Politico publishes cartoon rife with antisemitic imagery

Politico published a cartoon on Friday drawing from classic antisemitic imagery in an attempt to criticize the Iran war. The cartoon features U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing tallith, or Jewish prayer shawls, splattered in blood.

The cartoon shows Trump and Netanyahu sitting in a rowboat heading toward a waterfall. A wooden sign shaped like an arrow with “Iran” written on it points over the falls. Above Trump and Netanyahu’s heads is the word “Amalek,” an ancient enemy of the Jews from the Bible. (An Oct. 28, 2023, reference to Amalek by Netanyahu has been used by those seeking to libel Israel as evidence that it committed genocide against Gazans.)

Netanyahu is featured with an enormous nose and Trump as grotesquely fat, appearing to divide between the two the stereotypical appearance of the Jew in antisemitic imagery.

“The presentation of a stereotypical Jew, fat and with a large nose, seeks to indicate a form of wealth, especially in times of poverty and famine,” according to the U.K.'s Antisemitism Policy Trust in a 2020 report on antisemitic imagery throughout history.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a supporter of “Operation Epic Fury/Roaring Lion,” is shown holding a bloody money bag. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance are depicted as well. At the top of the mast is a money bag stained with blood. A scroll in one corner of the image reads “Ship of Neocons.”

In some circles, “neocon” has become code for “Jewish conservative intellectual,” whom they accuse of orchestrating the 2003 Iraq war.

“The cartoon plays on classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jews covertly controlling events, in this case the decision to launch the war in Iran, and using financial exploitation to do so,” wrote The Washington Free Beacon‘s Alana Goodman, who first covered the story.

The cartoon was published on Politico‘s “cartoon carousel,” a weekly compilation of cartoons representing a wide variety of opinions, according to its website.

Sean Delonas, a former New York Post cartoonist, created the image. He declined the Free Beacon‘s request for comment, saying that he “charge[s] $500 for a 1/2 hour interview and $750 for a full hour.”

Delonas based his image on “Ship of Fools,” a painting by 15th-16th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch that depicts the sin of gluttony.

Politico removed the image after “weighing comments from readers.” According to a statement on its website, “Sharp arguments and provocative imagery are within bounds. Images that could be reasonably interpreted to rely on ethnic stereotypes or employing tropes that have been involved in historically hateful ways are not.”