New York Times ‘antisemitic’ cartoon roundly condemned

A New York Times international edition cartoon depicting a blind, kippah-wearing Donald Trump being led by a Benjamin Netanyahu faced dog wearing a Magen David has been condemned as antisemitic.

Although the New York Times apologised, calling the publication an “error of judgement”, US Jewish and non-Jewish leaders expressed outrage.

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell called the cartoon “despicable” and the American Jewish Committee said it was “naked antisemitism”.

In Israel, Chanel 13 TV political commentator Barak Ravid – a strong critic of the Netanyahu administration – said: “There needs to be a wide-ranging investigation.”

Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote: “Antisemitism does not come from one direction: it’s on the right and the left. If you only see it in the opposite side of where you stand politically then you are blind in at least one eye and turning the fight against it into a political weapon.

Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York Magazine, was one of those whose condemnations on social media soon after the cartoon came to light helped drive awareness.

“The more I think about the NYT ‘cartoon,’ the more appalled I am.”

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum argued the cartoon was “absolutely disgusting”.