London Times Apologizes For Anti-Semitic Cartoon

The UK's London Times has finally seen fit to apologize for the horrific cartoon that appeared on Holocaust Memorial Day showing a gargoyle-like hook nosed Benyamin Netanyahu building a wall with Palestinian blood and bodies. Here's what they had to say for themselves:

"It is one thing for a newspaper to attack and caricature a leader — and it is as legitimate to attack Israeli leaders in cartoons as anyone else. But it is another thing to reflect in a caricature, even unintentionally, historical iconography that is persecutory or anti-Semitic," the Sunday Times said.

"The image we published of Binyamin Netanyahu which appeared to show him reveling in the blood of Palestinians, crossed a line. The image would have been a mistake on any day but the fact that last Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day compounded the error."

"We realize that we caused grave offence, however unintended, which detracted from a day that marks one of the greatest evils in human history.

It was further stated that "The Sunday Times abhors anti-Semitism and racism of any type and we would never set out to offend the Jewish people — or indeed any other ethnic or religious group. The publication of last week’s cartoon was a very serious mistake."

As I pointed out in the update to the link above, the Times initially refused to apologize at all and defended the cartoon as 'robust'. What changed their minds was undoubtedly a major blast from the Times' very pro Israel owner, Rupert Murdoch, whom personally apologized the day after the vicious cartoon appeared and apparently banged a few heads together.

"Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times," he wrote on Twitter while apologizing for what he called a "grotesque, offensive cartoon." .