OP-ED: Dear New York Times, Apology NOT Accepted

A caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump published in The New York Times' international edition on April 25, 2019, which the paper later acknowledged "included anti-Semitic tropes." (Courtesy)
Dear N.Y. Times,

Thank you for your apology regarding the now infamous Netanyahu/Trump cartoon which was recently published, and, soon after, removed from your publication.

Despite the moniker I write under as “The Angry Jew”, I along with most of my fellow Jewish people, are actually quite gentle and forgiving at heart. It’s not only inherently within our nature, its within our religious practice and religious texts to be of the kind, forgiving, and accepting type. People make mistakes all the time- the goal is to learn from them, grow from them, and move on as better people.

However, the DESPICABLE cartoon you published recently is no “mistake”. A mistake is when somebody accidentally steps on your foot, hits your car, or spills your drink. A mistake is when a human being momentarily loses their cool and says or does something in a fit of rage that is normally not within their behavior. A mistake is a momentary lapse of judgement. But, to get a cartoon published, from start to finish, in the pages of one of the most globally recognized international publications in the entire world, is a tedious task that involves tens, if not hundreds, of people, top to bottom, from conception to final senior editorial approval. This was no mistake. Far, far from it.

What this was, was a VERY strong indication confirming a suspicion many of us have known for quite a while: that the entire core and essence of the NY Times is rotten. It has LONG gone past the usual anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slants and misleading headlines, and has now developed into publishing cartoons that wouldn’t have been out of place in Nazi Germany, and I’m not one to use that oft-used example lightly in the slightest. The truth is now staring us SQUARE In the face- there is no more denying it. It literally doesn’t get much clearer than this. No, this is not something a simple “we made a mistake” can fix, and I think I speak for most of us Jews when I say, wholeheartedly, that you can stick that apology up your asses. This was a CONSCIOUS decision, a decision many, many people all AGREED on. Unless you want to begin a thorough top to bottom analysis of each different level and person involved at getting this travesty on to the pages of your rag of a paper, including some sort of internal or even external consequence/censure for allowing this to happen, the words you say are hollow and meaningless. So, thank you, but no thank you. Apology NOT accepted.

Oh, and one last thing: it’s high time we stop with this “it’s only anti-Zionism” crap to thinly and lazily hide your blatant anti-Semitism behind. When you constantly spread the idea that a very well known JEWISH leader, and JEWISH country, are not only “bad” and “racist” , but, more importantly, behind the policies of the government of this country, that, without ANY doubt leads people to hate…JEWS. It’s not rocket science. When the leftist media and politicians constantly push these concepts down the throat of people in this country and around the world, what do you possibly think the outcome will be?! Believe me, your avg person doesn’t understand the nuances between Israel and American Jewry and will gladly lump us all into the same category as being responsible for all of the ills of the world. And if you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask the innocent men women and CHILDREN who were shot in a synagogue in San Diego yesterday about that. The ones who are lucky enough to still be alive, I might add.

Their blood is on your hands.


Zalmy “The Angry Jew” Silver


Zalmy Silver is a businessman and writer who was raised in Miami and lives in New York. Zalmy has a sandwich named after him at Carlos ‘n Gabby’s. He is a social media personality known for his blunt and in-your-face rants that we can all relate with. You can follow him on Facebook under the moniker “The Angry Jew” @Theangryjew85