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German newspaper depicts Israel as monster

BERLIN, July 3 (UPI) -- The Simon Wiesenthal Center blasted a German daily for publishing a cartoon depicting Israel as a hungry beast devouring German military weapons.

The cartoon was published by Suddeutsche Zeitung Tuesday with the caption: "Germany is serving. Israel has been given weapons for decades and partly free of charge. Israel's enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch," The Jerusalem Post reported.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center "decries the illustration depicting Israel as a monster in a leading German newspaper," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's assistant dean, said in an email to the Post. Cooper said the cartoon was "grotesquely beyond the pale of legitimate criticism and invokes one of the classic anti-Semitic tools: Animalization is a classic and effective tool in dehumanizing an enemy, something Nazi and Soviet propaganda deployed over and over again."

Responding to the accusations, the German daily issued a statement on its website titled: "Is a Horned Monster Anti-Semitic?" the Post said. The German daily said the cartoon had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. "The photo led to misunderstandings, it would have been better to have chosen a different photo," the statement said.

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