After the New York Times responded with an initial, tepid response to the anti-Semitic cartoon printed in its international edition last Thursday – of President Donald Trump wearing a yarmulka and being led by a guide dog with the likeness of Prime Minister Netanyahu, wearing a leash with a Star of David – the Times tried a more full throated approach.
The initial response acknowledged using “anti-Semitic tropes” – something short of flat out anti-Semitism, we suppose. But there was no apology, only that the image was “offensive,” an error in judgment in publishing it and that it had been deleted.
But the criticism was not stemmed and the Times then said they were “deeply sorry for the publication of an anti-Semitic political cartoon. We are committed to making sure nothing like this happens again. Such imagery is always dangerous, and at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, it’s all the more unacceptable.”
Yet just one day after the apology, the Times published another outrageous cartoon. This one showed Netanyahu in a robe coming down from a mountain with what appear to be a stone tablet with a Star of David in his left hand, a selfie stick in his right, and rimless sunglasses covering his eyes. Was this meant to be a picture of an arrogant, narcissistic, messenger of G-d to lead an elitist chosen people?
If this is contrition, we don’t want to see what self-important disregard looks like.