The Haaretz cartoon. Photo: Haaretz.

I have a morning routine timed to the second. After powering up the coffee maker and laptop, the dogs and I barrel outside to pick up my newspapers – returning just as the coffee is ready. By this time, the laptop has logged onto my most trusted news sites. But my compulsive start to the day came to a slamming halt recently when I spied an abhorrent political cartoon published by Haaretz, the left-wing Israeli based newspaper.

I glared in harrowing disbelief at Amos Biderman’s drawing depicting Israeli Prime Minister and decorated war veteran Benjamin Netanyahu piloting a plane into one of the World Trade towers; an obvious reference to the 9/11 attack on America. Suggesting there is a moral equivalency between the leader of the only democracy in the Middle East and the 19 Islamic terrorists who committed the greatest mass murder on American soil is despicable. I could not remain silent, and began an email exchange with the publisher of Haaretz, Amos Schocken. Our communication was professional and respectful, yet provided another glaring example of the leftist mindset.

I sent Mr. Schocken an initial email expressing my revulsion at Biderman’s reprehensible cartoon, and questioning the meaning behind it. Within a short period, he responded suggesting it was designed to show Netanyahu’s policies are “wrecking relations with the United States.”

Ironically, his charge came within hours of Jeffrey Goldberg’s published column quoting an Obama Administration official referring to Netanyahu as a “chickenshit.” This childish description of the Prime Minister is immeasurably offensive, but not surprising. With an Administration comprised of anti-Israelis including John Kerry, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power, there is little doubt this is the least pro-Israel bunch since the Jewish State’s modern day creation in 1948. The odds are strong that the cause of the supposed tension between the President and the Prime Minister is not one-sided, as Schocken suggests.

Most confounding to me is a Jewish publisher of an Israeli daily newspaper embracing the same virulent lunacy as the enemies of Israel. Amos Biderman’s cartoon is an attack on Netanyahu comparable to the viciousness one would expect from Al Jazeera and other forms of Arab-controlled media.

Schocken also stated his belief that Israel employs “practical apartheid in the land between the Jordan River and the Sea” – in other words, the publisher of one of Israel’s largest daily and influential newspapers believes it is an “apartheid state.” I responded that the phrase he used – “from the river to the sea” – is the same protest chant pro-Palestinian organizations use to call for Israel’s destruction. And the charge of “apartheid” is absurd considering 20% of the population of Israel is of Arab descent, enjoying full and equal rights under the law with representation in the Knesset. The only truly free newspapers in the Middle East emanate from Israel, and their editorials show no hesitancy to criticize the government with gusto.

In additional email exchanges, Schocken expressed his consternation that Jews have purchased real estate in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem; the capital of Israel. Arabs also purchase real estate from Jews. Should Jews be the only people on earth prohibited from legally acquiring housing wherever they wish? In most Arab countries, it is illegal for Arabs to sell real estate to Jews. Oh the irony – as no country on earth is held to the impossible standards of Israel.

The world shrugs as it descends into growing chaos from lessons never learned, and as anti-Semitism again rears its ugly head; I find it hard to understand why some of the hate today is manifested by our own community – an otherwise vibrant and giving people. Mr. Schocken’s newspaper has the right to hold public figures accountable. But borrowing a page from the vulgarities of the Ayatollahs should not be this publisher’s goal.

William Pollack is a radio, TV station, and movie theater owner based in Memphis, TN.