Israeli cartoonist draws Netanyahu as 9/11 hijacker

Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week published a cartoon comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the al-Qaeda hijackers who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Social media users expressed criticism of the image which portrays a beaming Netanyahu steering a plane toward the World Trade Center.

The Israeli cartoonist, Amos Biderman, took to Twitter and spoke to The Times of Israel to explain the concept of the sketch. According to Biderman, the aim was to suggest that Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and political policies had sparked “a disaster in Israel-U.S. relations on the scale of 9/11.”

“The message is that Bibi is arrogantly and wantonly destroying Israel’s ties with the U.S. and leading us to a disaster on the scale of 9/11,” Biderman tweeted in Hebrew, Haaretz reported.

“I was mocking Bibi,” Biderman told Haaretz on Thurday. “He’s been acting like a bull in a china shop with the United States, which is Israel’s most important strategic asset.”

However, some Twitter users were less than impressed with the cartoon.

“I don’t make a habit of criticizing the media but @haaretz what’s with the gutter press today?” Israeli diplomat Paul Hirschson wrote.

“Gutter press? Worse than that. Whoever approved that crap cartoon shld B fired along w/cartoonist,” read another scathing remark.

The Anti-Defamation League, which looks to fight against anti-Semitism in the U.S., sought an apology for the controversial cartoon.

“The cartoon in question is offensive on many levels,” National Director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement. “Not only does it completely misrepresent any tensions which may current exist between the U.S. government and Mr. Netanyahu, it disrespects the memories of thousands of innocent Americans and others who tragically perished on 9/11, and the deep pain and trauma caused by the horrific attacks.”