24 have shown me who they are…”

"} 76:{"position":25,"content":"

Gallows humor is a core aspect of Israeli society and “sick” jokes cropped up on Israeli social media even in the weeks after October 7. On television, YouTube and social media, Israelis shared jokes about their own fears, what they saw as a propaganda war against Israel and Jews and the failures of their own government.

"} 77:{"position":26,"content":"

And yet little of this humor was directly about the war in Gaza or the grim conditions on the ground there, noted Benji Lovitt, a Tel Aviv-based comedian who has co-written a book about Zionism and Israeli culture.

"} 78:{"position":27,"content":"

“I didn’t see much humor about Gaza because it’s war; many people in Gaza have died, and many, many are suffering,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you want to blame, but you don’t want to punch down and make fun of people in Gaza.”

"} 79:{"position":28,"content":"

By contrast, he said, Hezbollah has been lau

The deadly pager operation in Lebanon is no laughing matter, or is it?

First came the explosions, then came the jokes.

See more on