On April 29, readers of the New York Times were treated to a rarity in the world of journalism. While newspapers publish letters and occasionally opinion pieces critical of their editorial decisions, it is rare for an in-house writer to pen an article excoriating his employer. But that day, Times columnist Bret Stephens accused the paper of anti-Semitism from its own pages.
The headline on Stephens's column was straight to the point: "A Despicable Cartoon in The Times." It concerned a syndicated comic, published in the paper's international edition, that depicted a dog with the face of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing a Star of David on its collar leading a blind, skullcap-wearing Donald Trump around. The image was drawn by Portuguese artist Antonio Moreiera Antunes and first published in Expresso, a Lisbon newspaper.
As Stephens — and many others who criticized the Times for the cartoon in the days following its publication last week — noted, the problematic nature of the cartoon was not its editorial point of view, the allegation that Trump follows wherever Netanyahu leads. It was that the imagery was straight out Der Sturmer, the official newspaper of Nazi Germany. In one picture it encompasses a raft of anti-Semitic memes, including the Jew as a dog and Israelis or Jews manipulating foreign countries like the United States. The depiction of Trump wearing a head covering consistent with Jewish worship represents the attempt to depict friends of Israel and the Jews as proto-Jews themselves and, by definition, apostates to their own faith.
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