The cartoonist whose anti-Semitic cartoon was published in the New York Times international edition has blamed the “Jewish propaganda machine” for the subsequent backlash.
António Moreira Antunes, who is Portuguese and uses the mononym António, depicted a blind President Trump wearing a yarmulke being led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Trump’s service dog.
He told CNN the cartoon was not intended to be anti-Semitic but was a political statement. Stating that Jews are not above criticism, Antunes said outrage was “made through the Jewish propaganda machine, which is, anytime there’s criticism it’s because there’s someone anti-Semitic on the other side, and that’s not the case.”
Right-wingers were to blame for the backlash, he said. “The Jewish right doesn’t want to be criticized, and therefore, when criticized they say ‘We are a persecuted people, we suffered a lot … this is anti-Semitism.'”
The Times said the cartoon was published as a result of an “error of judgment” and admitted it was offensive.
“A political cartoon in the international print edition of The New York Times on Thursday included anti-Semitic tropes, depicting the prime minister of Israel as a guide dog with a Star of David collar leading the president of the United States, shown wearing a skullcap. The image was offensive, and it was an error of judgment to publish it. It was provided by The New York Times News Service and Syndicate, which has since deleted it,” the newspaper said in a statement.
António, whose work is usually published in the Lisbon weekly Expresso, said he was hurt the paper did not support him. “They should see that here it’s a political issue and not religious,” he said.
