Weaving Hatred on the Web

In my response to Roger Cohen's op-ed, "Obama in Netanyahu's Web", I noted that the title of this essay was likely to fan the flames of online hatred. Apparently unknown to Cohen, the portrayal of Jews as spiders has a long history in the annals of anti-Semitism. One need only do a Google search using the words "anti-Semitism" and "spider" to find Nazi-era propaganda images depicting Jews as ugly, voracious arachnids.

Notwithstanding The New York Times' purported policy that "Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive," The Times' "moderators" (an oxymoron) posted the following comment, number 159, to Cohen's op-ed:

Seeing the destruction and misery that the current Jewish Israeli population is capable of, and willing to commit, against poor and defenseless people leaves one to wonder what they would do had the Holocaust never taken place and there were twice as many of them as there are now. "Never forget" is hollow and meaningless when it is used to justify committing the same basic acts against others.

The submission of such a comment in response to an op-ed entitled "Obama in Netanyahu's Web" comes as no surprise. I am, however, horrified that The Times' "moderators" continue to post such abuse, notwithstanding my past entreaties to The Times' editors.

[In response to my correspondence with The Times, the said comment has been removed. Regretably, the title of Cohen's op-ed cannot be changed.]