New York Times Under Fire for Printing ‘Anti-Semitic’ Cartoon Depicting Trump, Netanyahu

The sign over the west entrance of the New York Times building at 620 Eighth Ave in New York on April 28, 2016. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

The New York Times opinion section is facing backlash after running a political cartoon depicting President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the newspaper admitted contained “anti-semitic tropes” and “was offensive.”

The cartoon, which was printed in the opinion section of its international edition of the paper on April 25, shows Trump wearing sunglasses and a kippah being led by a dog with a Star of David for a collar and Netanyahu’s face. The image appeared next to a column penned by Thomas Friedman, according to screengrabs of the page.

Many social media users and commentators have condemned the political cartoon. Moreover, the Jerusalem Post reported that Ambassador Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York even reached out to the Times to express his outrage for running the cartoon and calling it unacceptable.

The op-ed editor for the Jerusalem Post Seth Frantzman wrote a series of posts to criticize the Times.

“It’s not enough to just remove the cartoon and be like ‘whoops,’ there need to be answers and also a deep reflection on why and how this happened. The public should be involved. This is not an ‘Israel’ issue; it’s much larger,” Frantzman wrote.

He pointed out that the cartoon was “antisemitic” because the cartoon “1. [Put] a yarmulke on the US President in negative way 2. [Put] the face of the PM of the Jewish state on a dog 3. [Used] a Star of David on the collar 4. [Implied] the US is ‘blindly’ led by Jews and/or Israel.”

Joyce Karam, The National’s Washington Bureau Chief, called the cartoon “disgusting and sloppy” and “alarming.”

“The cartoon is disgusting and sloppy, more so for being printed in NYTimes. Good that they issued a statement, retracted it but this is alarming. Many publications peddle anti-semitism, racism, Islamophobia in Middle East but they are not the New York Times. Unfortunate,” Karam wrote.

Erielle Davidson, a senior contributor to The Federalist, also made a series of posts to condemn the cartoon.

“Pause to consider that the same reason the anti-Semitic cartoon in the international New York Times made it past several editors is the same reason the Left loves Ilhan Omar. They don’t care about anti-Semitism. They condone it,” she wrote.

The New York Times Opinion tweeted an editor’s note calling the cartoon’s publication “an error of judgment” on April 27. It added that the statement will appear in the paper’s international edition on April 29.

The statement read, “A political cartoon in the international print edition of The New York Times on Thursday included anti-Semitic tropes, depicting the prime minister of Israel as a guide dog with a Star of David collar leading the president of the United States, shown wearing a skullcap. The image was offensive, and it was an error of judgment to publish it. It was provided by The New York Times News Service and Syndicate, which has since deleted it.”

Previous Criticisms

President Trump has repeatedly criticized the Times for what he says was inaccurate and biased reporting, in particular, related to the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation.

At the end of last month, the president said the staff of The New York Times should have their 2018 Pulitzer Prizes rescinded in light of the result of the Mueller probe, which cleared the president of the allegation that his campaign colluded with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia – And there was No Collusion!” Trump said in a March 29 tweet. “So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!”

Then earlier this month, he criticized the Times for only printing the story about the indictment of former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig on page 16.

“President Obama’s top White House lawyer, Gregory B. Craig, was indicted yesterday on very serious charges,” Trump said in an April 12 tweet. “This is a really big story, but the Fake News New York Times didn’t even put it on page one, rather page 16.”

“Corrupt News!” Trump added.

The Epoch Times reporter Petr Svab contributed to this report.