Media
Speaking to evangelical leaders in Jerusalem, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman says the paper should “spend a little less time defending terrorists and more time defending the truth.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center notes that Eli Valley’s cartoons resemble imagery from the Third Reich.
It begins with the message that children should not be targeted, then points out that Hamas and the PIJ fire rockets at Israeli schools and kindergartens while using civilians as human shields.
Saudi journalists and intellectuals accuse Hamas of acting on behalf of Iran in retaliation for tightened U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
According to media watchdog organization, the newspaper needs to go beyond apologies and focus on transparency, impartiality, balance, accountability and accuracy.
Tareck El Aissami, who was indicted in the United States in March on drug-trafficking charges, played a crucial role in assisting Iran and the terrorist group Hezbollah in their operations in Latin America.
Andrea Levin, executive director of the media watchdog organization CAMERA, calls for “genuine self-reflection” regarding the paper’s “well-documented pattern of bias” against Jews and Israel.
It recognized that “anti-Zionism can clearly serve as a cover for anti-Semitism—and some criticism of Israel, as the cartoon demonstrated, is couched openly in anti-Semitic terms.”
“We have also seen one of the world’s most prestigious newspapers become a cesspool of hostility towards Israel that goes well beyond any legitimate criticism of a fellow, imperfect democracy,” said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer.
“We call on the paper to review and revise its editorial processes so that blatantly anti-Semitic and racist content will not be given a platform by one of the most widely read newspapers in the world. The artist who created the cartoon and the editors who approved its publication must be held accountable.”
Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with sinister eyes taking a picture of himself with a selfie-stick, carrying in what appears to be an empty desert with a tablet featuring the Israeli flag painted on it.
“We have investigated how this happened,” read Sunday’s statement, “and learned that, because of a faulty process, a single editor working without adequate oversight downloaded the syndicated cartoon and made the decision to include it on the Opinion page.”
