The British newspaper, The Sunday Times, has published an "unreserved apology" for the abhorrent cartoon it published on January 27.
"Last week we published, as we have almost every week since 1967, a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe," the Times wrote in the editorial section. "His works are brutal and bloody and his opinions are his own, not those of this newspaper. The Sunday Times has always understood and reported the legitimate security concerns of the state of Israel.
"It is one thing to attack and caricature a leader — and it is as legitimate to attack Israeli leaders in cartoons as anyone else. But it is another thing to reflect in a caricature, even unintentionally, historical iconography that is persecutory or anti-Semitic.
"The image we published of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, which appeared to show him revelling in the blood of Palestinians, crossed a line. The image would have been a mistake on any day but the fact that last Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day compounded the error.
"We realize that we caused grave offense, however unintended, which detracted from a day that marks one of the greatest evils in human history.
"The Sunday Times abhors anti-semitism and racism of any type and we would never set out to offend the Jewish people — or indeed any other ethnic or religious group. The publication of last week’s cartoon was a very serious mistake.
"We apologize unreservedly."