Greenblatt: NYT needs to do ‘serious soul-searching’

Jason Greenblatt, the US Representative for International Negotiations, on Monday urged The New York Times to do some “serious soul-searching” following its publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition.

The cartoon, published last Thursday, depicted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as a guide dog for a blind US President Donald Trump.

In the cartoon, Trump is shown wearing a kippah and Netanyahu’s collar features a blue Star of David.

The cartoon was widely condemned and, on Saturday, The New York Times published an apology on its Twitter account, describing the cartoon as having “included anti-Semitic tropes”.

A day later, on Sunday, the newspaper said that the anti-Semitic cartoon was the work of a single editor who was working “without adequate oversight”.

“Some key takeaways: anti-Zionism is all but indistinguishable from anti-Semitism; publishing the cartoon wasn’t just ‘error of judgment’ and shows institutional ignorance of anti-Semitism; NYT owes @Netanyahu an apology (IMO also to @potus) & owes itself serious reflection,” Greenblatt wrote on Twitter on Monday.

In a second tweet, Greenblatt retweeted the newspaper’s apology for the cartoon and wrote, “A terrible first apology yielded this improved apology. The cartoon wasn’t just dangerous- it was despicable. NYT owes us a transparent plan of action to ensure this will never happen again & should share results of their investigation. Serious soul-searching @NYT needed here!”

In a third tweet, Greenblatt posted a link to Arutz Sheva’s story from Monday on a second anti-Netanyahu cartoon which The New York Times ran. The second cartoon shows Netanyahu descending a mountain with a selfie-stick in one hand and a stone tablet with a Star of David in the other hand in its international edition.

“Confounded & shocked by another terrible decision by @NYT. As our nation is grieving the deadly attack in #Poway, how did a cartoon like this make it into their paper…again?! We need answers!” he wrote.