US President Donald Trump has invited Ben Garrison, a political cartoonist who has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League of drawing a "blatantly anti-Semitic" illustration, to the White House's social-media summit scheduled for Thursday, outraging some pro-Israel groups.
In 2017, Garrison drew a cartoon of then-US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and retired US Gen. David Petraeus on strings controlled by Jewish billionaire George Soros, who is dangled on strings controlled by a hand from a single arm labeled "Rothschilds," referring to the iconic Jewish philanthropic family from the United Kingdom that has been a common target of anti-Semitic conspiracies.
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"It is completely unacceptable that the Trump Administration would invite someone to the White House who has been known to write anti-Semitic cartoons," US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told JNS.
Other members of Congressional leadership did not respond to a request for comment.
Nevertheless, Jewish and pro-Israel organizations criticized the White House invitation of Garrison.
"Hopefully, the president is not aware of the anti-Semitic quality of the [McMaster-Petraeus-Soros-Rothschild] cartoon so that he, when he gets aware, he should revoke the invitation immediately," Sarah Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East truth, told JNS on Sunday evening.
"#Anti-Semitism becomes normalized when obvious examples, like grossly #antiSemitic cartoons, are overlooked. Just as cartoons of this sort shouldn't be published anywhere, cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn't be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite," tweeted Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
#AntiSemitism becomes normalized when obvious examples, like grossly #antiSemitic cartoons, are overlooked. Just as cartoons of this sort shouldn't be published anywhere, cartoonists who produce such hate shouldn't be invited to the White House. We call on WH to rescind invite. https://t.co/ts8vnle3Tm
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) 7 ביולי 2019
"We strongly condemn President Trump's invitation to anti-Semitic cartoonist Ben Garrison to the White House Social Media Summit later this week. Despite Garrison's record using social media to promulgate hate and disinformation, the White House has opened its doors to him, while reportedly excluding Twitter and Facebook representatives," Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer told JNS. "This invitation demonstrates that the Trump administration condones Garrison's anti-Semitic imagery, as well as his use of social media to spread hate."
The Republican Jewish Coalition said: "We are very concerned by his past cartoons. We have an active conversation with the White House on this and are working with them on it."
Facebook and Twitter have reportedly not been invited to the summit.
The White House declined to comment on the record.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
