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German cartoon shows Netanyahu poisoning peace

BERLIN, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The Israeli Embassy in Berlin protested a cartoon suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is poisoning the Middle East peace process.

An embassy spokesman told The Jerusalem Post it sent a letter of protest to the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

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The cartoon published Tuesday showed Netanyahu sitting on a park bench holding a bottle of poison labeled "settlement construction" and pouring it on a piece of bread. An olive-branch bearing dove marked "Middle East peace" sits next to Netanyahu apparently waiting to be fed the bread, The Jerusalem Post said.

Stuttgarter Deputy Editor Michael Maurer told The Post he "regrets that feelings were offended."

"Once again, a respected German newspaper singles out Israel for criticism, in this case, in connection with the peace talks. A much more accurate presentation of the situation, would portray Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] honoring terrorist murderers while posing as an ostensibly serious partner for the current peace negotiations," Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office and coordinator for the organization's Nazi war crimes research worldwide, told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

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A member of the German branch Scholars for Peace in Middle East accused the paper's editors of replicating content of the Nazi-era Der Stuermer.

"Earlier one murdered and persecuted Jews because they were poisoners of wells. Shame on you! The world is burning around Israel, but for you, once again, the Jews are to blame for everything," an email sent by Elvira Grozinger to the Stuttgarter Zeitung' editors said.

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