(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman and Jewish activists criticized a major Munich newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, for publishing a cartoon demonizing Israel. The cartoon — which the newspaper has since apologized for and called “a mistake” — depicted Israel as a wild monster about to feast with a fork and a knife while being served by a woman, along with the wording, “Germany is serving. Israel has been given weapons for decades ­and partly free of charge. Israel’s enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch.”

Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, “The characterization of the Jewish state as a ravenous Moloch — an idol to whom children were sacrificed — is a blatant anti-Semitic canard,” the Jerusalem Post reported. Hadas-Handelsman wrote a letter to Kurt Kister, the German paper’s editor-in-chief, stating that the drawing “crossed the line of acceptable journalism.”